USPSA Match Video: Colt 1911 Rail Gun

From the post below, I mentioned I had two malfunctions on one stage – here’s the match video from the stage.  Please note, right at the end there is a single naughty word.

Does this mean that my Colt is unreliable? Not at all, in fact it’s still one of the most reliable 1911s I own. It does mean that in cold weather with low velocity semi-wadcutter rounds that I had two failures to feed out of magazines that have always worked otherwise. After having shot the gun later in the day, and it worked fine, I have to chalk those up to a perfect storm of weirdness.

And on the bright side, the malfs allowed me to an awesome malfunction clearance drill on camera. That was actually my favorite part of the video, because I didn’t stand there staring thunderstruck at my gun.

16 Comments

  1. I’m not familiar with USPSA, but since I do shoot my 1911 in matches, you did clear the bobble nice and smooth, and from what I could see, you didn’t let a bobble break your focus for the stage.

  2. You made that malf clear, and those reloads your bitch.

    Great video. I’m sure your time wasn’t the best, but it made it very interesting to watch.

  3. No matter what one is shooting, it pays to maintain the equipment in accordance with environmental conditions, which means understanding those conditions. A great many years ago I was lucky enough to be included on an elk hunt in the Wyoming mountains, and the person with whom I went insisted that I disassemble my rifle – especially the bolt and trigger mechanism – to “de-oil” everything and apply a very, very light film of thin rust-preventing lubricant. As he put it, temps were going to be below zero F and as an eastern flatlander I was used to freezing and above where oil didn’t thicken enough to cause problems. Lesson learned.

    Here in FL we can just about use axle grease on slides with no problems……

  4. Key words, “low velocity”.
    Unless you are running a extra light recoil spring and know the gun will shoot low power loads reliably it was your fault bud. That’s why make different weight 1911 springs, the weaker the ammo the weaker of a spring you need to use or you will get short cycling that may eject an empty but not drive the slide back far enough to pick up a fresh round.

    I intentionally limp wrist my 45 with intended load and springs I plan to carry it with for a couple of mags before I carry it, even a full house load with a lighter projectile can make a difference, especially if it’s a tight gun or you have extra weight on the slide, large aftermarket sights, ribs, whatever.

    It’s simple physics, the heavier and the more inertia in has the more power it takes to move it.

    1. Zermoid you missed the part where he ran a 400 round practice indoors at west coast with no issues. The problem wasn’t the spring or light loads, it was a combination of those coupled with the cold weather that kept the grease from heating up all the way and added a little more friction.

  5. On the second failure you did a tap between rounds 5 and 6. Was the mag not fully seated and it still fed 5 rounds? Usually the tap is required after round 1. What do you think happened?

  6. On the first malf it appeared (to me) that you unlocked your wrist in anticipation of leaning. As well you bow and arrowed running the slide.

    The second malf I cannot explain, but could be the ammo.

    The important thing is that you recovered and finished. You are very smart to record these. It’s a great way to learn.

    1. Second malf was the same as the first, the wadcutter bullet hung up on the feedramp going into the chamber. The “tap” portion of the drill cleared the malf so I went back to shooting.

    1. It was good shooting with you! I’m going to be alternating between Production and Single Stack for most of the year, so we’ll get to go head to head eventually.

  7. You fired enough rounds by the second Malfunction, I would have thought the grease would have heated up enough.

Comments are closed.