1911 Malfunction

[Bo Bender]

Here’s a new malfunction that I experienced today while practicing  with my wild bunch 1911. Shooting the same gun(Remington R1), same mags(Wilson Combat) and same ammo(230g 5g W231) that has never let me down. Seven rounds in the mags, fire six rounds flawlessly, 6th round goes bang and ejects, slide locks open and seventh round floating around in the breech. I was shooting one handed, white knuckling the grip so my thumb was nowhere near the slide stop, i certainly wasn’t limp wristing it. This happened several times but not until after about 100 rounds, the sun was hot and so was the gun in case that matters. Anyone have any theories on the cause?

Something is allowing that 7th round to pop up as the slide goes back which allows the follower to trip the slide stop. Can it be as simple as the mag lips need readjusting? 
TIA for your help

[El Chapo]

What does "floating around in the breach" mean?  It is not uncommon for 1911s to lock back with one round in the magazine, and for that, you may have to adjust the fit of your slide stop to the magazines you're using if that's happening.  If your feed lips are out of spec, it's also not uncommon for a round to "squirt" out of the top of the magazine sometimes, although that is more common with 9mm magazines than 45.  What exactly is it doing?  If I understand your symptom correctly, it sounds like a feed lip problem to me.  The easiest way to diagnose is to identify the problem magazines and compare feed lip dimensions.

[Bo Bender]

3 hours ago, El Chapo said:

What does "floating around in the breach" mean?  It is not uncommon for 1911s to lock back with one round in the magazine, and for that, you may have to adjust the fit of your slide stop to the magazines you're using if that's happening.  If your feed lips are out of spec, it's also not uncommon for a round to "squirt" out of the top of the magazine sometimes, although that is more common with 9mm magazines than 45.  What exactly is it doing?  If I understand your symptom correctly, it sounds like a feed lip problem to me.  The easiest way to diagnose is to identify the problem magazines and compare feed lip dimensions.

I’m numbering the mags now and will see if I can narrow it down to two or three culprits. It does appear to be mag feed lip issues, the seventh round is popping out of the mag as the slide goes back, once that round clears the mag, the follower can activate the slide stop.

whats your experience with stainless mags, do the lips hold up longer that blued steel? Is there a brand of mag that holds up better, im currently running Wilson combat mags and they have been flawless until now?

[El Chapo]

5 hours ago, Bo Bender said:

I’m numbering the mags now and will see if I can narrow it down to two or three culprits. It does appear to be mag feed lip issues, the seventh round is popping out of the mag as the slide goes back, once that round clears the mag, the follower can activate the slide stop.

whats your experience with stainless mags, do the lips hold up longer that blued steel? Is there a brand of mag that holds up better, im currently running Wilson combat mags and they have been flawless until now?

I don't really care for stainless but the mags I'm using now are stainless because that's what was available.  It's really just a vanity thing, I don't think either material is superior or works better; stainless is perhaps easier to keep clean because you can see when it's dirty.

I don't think you'll see a difference in the feed lips holding up on stainless vs. regular steel, the heat treat probably matters more with regard to that.  

I have never really had a problem with my 1911 mags holding up, I did wear out a set of 9mm mags over a 10+ year period but I shot many thousands of rounds through them in that time.  45 mags have generally been good for me although after about 2012, I stopped shooting 45 completely except for wild bunch now.

I have a set of Wilson Combat mags for WB and a set of Tripps.  Both work in my gun, but I like that the Tripps have feed lips that hold the round for longer as the slide cycles, which is why I switched to them.  I know some prefer other mags and I hope to try some others eventually.  In USPSA, I used Chip McCormick mags from about 2004-2008, then I switched to Tripp Research mags and I have been using those since.  When I started WB I bought a set of Wilsons because they were on sale and this year, after comparing them to my USPSA 45 mags that I have had forever, I got a set of GI style Tripps for WB and shot two matches with them over the last two months.  My gun feeds with both but I think my gun feeds better with the Tripps because they release further forward.  I loaned my gun and mags to another shooter last month and he shot the Wilsons and I shot the Tripps just so we didn't have to trade mags back and forth; neither of us had any gun related issues.

I have not had a whole lot of problems with feed lip tuning in 1911s nor having them go out of spec, contrast that with 2011 mags that have a lot of problems feeding and mag tuning is required.  Because of that, I don't know the feed lip dimensions that are ideal for 45 Auto, I haven't moved mine.  In your case I'd measure all your mags at the front and back of the feed lips and set the dimensions, to start, at the smallest numbers you see among your mags as long as that one fed reliably.  I bet you find that a few of your mags are a little wider at the front and release earlier, which in my experience, all my Wilson mags release earlier than I'd like, not because they are bent but because it's part of their design to have shorter feed lips than my other mags.  If your tightest mag feeds reliably, just set them all to that number.  You'll know right away if they are too tight because the round will hit the feed ramp too low and it may cause feeding issues.  That's why I don't recommend going any tighter than that, just set them to exactly 1x your tightest mag and test fire.

Tripp calls the situation you're experiencing "mag squirt" and some very minor adjustment to your mags will likely restore normal functioning for a long time.  Write down the numbers that work and check them once a year and you'll be good.