[Farmer Dean]

Most stovepipe jams in 1911’s seem to be caused by weak ammo.At least that’s what I found when reloading for them.

[yarddog]

There have been reports of 1911s being prone to jamming since I got my first one around 1970. I guess I have owned maybe 30 in all since then.

The only problem I have ever had was with a Colt series 70 in which I somehow bulged the barrel. I still don’t know how I did that. It did not effect the gun’s performance one bit but of course I replaced the barrel.

I can’t recall a single malfunction otherwise. I did get some Argentine surplus ammo which was bright and clean but would only fire about one out of three times.

[MasterGunner01]

Re: M1911 reliability problems.
1. Inadequate sights. Replace G.I. sights with modern, bold, high visibility sights.
2. Lousy trigger pull. Replace G.I. stamped trigger with fitted, serrated, long target trigger with over travel set screw. Get trigger job to clean up pull to a crisp 3.5 to 4.5 pounds.
3. Stove pipe jams. Change recoil spring to correct weight for ammo being used. Replace original ejector with Combat Commander type ejector with extension ("finger"). Totally eliminates this kind of jam.
4. Wood or plastic grips make pistol difficult to control. Replace grips with Pahmayr or Uncle Mike's neoprene grips of choice. (I prefer Pachmayr’s original design without finger grooves.)
5. Weak springs cause malfunctions. Refresh springs with Wolff spring kit.
6. Sloppy barrel-to-slide lockup. Replace barrel link with different height link.