Thread: 1911 question?
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Old August 6, 2012, 10:52 AM   #22
Unclenick
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Join Date: March 4, 2005
Location: Ohio
Posts: 21,013
What I suspect is happening is the slide is slapping back into counter-battery hard enough to cause the cartridge to bounce the magazine follower momentarily creating some free space around it inside the magazine. Because the gun is pivoting up and back, the cartridge is tipped up and the rearward motion of the gun puts it nose up at the front of the magazine so the follower's return from the bounce simply boosts it fairly straight up and out, setting the slide stop and leaving the round lying there when all the action halts.

Several things should address that. First, because the Goldcup is designed for 185 grain JSWC match ammo over the equivalent of about 4.2 grains of Bullseye, it has a 14 lb recoil spring rather than the usual 16 lb government model spring that's intended for hardball. Take Jim's suggestion to put a 16 lb spring in its place or even an 18 lb spring for hardball. It'll reduce the bounce by slowing the slide more before it meets the frame and thus reducing how sharply it slams back; the act that bounces the cartridge and follower. Even if it doesn't cure the problem, it'll save your gun some battering. Sprinco makes good springs. He has a 17 lb spring that might be a nice compromise to try. I've used 20 lb springs with 200 grain cast bullets over 4.5 grains of Bullseye with no function issues, so this won't be a problem in terms of reliability with your bullet weight.

Seating bullets out longer may prevent them having enough room to flip up in the momentary magazine space, but if you seat them out further, use your barrel as a guage to be sure the round still fits the chamber and the case head does not extend beyond the barrel extension (hood) when a round is dropped in. Up to that point the length is OK as long as it still fits in the magazine. As Jim pointed out, many cast RN bullets are hemispherical at the nose, but some are elliptical or have a small hemisphere at the end of a conical section to lengthen them. Without seeing what you've got, I don't know whether this will work for you or not.

Gripping the gun more firmly to limit muzzle flip may prevent it. Try a Weaver stance.

Installing the original Browning design square bottom firing pin stop will likely help. This makes it harder to rack the slide (complaints about this by soldiers is why the army started rounding the bottom with the A1 design) because the square bottom meets the hammer at a point of lower mechanical advantage in cocking it. But that added cocking effort also slightly delays unlocking during firing, so it reduces muzzle flip and slide velocity. That's a plus for target shooting and rapid fire; it's just a negative on clearing exercises. EGW makes and sell the square bottom firing pin stops, but they do come oversize and have to be hand fitted by filing or stoning (this is not their drop-in GI design which appears to be rounded).

Installing a recoil buffer of the type that decelerates the slide more gradually may help. Here again, Sprinco has a design that comes to mind as a possibility. It's just a more expensive solution that the previous items.
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