New Member in Seattle w/2 going on 4 1911s

[Garthwaite10mm]

Hey Gang,

So I am back into 10mm's.  I have small hands so I have opted for 1911s.  I used to have Glocks (20 and 29) but they are just two hard to get my little hands around.  To date I have a Wilson Combat Hunter (came with 10 mags) in 10mm, a Garthwaite full custom full size, and a Dan Wesson Commander being built.  I am getting a TRP 10 tomorrow.  Sort of got a little out of hand, but it is what it is...My plan is to have the TRP slide cut for an RMR.  I lost out on a 310 Night Guard on gunbroker.  Simply couldn't spend 1800 bucks on a production revolver.  Wish they would build these again. 

Any suggestions, best practices, or things to avoid would be very appreciated.  What spring weights and manufacturers are you using?  Does anyone make an extended mag for a 1911 that works in 10mm?  I am thinking of carrying the underwood 180s for general use and the 220s for critters.  Need to figure out the range ammo piece. 

[dred]

Congrats,

I see you are not a baby-stepper - nice choices.  You asked for suggestions ... I have only one.  Break them in wet.  If they ooze oil like you just recovered them from a vat of oil ... they may resemble what I'm suggesting.

To be fair - I've had plastic fantastic shooters convince friends shooting 1911s that sparing application is best.  This is when and where my friends experienced failures.

If you are going to clean your pistol after a range trip, why worry about a little extra oil?  To be fair, dunking it in oil is overkill and the 10s can be difficult to control with oil soaked scales. A couple drops on each rail, a drop on the recoil lug, a drop on the muzzle end of the barrel, and a drop on the disconnector is enough to get an ooze confirming that friction has been mitigated.

[sqlbullet]

So, caveat.  Each gun is unique and sometimes you have to find what works for that gun.  Lessons I learned casting bullets.

On to they main points.

1.  I don't mess with springs or accessories unless I have a problem or a need.  My assumption is they maker knew what they were doing.

2.  Unfortunately, my assumption is all to often proven wrong.  This is worse with 1911's, though I don't think it is anything about the core design that doesn't measure up, but rather that there is so much deviation, customization, etc from that core design.  If I have a 1911 that is mis-behaving in 10mm it is almost always a 3-point jam.  My go-to for these are:

      Magazine - +10% mag srpings.  The magazine has to do two things.  First it has to get the next round up into position and settled in the brief time the slide is out of the way.  Second, the nose of the next round or follower gives a "bump" to the rim of the round being fed which helps it ride up the breech face.  In 10mm, everything happens faster.  Slide travels to the rear faster because of recoil physics and it returns to battery faster because of a heavier recoil spring.  That means the magazine has to work faster too.

      Extractor - Check the extractor face to see if it is smooth.  Wilson has a great video about this.  This tends to be a more common issue on the "budget" guns.  My RIA was quite bad.  However, extractors also wear out, so knowing how to properly cut and polish the extractor hook is a good skill to have.

      Flat bottom firing pin stop - I love this one.  It slows down the slide right at the start by eating up momentum in the first .25" of slide travel.  This just slows the whole recoil cycle down, giving everything more time to happen.  As a result, I often violate my rule and put a FB FPS in a 1911 even if I haven't had an issue.

If these don't solve your three point problem with factory ammo, then you probably have excessive link binding, and that is best left to a real 1911 gunsmith.  Send it off, sell it or live with a Jam-O-Matic.  (On a side note, everyone should have a handgun that jams.  Great to take to the range to practice stoppage drills.  You can stage them, but it really amps the pressure when it happens organically.  Just don't carry this gun.)

3.  Guns don't need lots of oil, unless they do. In general you want only a very light film on the gun where parts rub, or all over on carbon steel.  Guns don't have an oil sump, oil filters or circulation system.  Any crud the oil traps is just there until you clean the gun.  More oil = more crud that can be trapped.  During break-in, as Dred says, wet can be good since the gun may be generating excess crud in the form of metal dust as the parts wear together.  In those cases you should only have the high velocity interference parts wet (slide rails, bushing/slide to barrel) wet, and they should be completely cleaned and then re-lubed often.  Other parts should still be run with only a light film.  If some other part group gets "wet" then detail strip and and clean the crud out.  Extra oil in the fire control group, for instance, will result in a build up of carbon residue that can cause issues.

So, light oil and run them.  And post pics.