The Care Feeding and Reliability of Semi Automatic Pistols by David Tong

8/8/2019 The Care Feeding and Reliability of Semi Automatic Pistols by David Tong

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The Care Feeding and Reliability of Semi Automatic Pistols

The Care, Feeding and Reliability of Semi-Automatic Pistols

By David Tong

My primary interest in the shooting sports involves semi-automatic pistols in all calibers from .22 LR to .45 ACP and this goes back for 34 years. What I would like to discuss is related tomy experiences and how best to enjoy these popular arms for target practice, competitionand personal protection. While many of my comments will apply to the 1911, I will discussthat particular pistol in relation to more modern tackle later on in this article.

I was first employed by Jeff Coopers own gunsmith, Mr. James Hoag, who is still in businessin Southern California. While the computer revolution has certainly improved the consistencyof manufacture of arms, 30 years ago in this shop we certainly had no shortage of reliable1911 model pistols used by both police and combat shooting competitors, and I vividlyremember both Mickey Fowler and Mike Dalton. These champions used Hoag-built pistols tobecome IPSC Master Class shooters in the Southwest Pistol League, which Cooper foundedin the early 1970s.

These pistols were shot daily by these and others for several thousand lead-bulleted reloadsper week, so we saw just how filthy a 1911 could become and still keep working. At the time,the only game in town was a modified Colt pre-or-Series 70 Government Model in .45ACP,

well before all of the other manufacturers came along to make the 1911 the most copiedsemi-automatic pistol of all time. I have seen powder residue from over 1,500 rounds shot inthree days, with nothing more than motor oil used to keep pistols lubricated, and this was byno means unusual or extraordinary use.

Malfunctions then and today tend to be primarily magazine related. Older pistols like the 1911have both a frame and barrel feed ramp and were designed around round nosed, full metal

jacketed military ball ammunition, while just about all of the newer designs dispense with theframe feed ramp and have magazines designed to provide a proper nose-up attitude thatdirects the round directly into the chamber.

Old style U.S. Government Issue magazines had straight, nearly full case length feed lips,while all newer designed guns and mags use shorter release length lips. Examples of 1911magazines the author has used over the years include Chip McCormick Power Mags, Coltfactory (made by Colt subcontractor Metalform) and Novaks .45 Shop (made bysubcontractor, the Italian company ACT).

Magazines should be routinely, every 500 rounds or so, stripped and cleaned using standardsolvents and then wiped dry. One can very lightly oil the spring to combat corrosion, but theinterior of the mag should be left dry so as not to accumulate powder residue. During the
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cleaning, I always inspect the magazines for cracks on the feed lips on the corners of the rearspine of the magazine. This is generally where a magazine will fail, due to spring tension andusage, although leaving McCormick or genuine Colt magazines fully loaded for months, oreven years, does not usually promote problems.

The most common magazine induced malfunction is the so-called bolt over base failure,where the slide overrides the loaded magazine and fails to strip the round from it. Usually this

is remedied by installing a new factory magazine spring, or one from Wolff Gunsprings ofPennsylvania. These are available in standard, or +5% strengths, with the latter used toincrease feed speed when heavier than standard recoil springs are used. Unless one isexperiencing feed issues, I would tend notto replace magazine springs unless one is using aheavier-than-stock recoil spring.

Another type of malfunction is a partial feed, with the bullet either impacting the barrels feedramp and stopping, or entering the chamber, but not fully seating. I would usually check theextractor tension to insure that it was not excessive, ensure that the chamber is adequatelyclean, or inspect the cartridges to see that they have been properly loaded and that overalllength and diameter of the cartridge is within specification. If a round fails to fully chamber,

this may indicate a weakened recoil spring and this is a normal wear item available atminimal cost that should be replaced every 1,500 to 3,000 rounds in a 1911 pistol.

I have also seen feed problems that involve the loaded round impacted mid-case by the slideon the way to the chamber, requiring a tap-rack-bang drill to clear. These are usually also asign of weak mag springs.

Just about all pistols operate using a controlled round feed, meaning that the rim of the caseis grabbed by the extractor on the feed stroke from the magazine and guided into thechamber by it. This is similar to the system used by manually cycled bolt-action rifles such asthe Mauser 98 and the Winchester Model 70.

On a Model 1911, the extractor is essentially a leaf spring and it must be fitted to provide thecorrect amount of tension on the cartridge. A simple test of this is to strip the slide of itsbarrel, take a loaded cartridge, and place its rim under the extractor. See if the tension issufficient to hold it against the breechface.

In addition, it is best to ensure that the lower edges of the extractor are lightly radiused andhave those edges broken by a Swiss file and polished. I would also advise that older 1911'shave their standing breech faces polished with 400-grit aluminum oxide, to smooth thesurface and allow the case head to slide under the extractor hook with minimum friction.

On more modern designs, the extractor is usually a coil-spring powered hook, visible to therear of the ejection port, pivoting around a cross pin drilled vertically through the slide(Beretta 92, HK USP, Smith & Wesson 1911s, Springfield XD) or retained by a plunger detentpin (Glock, HK-P7 Series, some recent Kimber 1911 models, SiG P-Series, Walther P-38 andPP/PPK Series). These are usually very reliable and require little maintenance, though I havepersonally had my Kimber TLE extractor eject itself on recoil. The company replaced theentire slide with a conventional 1911-style internal extractor under warranty.


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I would static test these extractors the same way. The ejector on most semi-automatic pistolsis a pinned in place fixed hook attached usually to the left rear of the frame rail adjacent tothe hammer. These generally have no functional issues, though the occasional one can beangle adjusted, again with a small Swiss file, to alter the ejection pattern to keep hot brassfrom hitting the shooter, or to shorten the distance the brass flies to aid in its recovery if onereloads.

While this list of possible reliability issues seems long, especially to a revolver shooter, I feelthe need to remind the readers that it also doesnt take much to tie up a revolver; just a fewgrains of unburned powder under an extractor star is enough to keep the cylinder fromclosing after a reload, while an average good self-shucker can be relied upon under moreextensive use. (I think I can recall having to blow powder from beneath the extractor star of aDA revolver once in about 45 years! -Ed.)

Most of the modern (designed and manufactured after about 1980) semi-auto pistols of goodmanufacture tend to run pretty well, though all benefit from a regular cleaning and lubricationregimen, with few exceptions. Beretta 92 series pistols should have their locking blocksexamined and/or replaced every 5,000 rounds or so, to ensure they do not crack from recoil

forces, and owners of these pistols should always use factory magazines and adequatelubrication of the slide and frame rails Ditto the locking lug recesses on both sides of theinterior of the slide.

Glock and Heckler & Koch USP pistols generally dont have reliability issues and generally donot require much lubrication to function. Glock pistols will occasionally break slide locks ortheir attached leaf springs, but these are drop-in replacement parts offered at minimal cost.While there are those who may insist that lubing is optional for these handguns, it is my viewthat heavy sliding moving parts should have some lubricant to reduce wear, so long as it isnot excessive and traps powder residue against those surfaces. Glocks and HK USP's havestamped frame rails that are both hardened and thin and act, presumably, as crud cutters.

They offer minimal space for foreign object collection as the slide recoils and are among thevery few pistols lacking conventional rails and thus do not need much lubricant to function.(Glock recommends a non-greasy lubricant such as Prolix, not gun oil. -Ed.)

I also think that the SiG P-series pistols require minimal lubrication, though it is a good idea tokeep after corrosion on earlier carbon steel slides, grip screws and magazine bodies with aninvisible light film, but observable by feel, as necessary. Current models have slidesmanufactured of machined stainless steel, although I would still use a good quality lightlubricant on the rails. In my opinion, the combination of steel slide and aluminum frame,typical of many modern pistols, should be lubed.

These, and the Smith & Wesson Third Generation, the Czech CZ-75 series andSpringfields XD should all be lightly lubricated. Typically, in addition to the slide and framerails, I would also place one drop of gun oil on the firing pin lock stud protruding from theunderside of the slide adjacent to the disconnector track, two drops at the unlocking surfaceof the barrel and slide and two drops applied to the barrel tube as it slides within the slide.

I have personally used standard old Hoppes No. 9 solvent, or some of the newer copper-cutting solvents for cleaning and some of the newer cleaner, lubricant, protectant (akaCLP) products such as Break Free, Tetra, or most recently, a full-synthetic product knownas EEZOX that promises a wide operating temperature range of -40 to +150 degrees F. It is


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of very light viscosity when applied lightly to manufacturers directions and becomes a drylube when the volatile carrier evaporates, thus making it good for dusty conditions. One hasto discontinue use of more conventional lubricants, so as not to over lube with EEZOX, as thedried film is invisible. I have also used Tetras Gun Grease on the slide and frame rails, asthese are heavy reciprocating/sliding surfaces and this light grease reduces the likelihood ofhaving ones lube stain clothing.

.22 pistols suffer, generally speaking, more powder residue than centerfire pistols. In addition,their lubricated lead bullets leave more barrel residue, and it would be good in my opinion toclean them every 250-500 shots by routine stripping and lubrication. Pistols such as the ColtWoodsman, High-Standard or Ruger .22 automatics are very reliable and robustlyconstructed and seldom experience problems if they are kept reasonably clean.

The same cleaning regimen applies to centerfire pistols shooting mostly reloaded leadbullets. The powders used in reloading are often not as clean burning as factory loaded

jacketed ammunition, which compounds the problem. Please note that neither Glock norHeckler & Koch recommends the use of lead bullets in their polygon-rifled barrels, due topossible lead stripping causing a potential over-pressure situation.

I would suggest examining a concealed carry pistol weekly by unloading it, field stripping itand brushing it free of any clothing lint from covering garments, especially if worn inside thewaistband. Usually a good cleaning every 250-1,000 rounds is all that is necessary, althoughI would make sure that the bore was clean and lacked obstructions of any kind.

For daily carry use, I carefully inspect every round of ammo before I load it into my magazinefor burrs, dents, or out of spec diameter. Sometimes I will go as far as stripping the barrelfrom the pistol and dropping each round into the chamber to ensure that it passivelychambers from gravity alone to double check diameter. Look at the factory tapered crimp orcase cannelure that helps to hold the bullet in place on the feed stroke, in order to insure that

there is no bullet setback that can cause an over-pressure situation.

Bullet ogive (nose) shape should be rounded in profile for reliability. Some of the olderjacketed hollow point designs, such as the Sierra jacketed hollow cavity loaded by Cor-Bon(among others), use a more sharp-edged truncated conical design which mayexacerbatefeeding problems. The general rule of thumb for maximum reliability is to use a bullet shapethat is as close to round nosed FMJ as possible, particularly in 1911 pistols. Bullet shapeseems to make little or no difference to Glock pistols.

Note that while I am discussing the most prevalent, straight-walled cartridges, such as .25ACP, .32 ACP, .380 ACP, 9X19mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP, less common bottlenecked

rounds such as the 5.7X28mm FN, 7.62X25mm Russian Tokarev, 7.63mm Mauser and .357SiG offer theoretically near flawless feeding due to the bore diameter being much smallerthan the case diameter. In essence, the rear of the chamber is a large funnel. This may beone of the reasons why the .357 SiG round has been adopted by elements of the U.S. SecretService and Federal Air Marshals.

I distinguish in my own mind between service level clean and storage level clean. Theformer merely needs to have the bore cleaned, the breech face of the slide tooth brushedfree of powder residue under the extractor and lightly lubricated as required. Long-term


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storage is more a matter of protecting it against corrosion, although the lubricants mentionedabove will do a good job of protecting ones investment, as will storage in a cool, dry place.

Having said all this and despite all the things that can potentially go awry, the semi-automaticpistol is where most of the design ingenuity, manufacture and sales is happening in thehandgun market today. With good care, a quality autoloader can be ones trusted companionfor decades of use.

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The Care Feeding and Reliability of Semi Automatic Pistols by David Tong