John Blue's Springfield Armory 9mm 1911

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        John Blue uses a Springfield Armory Loaded 9mm 1911.  He has had a few problems with it when he first got it.   It would not eject reliably.  It did not matter what kind of 9mm ammo he used, it would not run a whole magazine without a malfunction.  There were no obvious defects or flaws, it just would not run.    We tried lighter recoil springs, down to an 8 pound spring.  Polished the feed ramp.  Checked the extractor tension, rounded the bottom of the extractor and polished it.  I took the barrel out of my Springfield and put it in his gun and it ran like a champ.  We boxed it up and sent it back to Springfield for warranty attention.  They sent it back a few weeks later with a note saying they polished the barrel bushing and it would now work fine.  On the range, it would still have a failure to eject about every 25 rounds, still not good enough.  For $600, your gun should be reliable.  We sent it back again.  This time they said they did some work to the slide to frame fit, polished the chamber, and again polished the bushing.  At the range, it now works great when it is clean.  After a couple of hundred rounds, it acts up.
        He uses an Aimtech 1911 grip mount and a Haco red dot scope.  He replaced the main spring with a Wolf reduced power mainspring.  The mainspring housing is Smith and Alexander SS.  The mount was trimmed to reduce the possibility of brass getting caught betwen the slide and mount.   The gun is accurate and reliable when clean.  I don't know why Springfield would not replace the barrel.  In the letter to them requesting repair, we described the malfunction in detail and what steps we had taken to try to get it to work... including swapping barrels with a known good gun.  9mm 1911 guns are about the best for starting a steel plate project gun. 

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Last modified: April 07, 2004