I'm getting acquainted with a 'new-to-me' Colt M1911 from 1918 with all original parts. I noticed the front surface of the slide lock notch on the slide for the thumb safety is peened, with a minor raising of the steel. Correspondingly, there is a 'road rash' area on the edge of the barrel bushing probably from the pistol falling onto pavement. I didn't think too much about that untill I noticed that the barrel bushing is loose in the assembled position, in that it has a little fore to aft play. Inspecting the bushing and locking groove in the slide, I found no apparent damage to the bushing, but the fore edge of the locking groove is peened where the bushing lug rests when assembled, very slightly opening the groove and causing the play in the bushing.
Now I'm thinking that the gun was loaded and locked when it fell on the muzzle, causing the chambered round to fire, peening the slide in the two places described. I really don't think just falling could have done the damage, but I suppose it could have fallen from a great height. But in any event, the slide was locked, which certainly indicates a loaded pistol (why cock and lock unless it's loaded?).
I really don't want to replace anything on the gun and I'm not planning on firing it, although I don't think any of this would affect sending one or two downrange.
Have you guys ever seen similar damage from dropping or a drop-fire?
NO.
Quote:
Inspecting the bushing and locking groove in the slide, I found no apparent
damage to the bushing, but the fore edge of the locking groove is peened where
the bushing lug rests when assembled, very slightly opening the groove and
causing the play in the bushing.
This peening in the groove may indicate that the gun was/is fitted with a recoil spring which was/is compressed to its solid length just a wee bit before full recoil.
If the spring's solid length is too long I've heard it can even break off the front of the slide! If the patina on the bushing indicates it's newer than the gun, perhaps (only perhaps) just the bushing broke.
Don't shoot the old girl until you insure the recoil spring doesn't stack solid at full recoil.
Pull the slide back full and take a pencil and make a witness mark on the slide and frame. Remove the spring leaving the guide-rod in and pull it back again, mark it too. If the first mark is before the second you've got spring stacking. Start clipping off 1/2 of a coil at a time until the slide mark that you made with the spring in aligns with the frame mark you made with the spring out.
Thanks for posting the procedure for those who may not have known about it. I have never encountered a stacked spring in the many I've checked. To tell the truth, I've gotten away from checking that without cause. This pistol doesn't have any such problem and the original bushing is intact. It just got dropped or thrown, landed on the muzzle and fired. The evidence is clear to me. I was just wondering if anyone had seen a similar case. I'll see if I can get some pics later that show what I mean.
If it landed on the muzzle the bushing would not have any damage to the lug. The impact is compressing the bushing to the front face of the slide and removing tension from the lug to slide contact.
Unless somebody installed an overlength spring that was intended for use in a longslide variant, it's unlikely that coil bind did the damage. It may be simply that a lot of rounds have been through the old girl. The older pistols were dead soft... much softer than the bushings of the day.