“What seems to be the problem, officer?” Addressing some issues on an Officer Model 1911 and my fixes for them.

by R. M. Layng

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Gunsmiths, whether they are true professionals with a shop and a storefront, a kitchen table tinkerer, or a machinist with spare time and materiel on their hands, are more often than not put in a position wherein they are solving a problem with a firearm, sometimes even more so than building new firearms, fitting barrels, and the like. There are two distinct paths that are taken to get to the bottom of an issue. The first is “tribal knowledge” that is either passed from person to person or researching the issue and the second is by doing a lot of trial and error. This article pertains to a little bit of both.

I recently had an issue when my Officer Model 1911 began causing nosedive failures to feed. It was a sudden and constant issue. I’d load a magazine, click it into place, draw the slide back, and let it slingshot forward. Instead of the “clack!” one normally hears when a 1911 slide goes home, all I got was a dull “thunk” and the slide barely inched forward. Digging through my notes on the platform (after safely clearing the firearm, of course), I started going down the troubleshooting list of what could go wrong and what a possible fix might be.

I started with the…

Read more in the March 2023 issue.

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