M14 Forum

Jackalope1911

Ok, so I took my nephew and a few of his friends out to the desert for a day of shooting, brought the EBR and my Springfield TRP Operator. They brought their dad's guns, which included a Krag, a Mosin, and a 10/22. One of the kids' dad let him bring his Colt Officers 1911.

Good day, lots of rounds downrange, a few safety mistakes corrected, nothing major. They learned a few marksmanship tips, and everyone had a good time.

Last magazine of the day fired through his dad's 1911, the last round of the magazine, slide locked back, everything seemed fine, as he was walking towards the target I thought I saw something drop to the ground so I stopped him. Upon closer look, this is what we saw --




I highlighted on this pic exactly what is now missing from the gun.


After a little searching, we found the broken-off pieces and the recoil spring, the guide rod was still floating around inside.

Any ideas what happened here ? We were using WWB (Winchester White Box) 230gr FMJ. I've never heard of anything like this happening before.

Appreciate your guys' insight in advance. Thanks !

bobbyfairbanks

Not sure what happened but that really sucks. I would wager a guess either metal fatigue or it was drop a few times and caused some cracking in the slide.

GARRARD

Wow, never seen that happen before.

YardDogOne

Wow! I've never seen anything like that either,

I'd be very interested to hear what Colt has to say about it

tonyben

Has it seen lots of hot loads? I believe that the part that broke off is what slams against the inside of the receiver and is the hard stop during the cycling. Hot loads and maybe a defect in the slide would be all that I can think of to make this piece fall off.

Hgunner

The dust cover broke off, I have not seen this happen before, how old is this pistol. Recently a friend of mine had a Series 70 Commander slide develope a crack between the breech face and the extractor tunnel.
Be interesting to see what Colt says about this.

Edited to add: As a second thought I wonder how old the recoil spring is, and what weight it is and if it has every been chaged. Also total round count on this gun.

BDH

It's not the dust cover. It's clearly intact..the dust cover is the front end of the frame, not the slide. It's the bottom of the front end of the slide and the bushing? that's in his hand. The spring and cap at the end of the recoil spring is missing. And if that's the bushing...it is really deformed.

What does the inside of the frame look like? That bottom part of the slide is what keeps it from coming toward your forehead on recoil.

Bruce

bigbang

Am I right thinking, that this part of the slide is the only stop that prevents the slide going directly into the shooters face under recoil?
Wolf

Crawfish

Yeeeouch! I have the same pistol. Time to break it out and take a peek with a jeweler's loupe. I bet that was an interesting conversation with dad when he got home.

B 2/75

Hueygunner's on track, I think.
A close examination of the dovetail on the slide that the barrel bushing engages into will likely reveal that the slot (dovetail) has been peened forward significantly. This will happen when the operating spring is worn out, and the pistol is fired alot. As the slide recoils rearward, the weak spring doesn't stop the slide from banging on the back of the frame. That shock is transmitted forward to the bushing, which peens the dovetail. Seems that in your case the peening was hard enough to flake off the entire piece of the slide.

Too bad... that slide is now junk. Repairable? Probably, by a magician. Do you want to do it? Nope.

Hgunner

My mistake on termanology, I stand corrected.

Gus Fisher

I agree. This is why I say you MUST replace the recoil spring every 2,000 rounds on a pistol - no matter how good the spring looks or feels at that point. If you shoot nothing but hot loads, then replace the spring every 1,000 rounds.

I have never seen a dust cover break off, but I have seen cracks in dust covers of G.I. M1911A1 slides. I have also seen cracks in BOTH G.I. and Colt Commercial Colt frames from people not replacing the recoil spring on time, as well.

And that reminds me of another story.

Back in about 1986 or 1987, our Bn XO brought over a Colt Aluminum framed Commander pistol for inspection prior to shooting it on the range. It had a crack in the frame in the area just ahead of the rails. I suggested the XO contact Colt to see if they could mark a new frame with the same serial number because it had belonged to the XO's father. Well, he didn't do that and wanted it "fixed."

We milled a steel commercial "full size" frame in the rail area and cut the very front of the frame off so it was exactly the same as a Commander (which is shorter in both areas). For the work, I traded the XO for the cracked frame as I wanted it for reference to shorten government length frames for Commanders.

Well, about two years later, the XO FINALLY called Colt and they said they WOULD number a new/replacement frame with the same serial number AS LONG AS the XO sent them the old frame and allowed them to destroy it after they did the new frame. After that, I suggested the XO SHOOT the pistol with the steel frame and carry it with the aluminum frame.

Jackalope1911

Gun has been sent back to Colt. Will keep you guys updated on what they decide to do. Thanks for all the input !

echokilo60

that looks like an aftermarket reverse recoil spring plug,don't remember the particulars but seem to remember that their installation requires some minor mod to the slide,i definately would suspect a weak recoil spring,especially on an off. model. good luck if it had after market parts, i have had no positive results with colts CS. at any rate glad no one was hurt.

straight shooter

Any updates on this?
Very interested as to Colts explanation.