loose slide

[Chubbo]

I have taken a new interest in the Delta Elite, that I purchased new in 1992. Only had it to the range one time, and fired a couple of  mags of ammo in it  at that time. Was really impressed, and enthused with it. Put it in the safe, and intended to make it one of my favorites. Forgot all about it until now, 14 yrs. later. Got 'er out the other day, and have been looking at, fondling, talking about, and discussing things to do with it on forums, and in general getting enthused with it again. In handling this pistol, I happened to notice that the slide seems to be a lot looser than any of the Colt 1911 pistols that I own. Is this a normal condition for a Colt Delta Elite of this era? I don't know the mfg. date of this pistol. the Ser. number is DE362xx. Is this something that I should be concerned with? Thanks.
Chubbo

[sqlbullet]

If it shoots to your satisfaction, doesn't matter.  If it doesn't, then there are ways to tighten it up, but they are labor intensive, therefore a bit expensive.

[Dave O]

All of my "newer" Colt 1911s (1977 on) rattle with the best WWII guns. My first year 10mm Delta Elite is among the loosest I've handled.

Colt professes the sloppy slide to frame fit doesn't hurt accuracy and indeed is necessary for reliability.

My Wilson Combat CQB 45 and Dan Wesson PM7-45 have essentially no slide to frame looseness and have maintained 100% reliability from day one.

[sqlbullet]

Zombie thread and all, but it seems fated as I just finished tightening the slide/frame fit on my Kareen 1st gen High Power.

Dave 0, welcome to the forum, and you are spot on.  Rattle is only an issue IF your gun doesn't shoot to combat accuracy.  By that I mean 3-4" at 25 yards.  People like guns that don't rattle, but in general they work fine.

A few months back I picked up a 1st Gen Kareen High Power.  The Kareen was assembled from High Power parts purchased from FEG.  They are serviceable High Power guns that can be purchased quite reasonably.  I think I paid about $225 for mine.

It shoots about 4-6" at 25 yards.  And it rattled.  And, due to the way the High Power transfer bar system works, when you pull the trigger the slide would lift up on one side. The barrel locked up in the slide tightly, but with the slide moving as I pulled the trigger, I decided that this gun needed some tightening before I refinished it.

There are a number of methods to tighten slide to frame fit. 

One of the best is to weld the frame rails up and then machine them back down to a really tight fit, finishing with lapping sessions.  However, my stick welder is far less than ideal for this kind of work, I am a terrible welder and I don't have a mill to machine the rails back down.

At the other end of the spectrum is the "quick and dirty".  In this method you peen the edges of the first 3/4" of rail and the last 1/2" of rail. Peening them widens out the very top of the frame rail.  This method works well, but often doesn't last long.  Since you have displaced just the edge of the rail, it can wear back down after a couple 1000 rounds.

In between these is to close the gap between the rail and the frame.  You do this on a 1911 with a set of Brownell's slide fitting bars.  They run from .110" up to about .121" I think.  The idea is that you measure the lug in the slide, and then close the gap down to that size, and lap to fit.

On my Kareen High Power that lug in the slide measured .095", well smaller than the smallest slide fitting bars...which I don't own anyway.

So, I went through my drawer of files until I found one that happened to measure exactly .095".  Dumb luck.  I used the shank as a make shift fitting bar and tapped the gap closed with a 2 oz smooth face hammer.  Then I lapped it until the spring could close the action with some jewelers rouge.

I haven't had the chance to shoot it yet, but the gun doesn't rattle at all and the slide doesn't move when dry-fired.  I expect the groups to be cut in half, maybe more.

So, Chubbo, I don't know if you are still looking for options.  If your gun shoots fine, I would not worry about it at all.  However, if it doesn't, this method should work to tighten it up.