What am I doing wrong?

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onfinal

Bearcat
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New SR1911 Commander (350-400 rounds) will not do the +1 loading no matter what mag I use or how I do it.

Every other semi auto I own or have owned--and that's quite a few--I insert loaded mag, chamber round, drop mag, insert new round in mag, insert mag in gun and voila!, I have +1 that works.

With my new SR1911 Cmdr, I do as above and the chambered round fires but the newly inserted round will not. Every time, without fail, I have to drop the mag and rack the slide a few times, re-insert mag and all is ok.

If I do not attempt to +1, if I just insert loaded 7 or 8 round mag and fire away, it will empty the mag without a hitch every time just like it's supposed to do.

Is it me or the gun? I have never had this happen before so suspect the gun, but it is new to me so I need expert advice.
 

s4s4u

Hunter
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Are you saying that the gun will not chamber the topped off round? Or does it chamber the round but not fire it?
 

GKC

Blackhawk
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You said this happens no matter what mags you are using...what mags (brands) have you tried? How new are the mags? I usually load any new mags to capacity and let them sit for a couple of weeks before I begin using them.

When you top off the mag after chambering the first round, are you making sure the rounds in the mag are seated properly? I smack the mag into my palm to make sure all the rounds are seated to the rear of the mag. Have you cleaned the mags? If so, have you checked to see if they were reassembled correctly?

Do you have other 1911s, to try the mags in, to see if they can do the +1 chambering?
 

GKC

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s4s4u said:
Are you saying that the gun will not chamber the topped off round? Or does it chamber the round but not fire it?

If it loads but won't fire, that's a very strange issue. If it won't chamber, is the round hanging up on the feed ramp? Can you give more detail about what exactly is happening?
 

onfinal

Bearcat
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As I said, I've never had this happen before on any gun, 1911 or otherwise, so I don't have a clue right now. I load a mag--any mag of 8-10--to its capacity. Insert mag and chamber the top round. Drop mag and top off with new round. Make sure new round is inserted properly, smack against palm of hand, etc. just as I do for any mag in any gun I'm firing. Insert topped off mag into gun, aim, fire. The already chambered round fires and gun appears to go into battery for the next (topped off) round. Hammer is back, gun looks to be ready to go. Pull trigger, hammer drops, but does not fire.

If I just fill the mag to capacity--7 or 8 rounds depending on the mag--insert it in gun, chamber a round and start firing, it will operate flawlessly all day long. I have 10 different 1911 magazines. All operate correctly when not topped off. All malfunction as above when topped off, so I don't think it's a mag problem.

The club where I do my shooting has a gunsmith on duty, so I'm going to ask him to go with me and go through the procedure himself. I'll report back. Thanks for the ideas and questions. I wish I could answer them.
 

hittman

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onfinal said:
Pull trigger, hammer drops, but does not fire.

I'm still not clear if it "does not fire" because it hasn't chambered the next round or it's not hitting the firing pin hard enough.

Regardless, if this condition only happens with this one gun .... and if all the magazines and ammo work in all other guns ..... you have a gun problem; maybe, I think ..... :lol:

Or .... stop "topping off" the magazine. Does it really make that much difference if you're shooting holes in paper plates or do you competition shoot?
 

GKC

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If I'm reading your answers correctly, it does sound like it's the gun. You mentioned racking the slide several times before you reinsert the magazine, and then it will fire. I'm no expert or gun smith by a long shot, but it sounds like the firing pin isn't contacting the primer as it should. I mean, if the 2nd round chambers correctly, and it just won't fire, but it will after the slide is racked several times....sounds like it's not the magazine(s) but something is keeping the firing pin from properly contacting the primer of the round. Hopefully your gun smith will find the problem...please do post what you find out! This is very interesting...
 

onfinal

Bearcat
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Problem solved! The topped off mag was not clicking completely into place. Even though I would insert the topped off mag and smack it smartly with the palm of my hand just like I've done 000s of times with all my guns, it was not locking in securely even though it appeared to be. GS saw what I was doing and engaged safety and gave it a really good smack and it worked just as it should.

I've never had to hit a magazine that hard before, but will carefully check from now on no matter which gun. It's a brand new gun and will maybe loosen up over time, but I still learned a lesson today. Thanks again for all the thoughts and ideas.

I really appreciate this forum and everyone's willingness to help.
 

GKC

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onfinal said:
The topped off mag was not clicking completely into place.

I guess I don't understand...if the round would chamber from the mag, why wouldn't it fire? The SR1911 doesn't have a mag disconnect safety. I mean, I could see the round not chambering correctly if the mag wasn't seated correctly, but once it was chambered, it should have fired...right? I don't know most, much less all, so I'd really appreciate some more detail on this. Thanks.
 

dickn52

Bearcat
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Ok, just a WAG, but if the mag doesn't seat, then the next round is not going to get picked up. My guess is leaning to the second round is NOT seating and the hammer is dropping on an empty chamber. Needs to be more forcefull when seating the mag is all.
 

onfinal

Bearcat
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dickn52 said:
Ok, just a WAG, but if the mag doesn't seat, then the next round is not going to get picked up. My guess is leaning to the second round is NOT seating and the hammer is dropping on an empty chamber. Needs to be more forcefull when seating the mag is all.

Correct. Turns out the topped off mag was not seating correctly, even though I used the same force as with a full mag for the initial chambering of the first round. My carelessness in assuming the topped off mag was seated correctly when it wasn't.

When the club gunsmith and I determined what was happening and I made sure the topped off mag was locked in properly, the gun fired all rounds, from the +1 to empty mag, as it should, every time. Problem solved.
 

GKC

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Well, I'm still not understanding this...if the round chambered, why wouldn't it fire, even if the mag wasn't completely seated? There is no mag disconnect. The only thing I can think of is that the slide wasn't completely in battery either.

In any case, I'm glad you found a solution for the problem. 8)
 

onfinal

Bearcat
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GKC said:
Well, I'm still not understanding this...if the round chambered, why wouldn't it fire, even if the mag wasn't completely seated? There is no mag disconnect. The only thing I can think of is that the slide wasn't completely in battery either.

In any case, I'm glad you found a solution for the problem. 8)
I have explained this twice and don't know how else to put it so that you might understand it. It's not really that complex, I just wasn't getting the topped off mag inserted forcefully enough to where it locked in. As a result, the second round was not feeding correctly or at all, and not firing.
 

GKC

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onfinal said:
As a result, the second round was not feeding correctly or at all, and not firing.

OK, that was what I wasn't getting. I thought you were saying that the 2nd round chambered correctly but wouldn't fire. I didn't understand how a chambered round wouldn't fire if the magazine wasn't locked in, on a pistol without a mag disconnect safety. It makes sense that if the round didn't feed or chamber correctly that it wouldn't fire.

The slow group thanks you... :oops:
 

s4s4u

Hunter
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GKC said:
onfinal said:
As a result, the second round was not feeding correctly or at all, and not firing.

OK, that was what I wasn't getting. I thought you were saying that the 2nd round chambered correctly but wouldn't fire. I didn't understand how a chambered round wouldn't fire if the magazine wasn't locked in, on a pistol without a mag disconnect safety. It makes sense that if the round didn't feed or chamber correctly that it wouldn't fire.

The slow group thanks you... :oops:

Don't feel too bad, we didn't have 100% clarity until his last post :-D
 

onfinal

Bearcat
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The slow group thanks you...

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I'm the one that was not getting the mag fully locked in, but didn't realize what was happening and had to have someone else point that out to me. And that's after literally thousands of times inserting magazines in pistols w/o a hitch.

Just goes to show that no matter how much experience you have, carelessness can creep in. So if there is a slow group around here I'm a leading candidate to be its president. Vote for me!
 

bentblade

Single-Sixer
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Nov 1, 2012
Messages
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Sounds like the slide isn't going far enough to the rear to pick up the new round.

???
Is this a new gun? Needs breaking in
Are you shooting light loads, target loads or reloads? Not enough power to drive slide back
Have you installed a heavier recoil spring. Same thing heavy spring or combination light loads
Extra heavy magazine spring causing slide to drag more than normal on the top round in magazine
Limp wristing the gun
Or a combination of all of the above
 
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bentblade said:
Sounds like the slide isn't going far enough to the rear to pick up the new round.

???
Is this a new gun? Needs breaking in
Are you shooting light loads, target loads or reloads? Not enough power to drive slide back
Have you installed a heavier recoil spring. Same thing heavy spring or combination light loads
Extra heavy magazine spring causing slide to drag more than normal on the top round in magazine
Limp wristing the gun
Or a combination of all of the above
Hmm, talk about the slow group? Read the whole thread, your questions will be answered.
gramps
 
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I was a little confused also at the beginning because the OP never said (until his 5th post) that the round was not getting chambered. Even before that, that was my first thought because I had seen/heard about this happening (mag not fully lock into place thus next round not feeding) in the past. Seems it did this on peoples guns when they were new and everything was still pretty tight. When I got my first SR1911 I would do the same thing as the OP did but I always pulled on the full magazine to make sure it seated and locked. If I did not do that I did every now and then have the same thing happen. The mag wasn't locked in and upon firing that +1 round the mag dropped a little and the next round never got fed into the chamber, thus the no bang upon trigger pull.
 

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