When I was a Young Man nearly every Police Officer carried a revolver, the Model 19 was a favorite. When I asked about 1911’s I was told the reason they went with revolvers was that you couldn’t get Hollow Points to reliablly feed in a 1911.
When exactly and how did they fix the feeding of Hollow Points in the 1911?
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Throat the feed ramp. Started in the 60s or 70s IIRC, but not everyone does it even today. Athena, that big bitch of a Longslide I’ve almost finished after 20 years, is restricted to hardball because despite her barrel being fully supported with a modern integral feed ramp it’s not throated.
EDIT for case-study: Old Ugly, my rattletrap parts-bin mixmaster feeds Gold Dot and pretty much anything else just fine but Athena’s factory ramp straight from Fusion does not work with GD. Haven’t tested with the Federal Punch that’s my current carry load.
So when did the factory start doing this?
I mean I can undestand why US GI 1911 might have left the factory that way, Ball Ammo being all they would ever fire.
I just remember in the late 60’s to late 70’s, it was Smith and Wesson, Colt and way down the line someone would reccomend a 1911..
The 1911 will never be reliable enough for defense for me. It will feed hollow points, but not reliably and it won’t feed ball reliably either no matter what you read on the forums.
1911 owners very often lie to themselves about their gun’s reliability. I’ve seen guys say a gun that I’ve personally seen act up runs great.
I’ve seen them blame the malfs on everything from lube, to break in, to mag springs/followers, etc.
1911 is a classic car. Fun to own and run, but it’s a relic design that will never be good enough for carry. I just got sucked back into the 1911 again with a 40 and 10mm Rock Island. The single stack 40 just started it’s shit on Sunday. Random failure to go into battery all the way in the middle of a mag. I put the round back into an empty mag an it fed and fired fine. It just never fucking ends with the 1911.
I guess I have to go back and get my balls punched by the 1911 every 10 years to get back to my senses.
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There may still be some 1911’s being made that won’t feed all hollow points.
From what i can recall, SuperVel was one of the first jacketed hollow points and tended to be more of a truncated cone shape which 1911’s can have problems with.
Not sure how that goes with feeding similarly shaped lead semi wad cutters which were fairly common with National Match shooters and a 215gr lswc was Jeff Cooper’s recommended defense load for quite awhile.
I had a Springfield 1911 that would feed 200gr LSWC(maybe from an H&G mold) all day long, but a full metal 200gr SWC that Fiocchi used that appeared similar, but must have had some tiny radius difference off the meplat and or shoulder, would routinely choke it. It even fed the old Speer 200gr jhp without problems.
So from the perspective of 100% reliability they all stayed with revolvers until…?
I mean there has to be some sort of bridge betrween the Model 19 and the Glock.
Part of the reason I’m asking is because I really dont know and was out of the Country for the 80’s.
S&W made inroads into the semiautomatic LEO world starting with their Model 39. The second and third generation Smiths were ubiquitous at one time before Glock really started taking over.
Can confirm, the 3rd gen smith auto’s were so over built and they run like sewing machines. They need to remake them. I would pay over 2K for one. I still have a 2213, 3906 and 3913, that run flawless. I would love to have a 5906 thats optics ready and has a rail for a light.
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I never really got to shoot any of those. I think my Dad went from the 357 mag to the Sig P220 45acp.
I, as non LE, started out in the 1911 and then ditched it for the G22. I’m still at the G22 and G35 with a little “dicking around” with the Rock Island 1911s for cheap range fun.
Cant argue with a G35, with a 357 and 9mm barrel, they are very versatile. My woods gun used to be a gen 3 G35, it was very accurate.
I actually have 357 barrel for both G35 and G22. I’ve foolishly added 10mm to my rotation too and haven’t shot 357 sig in months.
The fix is a 2 part issue.
Like Diamondback said throating the feed ramp is the first, but throating and polishing are 2 different things. And like anything else how well it’s done matters.
The second is the feed lids on the magazine. Originally they designed to feed ball ammo, but the target shooters were having problems with wadcutters in factory mags. They would tweak the lips to accommodate that type of ammo.
Mag makers began to offer a hybrid style of feed lip, probably the best known being the Wilson Combat 47, to work with multiple ammo types. This mostly solved mag related feed issues. The first thing to do when a 1911 won’t feed is test it using a Wilson Combat mag.
I standardized on Wilsons (47Ds and ETMs) for all of my 1911s.
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Thank you for speaking the truth!
It was reliable compared to the competition until the 1970’s IMO. Then guns like the Beretta 92, Sig P226, CZ75, and similar came out and were more reliable.
Special mention goes to the Browning HP35.
There were some other pistols more reliable than the 1911 that were blowback .32’s and .380’s.
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If i ever get another 1911 it will be a .38 Super 5".
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That was my Dad’s favorite carry pistol a 1911 in .38 Super.
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Pappabear got a Nighthawk (I think) with a 9mm and 38 Super barrel. I haven’t shot the super yet though. I don’t think I’ve ever fired 38 super.
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The thing was you could buy 38 Super in Mexico and you couldn’t buy 45 acp.
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Yeah, no military calibers in good portion of countries south of the border. 38 Super is a hoot.
You might like 38 Super Mark. 9mm pills at 10mm velocities. Kinda equivalent to 40S&W in terms of energy.
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Thank goodness! I would hate to think that the cartels could acquire military-grade weapons.
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