Just to stir the pot. for the record I have nothing against 1911s.
1911 Reliability Excuses | Modern Service Weapons
1911 Reliability Excuses | Modern Service Weapons
“This new factory gun is too tight, it needs to be broken in.” – Wow, if I had a dollar for every time I heard this one. No it doesn’t, especially if we are talking about mass produced factory guns with drop in fit barrels. Most of the time, this really just means that the gun was not built correctly and you are completing some of the final fitting by firing. Overly tight slide/frame/barrel fit, improper chamber finish, rough breech faces, etc. are better addressed on the bench than wasting precious time and expensive ammunition at the range. Break in will not fix many common deficiencies either, so don’t hope for the break in fairy to make a bad extractor or feedway suddenly become right.
“It needs more lube.” - Lube is good, but a clean, properly built 1911 with only a modicum of lube will work just fine. It is pretty common to see shooters blame mechanical shortfalls like feedway malfunctions or extractor failures on lack of lube, where the actual root of the issue has nothing to do with application of oil. Proper initial setup of the weapon is more critical than how much lube is slathered on the gun. Lube promotes good function and reduces wear, but it is not pixie dust.
“It was dirty.” - I see this a lot in online discussions where the gun in question has only 200-500 rounds on it. Through my research and experience, most of the malfunctions that users attribute to a dirty weapon are actually mechanical issues that have nothing to do with cleanliness. While every 1911 is going to have some threshold for its ideal maintenance state, most shooters tend to incorrectly attribute feedway issues and extractor problems to a dirty gun. The key here is to truly understand what the malfunctions are before dismissing them.
“This magazine was bad, I just use it for training.” – Not a good practice. If a magazine is bad, it needs to be retired. After the first malfunction, label the magazine as suspect. I like to put a big question mark on the tube with a magic marker, it is pretty easy to remember what that might mean. If and when it does it again, then it gets retired (the question mark gets replaced with a big X) – into the trash, eBay, whatever you want, as long as it is not back into your range bag. The excuse of “it’s just for training” is not valid, as additional malfunctions experienced during training only serve to undermine your confidence in the weapon and cloud its actual reliability record. Keep your inventory of magazines marked and numbered so that you can weed out defective units, and don’t be afraid to replace them regularly.