The lever or cam or whatever that rotates the cylinder when you pull the trigger or cock the hammer bent.
It was very weird. I was a bit embarrassed because I had convinced my wife how trustworthy and easy revolvers where.
My wife shot my Walther yesterday, and for the first time ever it started having feed jams. This was due to some new ammo we bought I think. We’ve got 300 rounds of the shit.
Since her gun is ‘in the shop’ and she has a handgun class on Sunday, she will shoot my Walther. I’m gonna buy her some different ammo.
The finger which advances a revolver cylinder is not a highly stressed part. Suggesting that by luck that part was a bad casting with a void that wasn’t found during part-level QC before assembly. Stuff happens. Once fixed I’d not discount that gun as a POS. Until something else dumb happens with it.
Years ago I had a 1911-design compact “belly gun” pistol. Which had a habit of going full auto once in awhile. I had an interesting long distance convo w the engineers at this small company. Turns out they were aware of this issue if any given gun ended up with a sear from one end of their tolerance band, and a hammer from the other. They were now (IOW then) segregating their parts into two bins, larger than center-of-tolerance and smaller than center-of-tolerance and assembling guns to avoid the dangerous mismatch. But they only learned of the problem after X hundred pistols had been in the field for awhile and reports started coming back. Mine was one of those. They mailed me a new hammer & sear and the problem was solved.
FYI … the cyclic rate of fire of a small 1911 with a short slide is very, very fast. And the muzzle climb on a 3.5" barrel is very, very hard to control. Just sayin’.
Yeah, she’s feeling that way. But I do think it was this ammo that it didn’t like. It’s hard to build confidence when this shit happens with a new shooter.
They need
Attention to the rules
Confidence
Action
and Reaction.
When reaction does not happen, confidence is done.
A quick story, before I met my wife, she went camping with some folks. One had a .44 mag. They offered to let her shoot it. Talking it up. It’s a freaking cannon. These assholes did not load it and laughed. So she does not trust guns. Gun ‘play’ like this is inexcusable.
If it happens twice it will no longer be in my house. It will go back to Taurus. They can pay for shipping, and I will never deal with them again.
I would not touch that gun. The ONE thing guns need to do is what you ask it to do. I’ve got a 1911 Colt .45 . Officers model. So shorter barrel and handgrip. If that went full auto…
Nice gun. Now chop another 1-1/2 inches off the grip and the barrel/slide.
Yeah, I was a little leary of it before I got it fixed. But it never hinted at accidentally discharging; the problem was entirely the sear reliably catching the hammer on the way back while the gun was firing and everything was jumping around and happening at lightning speed. If you thumb cocked it, the sear always, and I mean always, positively engaged and held. It was easy enough to feel that connection.
I’ve never fired a Colt 1911, but I’ve seen one in person that was like a piece of artwork.
I’d almost hate to fire something that pretty. I know they aren’t all like that, but for whatever reason that gun seems to be prone to getting beauty makeovers.
It was an early version Detonics Combat Master which at that time was only available in .45 ACP. And may never have been in any other chambering for all I know.
For the early 1980s it was serious state of the art concealed stopping power. The company and the product are long gone, but of course guns are durable and one occasionally comes up for sale despite being 40-45 years old now.
Here are a couple of old magazine articles and a YouTube vid on it. I read the articles; they’re quality work. I only watched a bit of the vid, but the start was promising.
Mine was exactly the second photo in the above article.
Back in the early 2000s, my dad got me to read an eBook series, The Survivalist. (It was so long ago, I was reading it on a Palm PDA device.)
It was not a great series (I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT), but the main character carried a pair of Detonics Combat Masters in .45 ACP, so that gun will always remind me of those (awful) books.
Not from what I saw. Two handed grip, arms straight out, gun vertical (of course). Seemed very solid.
I think it just didn’t like the ammo. Never shot that before. I’m getting different stuff today.
I’m very close to buying her a Smith & Wesson Shield EZ .380. Very ‘EZ’ to rack. Also load assist tabs on the magazines. I think it would be a better fit for her than the .38 spl. Outside of the ammo feed problem, she’s very comfortable with my Walther.
She has broken a few fingers over the years, lost some finger strength, so racking the gun is a concern. She could never rack my 1911, but the Walther is doable. The EZ is easy. I looked at one in 9mm.
Pistol cleaning today, so another lesson from me before tomorrows CCW class. This still surprises me.
Haven’t shot my 1911 that much, it was my fathers. It is excellent engineering IMHO. I very much like how the safety’s work.
I would think, though, that a gun that served in multiple wars is probably pretty reliable.
I like my new Walther though. It’s very simple to disassemble and put back together. I did it standing at my wifes lane at the range. I’ve got a Ruger Mk II that is a nightmare to reasemble.
Maybe. But it is a new gun. I don’t like more oil cause it tends to gunk things up. I think it needs to loosen up a bit.
I do remember buying really cheap ammo with a steel casing from a manufacturer called “wolf” something. Actually, looking it up, there is an ammo brand just called “Wolf” that still sells steel-cased ammo, so that must be it.
Anyway, it would cause my pistol to jam. Not with every shot, but every couple of magazines. Not a serious jam, just something where I’d have to clear it manually.
Luckily, I didn’t buy much of it, and no other ammo I ever used did that. I think the ammo was just garbage. (I don’t even know that all ammo from that manufacturer was bad, maybe just that particular style. I’d also never used steel-cased ammo before or since.)
The range master thought perhaps the gun was dirty. It was not. I pulled it apart and did not get anything out of it right there standing in her lane.
I will put a tiny bit of oil on it today when I show my wife how to clean it. But, this will not be her gun. But(#2) a general understanding will help her. This should help her confidence and concentration when she goes the the CCW class with that gun.
I’m trying to share 50 years of knowledge in a period of two months.
Haha. Be careful what you say in restaurants “Yeh, all the magazines are loaded and the gun is in the bag” (we often go out to breakfast before the range)
I’m not sure I’d call a 1911 “finely tuned.” There are some small parts, I grant you, but standard models are pretty darn robust and reliable. I’ve got three, including one from the 1960s and a 1980s Series 70, and they just run. OTOH, I’ve got shooting buddies who have tried to “improve” theirs and they often end up having to address a variety of issues. Should have left them alone.
I would not touch that gun. The ONE thing guns need to do is what you ask it to do. I’ve got a 1911 Colt .45 . Officers model. So shorter barrel and handgrip. If that went full auto…
