+3

Good job, and we're all glad you got this sorted out and can finally enjoy your pistol.


ETA; nice post XMM

I don't buy into the expensive "boutique" magazines that release the rounds too early in the feeding cycle and completely bypass Browning's controlled feed design. I stick with Colt contract 7 round magazines with the Colt "hybrid" feed lips and USGI 7 round magazines. Hell, I even ditched the Colt factory 8 round mags with the Devel followers that came with my Rail Gun. My two most used carry magazines are Colt factory magazines (and one came from Colt used) and they feed flawlessly. The used one needed a new spring, but a Wolff extra power fixed that right up.



It's like someone else mentioned if Kahr made Glock 17s, those would suck too. If 30 manufacturers made Glock magazines, do you think Glock would enjoy the reputation it has for reliability? Fourth generation 9mm pistols not withstanding, of course.



 

You are definitely right.

As usual, I agree with what you have to say;  but I bought this pistol at a gunshow on a whim back in March as a gift to myself to celebrate the anniversary of my quadruple heart bypass surgery.

No sense having a heart attack over it.

AF, I also think that S&W needs to swap out the faulty factory mags for some new ones or a credit at least. However, if you own other 1911's and those factory mags work in them then just use them for your other 1911's.

Agreed; which is why IMO so called "magazine problems" wherein certain pistols won't operate reliably with the factory magazines which are sold to the customer when he buys the gun aren't really "magazine problems" at all.

They are actually pistol problems which can sometimes be worked around by finding an aftermarket magazine of a design which will provide a "work around" for the actual problem rather than actually correcting anything.

Often that work around is to eliminate the controlled feed which is an important feature of the 1911 in the first place.

The Act Magazines that came with my E Series work just fine with FMJ in other  pistols belonging to the guys I shoot with, they should work in mine as well but
they don't.

I didn't try expensive hollopoimt ammo with the factory magazines in the other guns because I don't want to throw away anymore money than I have to in order to determine where I stand.

I really don't want to sent the gun back to Smith and Wesson because I'm enjoying shooting it with the Chip McCormick Power mags, but the admonishment from

the factory to shoot the gun with either WWB or American Eagle FMJ was IMO absurd.

So far WWB and PMC Bronze FMJ, as well as Winchester RA 45B and Federal P45HST2 hollow points have been running well in the gun so long as I use the CMC mags.

The Wilson 47Ds handle the FMJ range ammo well too, but not hollow points in my gun.

The gun still doesn't run well at all with the factory magazines though, and IMO, it's not due to faulty magazines, I believe the problem lies with the pistol.

In fairness to the "boutique" magazines, I've had some Colt hybrid mags that released the rounds even earlier.

S&W just needs to copy the Colt 70S pattern or even the 80S
I was told back in the late 80`s to stay away from long extractors by my gun smith

The issues I was having with the replacement pistol were that it was still unreliable with both FMJ range ammo and hollow point law enforcement duty ammunition when used with the Smith and Wesson factory magazines.

And the extractor pin, which is now a roll pin rather than a solid pin as with the original pistol, still liked to wander down into the slide where it can cause the slide to lock up or possibly damage the frame rails so I applied some blue locktite as a stopgap measure which appears to have helped.

The pistol ran better with FMJ when using Wilson Combat 47Ds, but would still not handle hollow points with any regularity.

I purchased a pair of Chip McCormick Power Mags and the gun runs FMJ and hollow-points very well with them.

Since my original disappointing range session with the replacement pistol I've put 450 uneventful rounds through the gun including 230 grain PMC Bronze FMJ, 230 grain WWB FMJ, 230 grain RA45B Ranger Bonded, and 230 grain Federal P45HST2.

I'm starting to like the gun a lot, after 550 rounds it is now as smooth as silk, well fitted and extremely accurate, but I felt  like I was working for Smith and Wesson during the time I was trying to get one of them to work as it should be expected to work.

IMO, I'm of the belief that they can be great pistols, but Smith and Wesson needs to step up it's game regarding some design
and production problems.

And they need to listen to what Hilton Yam has been telling them.

I find that alot of people ignore what Hilton has to say.

Neither of the two E Series 1911 TA pistols I had ever failed to extract properly.

The extractor only problems I had, and to some extent am still experiencing with the replacement pistol ,concerns the extractor pins which, in my pistols, liked to slide down into their holes and stick out at the bottom of the slide where they could interfere with the frame rails.  

On some other E Series pistols, the owners have complained of the opposite situation, wherein the extractor pin rises up out of the slide rather than working it's way down.

The extractors on theses pistols are the same exact enlarged, heavy duty, extractors that Smith and Wesson has been using for years in their Pro line and Performance Center pistols with great success so I believe that the problem lies with the manufacturing process at the New Houlton Maine plant and/or the new CNC machinery these guns are being made on rather than any design issues.

The original E Series 1911 TA pistol I had came with a solid extractor pin and the replacement is equipped with the later production style roll pin but on my pistol at least, the production change has not eliminated the problem.

If the pistol proves to be otherwise reliable and I'm certain that it doesn't need to be returned for additional customer service, I'm just going to stake the roll pin and be done with it and for now some blue Locktite appears to have provided a temporary fix.

AF, is the E-series still performing for you? I'm aware that your still not totally confident in the extractor pin. Affirmation if the pin is a problem or not will take some time to emerge. But has the pistol continued to function with the ammo and mags you got it to run on a while back?

Yes, the replacement pistol has been performing extremely well; 750 perfect rounds through it since I started using the 8 round  Chip McCormick Power Mags that were recommended to me by Hilton Yam.

I've also shot some of those FMJ rounds through the same Wilson 47Ds that wouldn't handle the RA45B or P45HST2 hollow points reliably, and they perform perfectly with the FMJ including 230 grain WWB and PMC Bronze 230 grain.

The real source of my original confusion and disappointment with the replacemwnt pistol was the admonishment I received from the factory to shoot only WWB or American Eagle 230 grain FMJ because "that is what we test the guns with", when I tried the gun with the hollow points and PMC Bronze with the factory magazines and the Wilson 47Ds and found it to be completely unreliable.

I just didn't like being told that the gun would only run reliably with those two FMJ loadings.

As it turns out, the gun has been running perfectly with all my ammunition when I use the CMC Power Mags and it shoots FMJ perfectly with the Wilsons.

The advice to use only WWB and AE FMJ in the gun turned out to be BS and IMO, it was foolish for them to tell me that.

The ACT magazines provided by Smith and Wesson are hit and miss even with FMJ and won't run through a magazine without a stoppage, but they have run FMJ perfectly in my friend's SIGs; go figure.

I've also had no problems lately with the extractor pin immigrating down into the slide anymore since I threw some Blue Locktite onto it.

If the gun continues to run as it is now, and I believe it won't be necessary to return it to S&W; I'm going to throw some Green Locktitie # 638 on the pin as Hilton suggested and if that doesn't work out I'll stake the pim and call it a day.

The difference between the original pistol and the one I have now is like night and day; it is both reliable and extremely accurate.

And the action is as smooth as butter and the gun is as tight as you'd want it to be.

It is a really nice pistol and if I knew for certain that customers would receive one like I currently have I would recommend the gun without reservation.

I am totally satisfied with the E Series 1911TA  pistol as things stand now, and I am liking it more each time I shoot it.

just read this whole thread, I'm glad to hear this turned out with a happy ending and a pistol you trust.

my SW1911 is exactly like the other fellow's pic he posted (except i changed out the grips), and in the beginning i had feed issues with hollow points, but they were hitting the ramp and not even angling up, just straight slamming forward and coming to a stop.  this was just a break-in issue, and after a few hundred WWB's, the ramp feeds anything flawlessly.  since then, I've been primarily shooting "commercial reloads" that i buy out of a shop in conroe, and so far its never missed a beat.

ah well, everyone likes gun porn:

Yup, everybody loves gun porn.

I hope than members who are considering one of the new E Series 1911s has the opportunity to look through this thread.





The original pistol; the one that was replaced by Smith and Wesson.

The E Series 1911 TA pistol continues to run very well so long as I use the CMC Power Mags, or if I'm only shooting FMJ, the Wilson 47Ds.

The ACT magazines that came with the pistol still won't feed a full mag without a stoppage, I tried them again last week and it was a no-go.

I changed out the factory recoil spring at only 600 rounds because the slide velocity suddenly started to become excessive.

After only 600 rounds, the original 16 lb S&W recoil spring had shrunk down to only 6.25", much shorter than a new spring of the same weight from S&W and shorter than either a Wolf 18.5 lb or the Wilson Combat 17 lb spring I put in the gun at this point.

I went with the 17 lb spring because I wanted to increase the weight of the recoil spring incrementally and the gun is running smooth as glass with that spring.

There are also 6 16lb S&W OEM recoil springs in my range bag, they were only $2.69 each from Midway so I figured what the hell, but they don't appear to last more than 600 rounds or so and don't really represent a good value.

Not suprised to see Wilson mags not performing.  Years ago when I got my first 1911 I was told they were the best by pretty much everyone, and hey, they cost 32 bucks so I assumed they were right.  I had an issue with them causing a FTE upon firing hte last round in a magazine about 33% of the time.  After comparing their spring strength and body length to other 8rd mags on the market it is no wonder they are not as good as the price suggests.

I have the exact opposite experience with 47D's. They are 100% in my SA Loaded and Mil-Spec whether RA45B's or Gold Dots. I think 1911's are simply more magazine sensitive than newer designs. Once you find what works stick with it for that particular pistol and "usually" your GTG. I have the same experience with McCormick 8 and 10 round magazines as with the 47D's. Now KimPro magazines are absolute shit in both my 1911's, some swear by them, go figure. For that reason I never buy more than 1 or 2 of any make or design of magazine for 1911's before I try them out.

So true; which is why it's really pointless to argue over which 1911 magazines are the "best".

The best magazines are the ones which work in your own pistol rather than which ones are the most popular or even the most expensive.

The CMC Power Mags, which are recommended by Hilton Yam,  feed all sorts of ammunition perfectly in this particular  E Series 1911TA, and based on that,  I've bought some more recently.

The Wilson 47Ds work 100 % only with FMJ range ammo and the factory supplied ACT magazines won't run worth a damn with any ammunition Ive tried; WWB, PMC Bronze, RA45B, or 230 grain standard pressure HST.

It's a mystery why manufacturers ship their pistols with magazines that don't run properly, making their guns look like shit when they will work just fine with another type of mag.

Of course there are probably many others whose identical E Series 1911TAs run well with the factory magazines.

IMO it's wise to buy only one or two example of any particular magazine and let your gun tell you if it likes them before buying in quantity.

I feel obligated to bring this one back for at least one more go-round because it was never my intention to slam Smith and Wesson; only to document my experiences with this particular problem pistol and how the company handled my complaint.

Since my last post in this thread I have over an additional 1000 troublefree rounds through my replacement E Series 1911 TA with absolutely no stoppages of any sort so long as I use the Chip McCormick Power Mags in the pistol.

The Wilson 47Ds have proven to be "okay" but not perfect with FMJ and basically useless for hollow points.

I was at the gunshow yesterday and handled several different E Series 1911 models and I was surprised to discover that Smith and Wesson has apparently discontinued the use of the type of ACT Magazines that came with both of my E Series 1911 pistols.

The new magazines are stainless rather than black and now have flat, split, followers with " the bump"; instead of the solid stepped followers that my original magazines have.

I am going to call Smith and Wesson customer service tomorrow and request they replace my ACT magazines with the  new style OEM magazines that they are
now shipping with their E Series pistols.

IMO, they didn't change the design on a whim and I'm really curious to see how well the new type magazines run in the pistol.

I found it difficult to believe that S&W would ship their new E Series pistols with magazines that didn't work in the guns and made them look bad.

My E Series 1911 E Series Pistol has become one of my favorite handguns, it has been extremely accurate and reliable with the CMC, and maybe with the new style OEM magazines as well.

I guess I'm going to find out, and you can be sure I will make the results known here.

I hope that potential purchasers don't avoid these pistols based solely on my experiences with the first one which was a turd; after an initial miscue by customer service, the company stood behind their product and I continue to be a very satisfied Smith and Wesson customer.

In fact; I just picked up a new 4" barrel Smith and Wesson  .45 ACP Model 625-8 Performance Center revolver at the gun show yesterday.  

America-first,

I for one really appreciate your report and updates on this pistol as I have been considering one since its release.

If I were you I wouldn't even waste my time/effort with returning your original S&W mags and testing them out. Stick with the CMC mags and drive on.

That really is a NICE looking pistol.

Yes it is and this has been a really well documented informative thread.  Thank you for the efforts put in.  I'm dying to get one of those E series pistols.  David