Posted: 5/30/2010 6:08:34 PM EDT
| Ok, had my Colt Defender for probably a year, always been a good gun. Lately I started having problems with failure to feeds, usually 1 per mag, sometimes 2 per mag. That's with an assortment of FMJ and HPs. Usually just a qucik pull and release of the slide chambers the jammed round. It's my prefered carry gun but now I am having second thoughts on it. What should I be looking at or doing to correct the issue? |
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I've had the same issue - very rare, maybe 1 or 2 FTF's per range session (100-150 rounds). I use Wilson Combat mags exclusively, with Winchester WWB or Fiochi factory ammo. Have had one or two with the Speer short-barrel factory loads as well.
I recently put 13 lb. Wolff springs in my Ruger LCP to fix a "lazy slide" problem - today I ordered 21 lb. and 23 lb. recoil springs for my Defender from Wolff. Will post how they work after they show up & I install a set. |
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I've had the same issue - very rare, maybe 1 or 2 FTF's per range session (100-150 rounds). I use Wilson Combat mags exclusively, with Winchester WWB or Fiochi factory ammo. Have had one or two with the Speer short-barrel factory loads as well. I recently put 13 lb. Wolff springs in my Ruger LCP to fix a "lazy slide" problem - today I ordered 21 lb. and 23 lb. recoil springs for my Defender from Wolff. Will post how they work after they show up & I install a set. I use Wilson mags as well. I replaced my springs with Wolff's awhile back, think I stayed with the same as factory. Guess I need to find a way to keep better track of my round counts per gun or just replace the springs after a certain number of months no matter what. I think I bought an extra set last time, have to find it and see if that improves the situation. |
Well, springs were NOT the problem 
I replaced the factory recoil springs with the 23 lb Wolff springs and went to the range today. I put 200 rounds of ball, normal JHP, and self-defense loads (PDX1 and Speer Gold Dot short-barrel) and still had some FTFs ... however, the problem was not ammo getting hung up on the feed ramp, the slide was getting locked open when the magainze was not empty. Normally I shoot with the thumb of my weak (left) hand resting on the pivot point of the slide stop; I've shot 1911s like this for years without a problem. With my Defender, though, I'm getting the slide locked open on a non-empty mag. My brother (who also has a Defender, and doesn't have this problem) shot 2-3 magazines though my gun and it happened to him (slide locked open on a non-empty magazine). He puts the thumb of his left hand in the same spot as me. I didn't track which magazines this happened with, I'm beginning to suspect that one (or more) of my Wilson mags have an issue. So, more experiments to run ..... |
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Change the position of your weak hand thumb. I'm open to suggestions  I feel goofy if I lower it and wrap it around my strong hand along with the fingers of my weak hand ....Always change what is the cheapest and easiest to do before you drop a lot of time and money changing parts that might never fix the issue. The Defender has a shorter grip and recoils more, what might work fine with your longer 1911s may not work on a shortie. Any short semi with a reduced length grip is susceptible to this. If you have to cheat a bit, shoot one handed and see what happens. |
| I had a range session once with the same issue of the slide stop catching the slide like that. Bugged the hell out of me as it hadn't done that before. The entire time I kept thinking there was something wrong with the gun, even had people tell me I needed to get a new Wilson slide stop. Later when taking some time to think about it, I started wondering if it was the way I was gripping it that day. I seemed to remember keeping my weak hand thumb up a bit higher near the slide. Next trip out to the range I focused on my grip and had no problems. With the recoil of the Defender, you have to keep that thumb away from the slide stop. I think even with the slightest pressure on it, it will lock the slide open. |
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Got my Defender running perfectly now - the problem was my slide stop. I compared it to my the slide stop from my brother's Defender and his XSE - my slide stop extended into the frame a little more than either of his. Took my Dremel and removed an extremely small amount of material from the slide stop interior, staying away from the bottom of the slide stop that's engaged by the follower in the magazine. I also put a slight dimple (detent) in the back of the slide stop that's engaged by the plunger.
I put the factory recoil springs back in, having determined that this wasn't a spring problem - put 150 rounds through the gun today, didn't have to muck with my grip, and had zero issues with the slide locking open on a non-empty magazine. The slide never failed to lock open on an empty mag. Now I have a spare slide stop (stainless Wilson "bullet proof") I bought as insurance, just in case I needed it 
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| Well I replaced my recoil spring, guide rod spring, and the firing pin spring, but still had about 1 failure to feed per mag. I ran about 7 different mags and it happened with about 5 of the 7 that I tried once each. The mags aren't that old so that doesn't lead me to think it's a mag spring problem. |
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Got my Defender running perfectly now - the problem was my slide stop. I compared it to my the slide stop from my brother's Defender and his XSE - my slide stop extended into the frame a little more than either of his. Took my Dremel and removed an extremely small amount of material from the slide stop interior, staying away from the bottom of the slide stop that's engaged by the follower in the magazine. I also put a slight dimple (detent) in the back of the slide stop that's engaged by the plunger. I put the factory recoil springs back in, having determined that this wasn't a spring problem - put 150 rounds through the gun today, didn't have to muck with my grip, and had zero issues with the slide locking open on a non-empty magazine. The slide never failed to lock open on an empty mag. Now I have a spare slide stop (stainless Wilson "bullet proof") I bought as insurance, just in case I needed it Well after finally getting back out to the range and studying it more, I think I'm in the same boat as you. What I first though was failure to feeds is actually the slide catching open. I've found the slide stop kicked up just enough to catch the slide open. This is usually about the 3rd round or so through a full mag. And to everyone else, yes I was going out of my way to keep my hands completely away from the slide stop during fire. I'm going to order a new slide stop before I attempt to do any modifications to the factory one. |
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My buddy has been having issues with his Defender FtFeeding since day one, we're going shooting soon, I'll see what his is doing too... if he hasn't sold it. That's very strange. They are known to be one of, if not the best compact 1911. If he bought it brand new and it's doing that, he might want to contact Colt about it. Mine was flawless straight out of the box for the first year I owned it and it just recently started acting up. I think it's something with the slide stop though as it's rising up just enough to catch the slide during fire when it shouldn't. I'm also wondering if it could be damage to the slide stop since I started using full size 8 round mags sometimes at the range instead of a 7 round mag. The Wilson 8 rounders that I have don't have a catch/base plate extension on them to keep them from being pushed up too far into the magwell. My dad went and bought a Defender after trying mine and his has been flawless as well other than the extractor needs some tuning as it throws casings straight back at your forehead. I've heard of that issue with other 1911's though. |
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My buddy has been having issues with his Defender FtFeeding since day one, we're going shooting soon, I'll see what his is doing too... if he hasn't sold it. That's very strange. They are known to be one of, if not the best compact 1911. If he bought it brand new and it's doing that, he might want to contact Colt about it. Mine was flawless straight out of the box for the first year I owned it and it just recently started acting up. When I was looking to buy my carry piece I looked at the Defender and a guy who just bought his was having feeding issues too. I went with a Kimber UCII because of that and the gun store guy's admission it wasn't the first time he had one with problems. I don't know whether it was just a bad batch or a bad sample, but I have heard of the issue more than once. My buddy had no issues with ball, but Golden Saber and Gold Dots both gave him issues. We traded mags and tried the ammo in both guns. No matter what mag or ammo the Kimber ate it, the Defender had issues (at least with those two brands of ammo). 185 gr GS and 200 gr GD IIRC. I just got my combat Elite so we'll be at the range this weekend I hope. I'll see if I can get more info. |
| They used to be a very rare sight at the local gun shows back when I when I got mine (had to wait a few months before I found one for sale), but now they seemed to have ramped up production as I see several available every time I go. So maybe something changed in their design or parts. Seems some manufacturers known for their quality started having uncommon problems after increasing production during the panic buying over the last two years. Hopefully your friend can contact Colt and try getting it fixed before selling it off. Now I need to get off my rear and order that slide stop to hopefully fix mine. |
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Don't discount mag springs, depending on the failure type. Remember, Officer-sized guns cycle much much faster than normal Gov't sized guns. If the mag spring is slightly weaker than it should be, it'll manifest itself in failures to feed, especially on the last rounds of the mag. You'll get 3 point jams or find it's hitting the feed ramp and launching out the ejection port. Or just riding right over the round, not even trying to chamber it.
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I second that ! This is the biggest problem for 3" guns Quoted:
Don't discount mag springs, depending on the failure type. Remember, Officer-sized guns cycle much much faster than normal Gov't sized guns. If the mag spring is slightly weaker than it should be, it'll manifest itself in failures to feed, especially on the last rounds of the mag. You'll get 3 point jams or find it's hitting the feed ramp and launching out the ejection port. Or just riding right over the round, not even trying to chamber it. |