So I have two nearly identical Les Baers. One locks the slide back on any empty mag. The other is very picky about which mags from the same bunch will lock it back. Gun problem or mag problem, or both?
Some dogs want to be scratched others petted and some just don't care. But, guns are just machines and there are many factors when it comes to feeding them. In short, if you can find a quality mag (Wilson, Cobra, Nowlin, etc.) use them. If you're not that kind of fellow, I'd swap slide stops to start diagnosing your problem.
These are Wilsons, McCormicks, etc.
Maybe not.
Swap slide stops between the 2. See if anything changes.
The magazines may be the problem, but in this case, I suspect the slide stop itself. Check it out by removing the slide and recoil spring, then re- installing the slide stop. You can look right down into the magazine well and see what is happening.
Interesting that they made a couple of million of those in WWII and they all worked, but today you can pay a high price for a hyped-up super clone that won't work right.
Those couple of million pistols were designed to be combat pistols.
I agree with your assessment sir.
I will add I found some Wilson 47Ds I did not know I had, I do not do Wilson, anything... not sure why I had these...
Anywho, a new slide stop was the real culprit on a fella's gun - and his 47Ds, plastic follower "worn" and even a crack on one.
Being in a hurry... he had to have some mags, so bought 4 from me, while he waits for new followers.
Funny, that USGI mag we used in his gun, is older than he is... and it run his gun...
"Yeah but you guys did not get a DVD with "that old gun" like I got with one".
Just an old Gov't Model with character is what gun buddy and I were messing with...
"Those couple of million pistols were designed to be combat pistols."
Yep. And the clone makers use terms like "combat" and "tactical" hoping the suckers will associate their tarted up modern junk with real combat pistols.
"Quality control, what ees thees quality control, we don't need no steenking quality control."
When I saw this problem, I noted that the magazine follower in the one magazines was not properly formed. Yet, it would work in most of my 1911s. Just an FYI.
I don't buy those fancy big bucks mags. I bought some about 20 yrs. ago and after about one year of use, the plastic followers were chipped and wouldn't lock the slide open anymore. Ever since, I go to a gun show and look for a table with a bunch of old 1911 parts on it. Inevitably I will find a box or tray with a bunch of military contract mags in it. You know, the ones with the assembly numbers on the floorplate. Anyway, they are kind of beat up and have some surface rust and maybe a dent or two. Ther is usually a sign saying something like $6 each or 5 for $25. So I rummage through and pick a multiple of 5 or whatever the deal is depending on my pocket cash at the time, take them home, steel wool the rust off, disassemble and clean out the body, push out any dents and reassemble. I don't take the ones with cracked feed lips or serious dents or real bad pitting. I still have every one I bought that way and they all still work in my guns. Always. Flawlessly.
As fate would have it, I just had occasion to address a rough feeding Springfield a couple weeks ago. Failures to go to battery because of the bullet nose striking too low on the barrel ramp was the main issue, which was corrected, but still didn't completely eliminate the "chunky" feed... even though the gun functioned. The main issue was that the frame's feed ramp wasn't quite steep enough, and I'd moved the barrel ramp as far forward as I could without losing case head support.
We tried a Check-Mate produced Colt magazine with the hybrid feed lips, which made it much smoother... but the pistol still retained a slightly rough feed on the top round from slidelock as it went to battery.
I went down to the shop and returned with a couple of like new Check-Mate contract USGI magazines with the full tapered feed lips and no timed/abrupt release point... and the "Ka-Chunk" feed went away on all rounds. The difference was pretty dramatic.
Imagine! A nearly 100 year-old magazine design... the type that was originally designed FOR the pistol... provided the smoothest feed in a pistol built not only last year, but slightly out of spec. Who woulda thunkit?
And... Yes. The results are the same with hardball and hollowpoints.
These observations and results can be verified by contacting member/username "kartracer".