Need advice- 1911 won't go to slide lock

[JayDee]

Hey all,

I'm hoping that someone has a suggestion.... I have a new Dan Wesson 1911 .40 and the slide will not always lock back when shot until empty. This happens intermittently and is not consistent. At practice last night, while intentionally shooting to empty, it would fail to lock back about 1 out of 4 times.

I know that shooting to slide lock is poor stage planning, and I try to avoid this. However, shooting SS major, it is bound to happen occasionally. I'm mostly trying to figure out what is causing this. It would be great if it were just consistent.

Ammo- freedom munitions and Remington UMC factory .40 180gr RNFP.

Mags- Tripp cobra 9 rounders

Recoil spring- 14# (swapped out from factory 16# spring)

A friend suggested that I may be touching the slide with my thumb, but I'm pretty confident I'm not. At least I have never impeded the slide on my other 1911, limited, or production guns.

So, any suggestions? Slide stop? Mag tuning?

Thanks in advance!

[ZombieHunter]

Specifically with the Tripp cobra mags - are you running the hybrid followers or the normal all steel followers?

If these are new mags, you need to make sure the follower drops in the tube freely from top to bottom with no restrictions. I recently bought some Tripp Corey 10mm Mags with the hybrid followers, and had to just ever so slightly squeeze the metal portion of the follower in to keep it from hanging up on the mag tube, which also prevent it from going to slide lock.

If you are NOT running hybrid followers, still make sure they will drop through the tube all the way completely. If they do not, you'll need to slightly reshape the mag tube (not uncommon, and not difficult).

Those are the first things I would look at, before I move on to more complicated possibilities.

[2MoreChains]

How old are the mags and does it happen with the same mags? Not saying this is your problem, but sometimesnfairlure to go to slide lock is the result of insufficient upward force of the follower to push the slide stop up. A couple things you can check to rule this out: Take apart the mags and give the springs a little stretch and see if that helps. While you have the mags apart check the insides of the mags especially around the feedlips to make sure there aren't any burrs. Do the same with the followers. Make sure there is nothing that keeps the follower from sliding freely.

[bountyhunter]

Hey all,

I'm hoping that someone has a suggestion.... I have a new Dan Wesson 1911 .40 and the slide will not always lock back when shot until empty. This happens intermittently and is not consistent. At practice last night, while intentionally shooting to empty, it would fail to lock back about 1 out of 4 times.

I know that shooting to slide lock is poor stage planning, and I try to avoid this. However, shooting SS major, it is bound to happen occasionally. I'm mostly trying to figure out what is causing this. It would be great if it were just consistent.

Ammo- freedom munitions and Remington UMC factory .40 180gr RNFP.

Mags- Tripp cobra 9 rounders

Recoil spring- 14# (swapped out from factory 16# spring)

A friend suggested that I may be touching the slide with my thumb, but I'm pretty confident I'm not. At least I have never impeded the slide on my other 1911, limited, or production guns.

So, any suggestions? Slide stop? Mag tuning?

Thanks in advance!

"I have a new Dan Wesson 1911 .40"

The key word is "new". It may just be tight. Many new guns do this, shoot it a while.

[JayDee]

Thanks for the replies…. re: magazines, they are new and have the "flex follower". I've taken apart the mags and don't feel any burrs or obstructions. This issue does not happen with any particular mag. I'll double check to make sure that the followers are running smooth. In the meantime, a couple follow up questions:

The hybrid followers appear to be made for 45 cal mags. Have you guys used this follower with 40cal?

If the mags and followers check out, what other things could make this happen?

Also, when I say that it is a "New" pistol…. it has about 500 rounds through it, it is well lubed, and has fed everything perfectly so far.

Cheers

JD

[2MoreChains]

The Tripp mags I use are the "Corey" mags which are basically the 10 rnd 10mm "System" mag but use the hybrid follower instead of the flex follower. The hybrid follower reduces the capacity to 9 rnds. Are your mags 10mm or .40SW? The .40SW have a spacer in the back of the mag to accommodate the shorter follower.

The part about checking for burrs is something I noticed when I was using the flex followers in my Corey mags and discovered that there was a small burr keeping the follower from going all the way to the top. Prior to removing the burr I had been using the mags with the hybrid follower and the burr wasn't a factor.

Something else you could check is to remove the slide from the frame and then re-insert the slide stop. Slowly insert a mag into the frame and watch to see what happens when the follower makes contact with the slide stop's inner pawl. It should push it up. I once had a 1911 that I wanted to put a SS slide stop to match the rest of the controls (silly, I know). That slide stop needed some fitting before it reliably locked back the slide.

[JayDee]

Just took everything apart and noticed two things:

First, the followers move freely without the spring. When the mags are assembled it almost feels like the pressure of the slide stop on the leading edge of the follower is camming it slightly when I insert the mag into the frame with slide stop in, w/ slide removed.

Second, when reassembling, I noticed that when cycling the slide with an empty mag, there is a spot where the slide will hang slightly, and remain open, just short of engaging the slide stop. It looks like either part of the slide stop is touching the slide, or there is some contact between the top of the mag lips and the underside of the frame. Do you think this could be slowing the slide enough to short stroke?

Have you guys ever encountered either of these issues?

In the meantime, I've ordered a couple new types of mags and a new slide stop to see if these make any sort of difference.

Edited August 2, 2014 by JayDee

[ss+P]

I had a similar issue where my slide stop would back out and the slide would "lock" open but in the disassembly notch. two fixes that I know of, buy a new one and hope it fits tighter or have it fit, or buy the sti tuned slide stop, but then it won't lock open at all.

The other possibility is that the mag feed lips (the very top) are too close and not allowing the follower to come all the way up to engage the slide stop. I had this problem with the tripp corey mags after I tuned the feed lips. I removed a little material off the follower (plastic) b/c it was easier and they worked.

[Fuelie777]

Another item to look at is to make sure your support hand is not touching the slide stop. Had this issue, no lock back, until a shooting buddy noticed my hand was higher than usual and it was touching the slide stop. Solved the problem. This after I looked at everything this post brought up.

[JayDee]

Just got back from the range. I tested Wilson combat and Checkmate mags with 172pf ammo and 185pf ammo. Still failed to lock back. More often than not.

The new Ed Brown slide stop needs to be fitted. That is my next move.

@fuelie, I'm certain that my support hand isn't touch the slide. Descent feel like it now and grip has never been an issue with other pistols.

The factory slide stop does appear to catch a bit in the disassembly notch, not severely, but maybe just enough to slow the slide down before engaging the lock notch.

Now I'll try the slide stop.

Thanks.

[JayDee]

Finally got this fixed….. not amount of tweaking with recoil springs made any difference. After a few calls to to Dan Wesson, I got a return label and sent my SSC back to them. They did a full evaluation and ultimately replaced the slide stop. Now it functions perfectly.

Thanks for the input and suggestions!

JD