I recently bought a new Sig stainless steel Sig 1911 with a rail. My first two range sessions went off without a hitch. I shot 200+ rounds and the gun ran perfect and was very accurate.



Today I was shooting it and experienced a stoppage I had never before encountered with any gun. The gun fired, the slide went to the rear extracting and ejecting the empty case and then did not return forward. I attempted a "tap, rack, reassess" but the slide would not "spring" forward. I checked to see if the slide lock lever was engaged or broken but it was neither. I removed the magazine and found the slide could be moved forward and back freely as if the recoil spring was missing. The recoil spring plug was still in place. I vigorously racked the slide several times and the spring re-engaged and the gun went back to functioning normal.

I took the gun apart after firing several more rounds to confirm function and could not see anything that could have caused this problem. The recoil spring looked fine. I could not see anywhere that the spring could have bound up on anything inside the frame, slide or recoil spring tube.

This 1911 has a "flat" wound recoil spring and does not use a full length guide rod. I wonder if this combination does not play well together. This spring does not seem to have one end wound tighter than the other either.

Things that I have done to the gun, but that I don't think would affect this issue are:

*Removing the "series 80" parts from the frame and slide and installing the spacer plate made by TJ's Custom.

*Installing a Dawson Ice magwell.

*Installing a Surefire X-400 G.

*Painting the front sight fluorescent orange.

Has anyone had a similar experience and what was the cure? I may try a conventional round recoil spring first. The other option is to try a FLG but I kind of like the traditional set up on this gun for ease of maintenance.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: socom308,

Definitely the orange paint.

Honestly, no idea. But I figured someone had to be the smartass.

What was the ejection pattern while you were shooting? Should be to the 3 O'clock for about 4'. If it was kicking brass out at 5 O'clock try a stronger recoil spring ( round, not flat spring...). Order a pack of Wolff conventional extra power recoil springs and tune it to the ammo you're using.


Stock 1911 45ACP recoil spring is 16 lbs.



-Mike


www.gunsprings.com

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Hamfisted,

Are all Sig 1911’s equipped with flat springs and short guides? Just asking because most other 1911’s that I’ve owned or shot had round springs with short guides and full length guides with flat springs. I don’t have any experience with the Sig 1911’s.

As much as I'd like to blame TJ's parts I think you simply have a spring-binding issue.
I'd replace that spring with a good ISMI or Wilson Combat round spring and see how it runs.
Also check for any signs of galling between the frame and slide.

I have the flat Wilson spring in mine (and it is the older version of your gun) and a short guide rod. No issues so far. Gun originally shipped with a standard "round" type spring (damn tablet!!!). I too vote for spring bind.

Good luck, RMD

This message has been edited. Last edited by: rduckwor,

I saw a 1911 lock up solid enough we had to hit it with a mallet once. There was a tiny piece of metal, the source of which was never determined, that got caught between the barrel hood and inside of the slide. I had a similar thing happen with a 930SPX where a random piece of debris jammed the hammer.

Shoot it a bunch to make sure it doesn't reoccur, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was something similar.

Thanks for all the feedback guys, even the orange paint reference .

I think I may have found the source of the issue and will post some pics tonight.

Did you check the magazine used for defects? Most of the problems I had with Sig 45s were the magazines. Just a thought. Chris

From Wilson Combat:

1) Is the flat wire spring compatible with a full length guide rod?
Yes-Only with the full length flat wire guide rod (#25GRFW). The inner diameter of the flat wire spring is smaller than a conventional round wire spring requiring a flat wire specific guide rod.

At this link:
http://shopwilsoncombat.com/Fl...-Lb/productinfo/614/

Again, I want to thank everybody for responding to my post and trying to help solve this mystery. Here is what I found and what follows is my theory for this malfunction.

I took the gun apart again and inspected the internals with magnification. I found a sharp ledge on the inside of both sides of the bottom rail of the slide at the front end of the rail. It appears to be a machining issue.



I found that the spring guide has very sharp edges that can catch on this "ledge" and lock in position on the slide.

In this picture, the spring guide is hooked on the ledge and will not travel rearward (or will not apply forward pressure to the slide when mounted in the frame.)

There seems to be enough tolerance between the frame and the spring guide to allow enough movement and rotation to potentially allow the ear of the spring guide to get locked into the "ledge" of the slide.


My theory is that, with the machining issue of the slide (ledge), combined with the very sharp edges of the spring guide and loose tolerances of the frame / spring guide allowed the spring guide to get locked to the slide during the firing cycle, and no longer provide the force to close the slide. The recoil spring plug was still in place and the slide moved back and forth freely as if the spring were missing because essentially the spring was locked in the compressed position. Repeated attempts to "sling shot" the slide disturbed this binding / locking and released the spring guide from the slide and operation returned to normal.

My fix for this was to blend out the rough "ledges" in the slide rail and lightly break the edges all around the back of the spring guide.

Doing manual manipulations, the spring guide no longer hangs up in the slide.

I feel fairly confident this will resolve the issue. I will shoot the gun some more this weekend and see how it is. This was the most unusual malfunction I have ever experienced with a pistol and quite frankly, if I hadn't had it happen to me, I would have been hard pressed to believe this could even happen.