1911 disconnector hesitation

[tercel89]

I have an older Springfield 1911 , 18 years old. I haven't shot it much more than 100 rds and I bought it new. I was messing with it today and when hand cycling I noticed it would slightly hesitate when the slide contacted the disconnector. Now when I shoot it , it works great. I've read that others have did modifications to make this easier but I don't want to do that. Have you guys/gals noticed this ? 

Edited August 4, 2021 by tercel89

[221 Fireball]

It's pretty normal do have a slight "drag" the last 1/2" as the slide goes into battery if you're riding the slide back by hand. You have to remember everything is coming together at that point. But loaded, you should either pull back the slide and let it go, or if it's at slide lock, you can do the same or hit the slide release. If it functions fine when firing, you're good to go.

At 100 rounds, it's not even broke in yet!  

I've got 5000+ rounds (IDPA shooter) through my Range Officer and the only thing I've had to change was a recoil spring at about 2000+ rounds.

[gregintenn]

Pull the slide all the way rearward, let go, and let 'er slam home. That's how they were designed to operate. Just shoot it and enjoy the genius of John Browning.

[tercel89]

Thanks for the information guys. Like I said , it runs good but I was just messing with it and I had never let the slide go forward very slow before and that's when I felt that resistance.  

[dlmeadows]

Thats normal, the sear spring keeps tension on the disconnector to push it up into the pocket of the slide. That's what prevents it from firing out of battery, so hand cycling you will feel a slight drag. if you want to smooth that up a bit you can always polish the slide boss that it slides on as well as the contacting face of the disconnector. It's not going to help anything function differently, but could take away some of the felt drag. My personal recommendation is to leave it alone and shoot it. 

[bobsguns]

On 8/5/2021 at 9:03 AM, tercel89 said:

 I had never let the slide go forward very slow before and that's when I felt that resistance.  

Much like closing a car door in super slow motion, it's not designed to work that way. A slide, any slide, requires a certain speed to work correctly. Momentum, resistance, energy, etc all work in harmony with the moving parts to make it operate. Hand cycling changes that dynamic tremendously. 

Slide speed is why many recommend that the slide release not be used & the slide grasped, pulled back & released when needing to chamber a rd. Note: NEVER allow a 1911 slide to slam home on an empty chamber! The extractor will act like a tuning fork! Not good for it. If the chamber/mag is empty, then a hand-guided slow travel is in fact best.

My .o2

[tercel89]

3 hours ago, bobsguns said:

Much like closing a car door in super slow motion, it's not designed to work that way. A slide, any slide, requires a certain speed to work correctly. Momentum, resistance, energy, etc all work in harmony with the moving parts to make it operate. Hand cycling changes that dynamic tremendously. 

Slide speed is why many recommend that the slide release not be used & the slide grasped, pulled back & released when needing to chamber a rd. Note: NEVER allow a 1911 slide to slam home on an empty chamber! The extractor will act like a tuning fork! Not good for it. If the chamber/mag is empty, then a hand-guided slow travel is in fact best.

My .o2

Yeah , I agree on letting the slide go slow forward on empty chamber. That's why I noticed the disconector. When loaded I always sling-shot the slide and I never use the slide-stop as a "release" , but that opens up another argument LOL . 

[gregintenn]

On 8/22/2021 at 7:46 AM, bobsguns said:

 Note: NEVER allow a 1911 slide to slam home on an empty chamber! The extractor will act like a tuning fork! Not good for it. If the chamber/mag is empty, then a hand-guided slow travel is in fact best.

My .o2

I never considered this. Thanks for the tip. Makes sense.

[xtriggerman]

Tuning fork? Thats a new one on me! I respectfully disagree. A properly tensioned 1911 extractor is tensioned against the slide extractor hole about 1/4" from the tip. it contacts there at the side of the bolt face while the center rib on the extractor tensions against the outside, side of the extractor hole if jumping a chambered rim. No ringing, buzzing or humming on it since its pressing against its bored hole at the claw,  and obviously where the Firing pin retainer is.  If the extractor is not tensioned into the front of the hole, but loose up front like a tunning fork, that normaly results in stove pipes and like extraction issues.

 Also, If any of my 1911's don't reliably feed a toped off mag from the slide stop, it gets retuned so it will. I believe thats a mil spec requirement with ball ammo. A good throated 1911 should do that with most HP ammo.

[bobsguns]

9 hours ago, xtriggerman said:

Tuning fork?

Yes. Ask any long-time gunsmith of reputable worth & they'll tell you. Extractors will vibrate when the slide slams home empty. They're made of such hard steel they're "brittle". Repeated slamming will result in a damage extractor. Call Cylinder & Slide & ask them if you don't believe me. Or ask an experienced USPSA shooter. 

External extractors such as what Sig 1911s uses don't have this issue. 

[xtriggerman]

 No need to ask any one for my part. In 1982 I was at Auto Ordnance running their rather new 1911A1 production line that I set up. Once we ran out of mil surp extractors at the Numrich warehouse across the street, I was tasked with going down to a casting house in Brewster NY to have new 1911 extractors made via the lost wax casting process. At the time, I gave them the Colt drawings and it was up to me to make sure the extractors would "shrink" during their cooling process into as close to the final specification as to be as reliable as possible once hardened to the correct spring steel tension. I was not thrilled with the final product but AO was not crazy about footing the bill for fine tuning the casting dies. I still think calling a 1911 extractor a tuning fork is disingenuous. IMO, If they break, its because of their configuration and metallurgy. Not because they were free slammed on an empty chamber.  Here is an excellent article if you want to read up on extractors. This guy is spot on at cylinder & slide. 

Cylinder & Slide Ultimate 1911 Extractor (m1911.org)   

As an asside, I left AO at the 4600 serialed 1911 due to the fact I couldn't keep the guns running they way they were designed since the Mil surp parts were mostly gone and I had little to no say in the crude aftermarket parts being forced into my production line. It seemed management wanted to maintain the $279 dollar wholesale cost at the expense of quality. I warned of the returns multiple times and left them when my warnings came true. Circa late 1983.

[xtriggerman]

 Since I interjected myself into this,  the area of concern on a 1911 if someone has the habit of free slamming the slide home on an empty chamber is primarily the barrel link pin hole and barrel link. These two areas will see ware before anything else. Mil spec on the barrel pin hole was originally a press in fit AND a prick punched hole rim into the pin edge on both sides. This was in case the pin became loose it may still be kept from drifting into the frame cut that shoulders the barrel pin in place. The link can stretch and mostly the barrel will batter the slide stop pin, opening up the tolerances in the frame holes since the frames are not hardened by any significant means. Unlike the slides that must meat a hardness specification. The majority of slide stops today are all castings and clearly not as durable as the OEM hardened forgings. There for, the slamming will result in ware on the barrel pin hole, barrel stop legs where the barrel stops hard in battery on the slide stop pin and some what on the link its self along with the slide stop. Mind you barrels are not all that hard and subject to some peaning if repeatedly battered in a dead metal to metal show down as free slamming.  When I went to gunsmith school 79-81, we got all our info from books, not internet sound bites.  Too much of that going around these days.

Edited August 26, 2021 by xtriggerman

[xtriggerman]

Oh, one other thing. a sticky disconnector is usualy a poor engagement of the disconnector spring on the disconnector.  When I work a 1911 action, the middle finger on the spring all ways gets a wheel buffted polished bevel where the disconnector rides up and down off of it. Factories dont do this. Also the bend in that spring must be just right for proper diconnector function. A slicked up 1911 will hardly show any hang up what so ever when hand walking the slide over it. A one minute buff with a 220g then 400g wheel will do wonders in taking the stall out of it.

[ken_mays]

It’s common to have excessive spring pressure from the sear spring right out of the box.  The factory would rather do that, knowing it will at least work and be safer from a too-light trigger pull. 
 

The last Springfield 9mm 1911 that I bought had a disconnector with so much spring tension it would hold the slide back.  
 

Most factory 1911s can benefit from some sear spring finger adjustment.  Google and read the Weigand 2.5 pound trigger article if this is something you are willing to attempt.   Having the spring adjustment too light can create an unsafe pistol, so be sure of any adjustments you make, start with small adjustments, and leave a good safety margin.