Should I convert my 1911?

[HTRN]

What? No .400 Corbon?

400 corbon offers basically the same performance as 10mm, at lower pressure, in exchange for reduced mag capacity,

Personally, if he doesn't want a 10mm, I'd personally make it 9x25, and convert to a race gun.

[SoupOrMan]

I checked the magazines now that I'm done reloading for the evening. They're Metalforms, not Checkmates.

[Netpackrat]

Wilson seems to make some bold claims about their magazines:

Our legendary magazines are so inherently reliable they'll make virtually ANY 1911 pistol function EVERYTIME, including YOURS!

If you are going to convert, 10mm should be the easy button... If you can find a smith with a 10mm reamer, you can use your existing barrel.

[HTRN]

I checked the magazines now that I'm done reloading for the evening. They're Metalforms, not Checkmates.

See if you can borrow a Wilson or micormack. Basically see if it simply doesn't like the metal forms.

If that isn't the case, I'd the look at the extractor and springs, extra power recoil springs may be needed, as well as a different mainspring.

[SoupOrMan]

I think it likes Metalforms. It likes my 10-round models I got for fun, but half of my 8-rounders create some crazy misfeeds. I wind up with dented/gouges at about the halfway point of the brass case, like the slide is coming forward too fast. I'll take some pictures the next time I take my 1911 out if it misfeeds.

[SoupOrMan]

Well, I went to the range today to see if I could induce malfunctions. Unlike previous attempts, I brought a notebook and wrote stuff down.

I had three questions coming into the test about the malfunctions:

Is it the ammo?

Is it the magazines?

Is it the shooter?

The handgun is an STI Trojan 5.0 in .40 S&W. The only changes made from stock have been an ambidextrous safety (gunsmith installed), fiber-optic sights from Dawson Precision (gunsmith installed) and a 20-pound recoil spring from ISMI (I installed this).

I brought 7 magazines with me, each marked 1 through 7. All magazines are 8-shot Metalform magazines, designed for .40S&W. 1, 4, 6, and 7 were magazines which never jammed on me in competition. 2, 3, and 5 did, and I marked them as such. I would run each style of ammo in a known good and a known-to-jam magazine.

After this post I'll add other posts with pictures of each of the malfunctions.

Magazines 1 & 2 were each loaded with Remington Express 155gr JHP. This runs about 1225-1250fps in a 5" barrel.

Magazines 4 & 5 were loaded with Winchester WinClean 180gr FMJ. This runs around 990-1025fps in a 5" barrel.

Magazines 3, 6, & 7 were loaded with my reloads: 180gr Berry's Plated Round Nose over 5.0-5.2gr of Universal with Fiocchi Green primers. COL is 1.122". They run about 950-975fps in a 5" barrel.

Shooting style: I would shoot at a pace similar to when I shot USPSA/IPSC matches on a weekly basis, rapidly but controlled.

Leftover ammo was all reloads, and I would use the remaining reloads to see if I could induce failures to feed in known good magazines.

Test 1: 155gr JHP from Remington
Magazine 1: OK, no feed problems

Magazine 2: OK, no feed problems. I expected a jam on this one, but it didn't happen.

Test 2: 180gr Plated RN from Berry's, reloads
Magazine 3: Failed to feed round 8. It looked like it was hung up on the lip of the chamber. Racked slide and fired it. This was not a "normal" failure to feed.

Magazine 6: OK, found a tiny metal fragment that looked like part of the plating had been shaved off a bullet or possible brass from a cartridge.

Magazine 7: Success! I replicated what happened during my IPSC matches! Failure to feed on round 7. The bullet would go nose up into the top of the chamber and get stuck there while the slide would come forward. This jammed the pistol, preventing the slide from being able to be racked easily and from removing the magazine easily. Once cleared I resumed firing. There was a tiny dent/gouge on the case. Fired fine. Round 8 also failed to feed in the same manner as on Magazine 3. So yay, I screwed up when I meant to screw up.

Test3: 180gr FMJ from Winchester
Magazine 4: OK, no feed problems

Magazine 5: Success again! Failure to feed on round 8. This was another nose-up jam similar to Magazine 7. This time, though, the damaged cartridge had a larger gouge than before. It fired fine.

Failure to fire tests, 180gr reloads only on "known good" magazines (1, 4, 6, 7):

Magazine 1: induced failure to feed on round 7, nose-up. Case gouged.
Magazine 4: induced failure to feed on round 7 and 8, both nose-up. Case slightly gouged.
Magazine 7: Mag OK. No feed problems.
Magazine 6: Only had 4 rounds left, no feed problems. This also showed me that partial magazines didn't have the same problem on the last two rounds. Kind of odd.

One of the results I noted is that when magazines failed to feed, it was always round 7 or 8. There were no failures to feed earlier than this. There were no failures on the hotter 155gr Remington loads. The 180-grain round nose reloads and factory flat nose loads both failed to feed, so is it the heavier bullets causing the problems?

Is it the magazines? I really don't think so since I was able to induce failure on both "good" and "bad" magazines.

Is it the ammo? It could certainly be the reloads, but the last round of Winchester also failed to feed.

Lastly, what are the chances for shooter error? I don't think I'm changing my grip at all at the end of the magazine, but I'm not ruling it out.

Pictures to follow.

[SoupOrMan]

Magazine 3 failure to feed, round 8.

20160925failtofeedmag3.jpg

20160925failtofeedmag3-2.jpg

20160925failtofeedmag3-3.jpg

[SoupOrMan]

Magazine 6, no failures, but left a small piece of metal on the feed lip from something:

20160925mag6oddmetalshard.jpg

[SoupOrMan]

Magazine 7, nose-up failure to feed on round 7.
From side:

20160925mag7failuretofeed-1.jpg

From top:

20160925mag7failuretofeed-2.jpg

Gouged cartridge, round 7. The round nose denotes a reloaded, non-factory cartridge.

20160925gougedreload.jpg

The failure to feed on round 8 was similar to Magazine 3, see previous post above.

[SoupOrMan]

Magazine 5, failure to feed on Round 8. Factory ammunition from Winchester.

20160925mag5failuretofeed.jpg

Gouged cartridge, round 8. Note the larger indentation than on the reloaded cartridge.

20160925gougedfactoryammo.jpg

Just about every failure to feed was round 7 or 8, and it was nose-up as pictured.