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9mm 1911 help, newbie


Fatandy

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I have been around guns my whole life, but 1911s are new to me. I have a RIA 9mm 1911 that I really like. I have 2 Mecgar mags one came with the gun. They both nose dive on the first round. I bought a new Wilson and it didn’t nose dive but the slide wouldn’t stay back. Any suggestions?
 

any help would be appreciated!

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9mm 1911 mags are finicky.  They are sensitive to mag catch shelf height, and the springs are stiff, especially in 10 rounders.  For your two MecGar mags, load them fully and let them sit for a couple of weeks.  If you want to shoot the before the springs take a set, download by one round.  Chances are the Wilson will never work without a mag release change.  Then the MecGars may not work.  Having gone through this myself, I've found the Metalform mags work the best for 10-round mags.  Metalform also makes the mag bodies for Dawson Precision and Brownell's.  After spring conditioning I use my six 10-round Brownell's for steel challenge with zero issues.

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round nose bullets? I found some flatpoints would occasionally nosedive the first round from cobra mags, but not dawson mags. all the roundnoses seem to feed fine in any magazine in my RIA, Dan Wesson and STI 9mm 1911's.

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48 minutes ago, motosapiens said:

round nose bullets? I found some flatpoints would occasionally nosedive the first round from cobra mags, but not dawson mags. all the roundnoses seem to feed fine in any magazine in my RIA, Dan Wesson and STI 9mm 1911's.

Yep all round nose. Different brands

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We have 2 9mm 1911's .  One Colt, One Springfield.    Both 5" guns,  used in USPSA Single Stack so mags need to be 10 rd.   

 Neither will run Wilson mags.  The Colt runs 100% with Tripp Cobra Mags.   Springfield likes Dawson.   99% of the ammo used

is a RN or TC poly coated 147 gr over enough N320 to make 132 PF with an OAL of 1.145. 

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I have a Springfield RO elite and like Open17 already said, it definitely likes Dawsons, so that's what I use. 

I now only have nose-dives on slidelock reloads and that's because adrenaline makes me try to push my  thumb THROUGH the slide when I push the slide lock down.... 😊

 

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My 9mm Springfield RO ran well with rnfp bullets and dawson mags. I can say this, whatever you find that works keep it to those two things only, bullet and mag, and never stray. The old aphorism "better is the enemy of good" seems to hold true here.

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I have a STI Trojan in 9mm.  It likes the Tripp magazines, but not the Wilsons.  May want to go to a match and ask people if you can try out their 9mm mags.  They are a bit "touchy".

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EGW makes a mag catch that raises the mag a little. I am guessing that your barrel is not ramped either. Small tweaks. I have built 4 of those RIA's and they all turned out great and work well.

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In all of the Colt, Essex (not ramped barrels)  Springfield Loaded Target (factory ramped) and Colt (aftermarket bbl ramped) my Colt and metalform mags never failed to feed. 

 

I know nothing about RIA but does yours have a ramped bbl? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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23 minutes ago, gnappi said:

 

In all of the Colt, Essex (not ramped barrels)  Springfield Loaded Target (factory ramped) and Colt (aftermarket bbl ramped) my Colt and metalform mags never failed to feed. 

 

I know nothing about RIA but does yours have a ramped bbl? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The model i have does

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Im running the springfield supplied 9 round 9mm metalform in single stack with round nose bullets and no issues.  I also have one dawson 10 rounder that someone gave me that also works flawlessly in my Springfield Range Officer.  

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3 hours ago, troupe said:

EGW makes a mag catch that raises the mag a little. I am guessing that your barrel is not ramped either. Small tweaks. I have built 4 of those RIA's and they all turned out great and work well.

Would this help all brands run better?

thanks

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A Colt GCNM 9mm and Springfield Loaded Target 9mm both work fine with Metalform mags. I bought two when I got the Springfield, they worked, so I bought ten more. Never felt the need to try others, and the Metalforms cost less than Springfield nine round magazines.

 

The both worked well with the stock magazines as well, sold the Springfield stock mags cause ten rounds is one round better than nine rounds.

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Nobody's mags are going to run if your extractor tension isn't right, so you should probably check that first... if it's too tight (which many of them are from the factory because almost all of the manufactures error on the side of stiff rather than weak) then that might be most/all of your problem.

An extractor in a 1911 doesn't just extract, it also affects feeding a great deal, there's a "window of operation": extractor set too weak = won't extract reliably, extractor set too tight = won't feed reliably... and that "window" is smaller with 9mm 1911's than with .45's.

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1 minute ago, ck1 said:

Nobody's mags are going to run if your extractor tension isn't right, so you should probably check that first... if it's too tight (which many of them are from the factory because almost all of the manufactures error on the side of stiff rather than weak) then that might be most/all of your problem.

An extractor in a 1911 doesn't just extract, it also affects feeding a great deal, there's a "window of operation": extractor set too weak = won't extract reliably, extractor set too tight = won't feed reliably... and that "window" is smaller with 9mm 1911's than with .45's.

 

Ding, ding, ding!  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!  

 

With ANY feeding / extraction issues in a 1911 - check the extractor tension first!  It is usually the culprit!  

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I have the same pistol with the same problem.

 

I found the fix and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

I was going to post a link but they are no longer available.

 

Zenith 9mm 1911 mags work perfectly in my RIA.  I bought mine from CDNN but they no longer list them.

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