S&W 1911 Sc Wolf ammo torture test & failure ....the real story!!!!

[FLIPPER 348]

Or, I could have named this thread 'why S&W should get coal for Christmas'. I was pretty much shocked at the cheap parts I found inside of my $729 1911.


I was abusing my new S&W 1911 Sc by running it with Wolf poly .45acp until failure without any cleaning or lubrication. As a matter of fact I never field or detail stripped the pistol after obtaining it new for a great deal on a trade. Wolf was running about $64 per 500 round case at the time and lots of folks were bad mouthing it so I decided to run a torture test to see if Wolf was bad stuff.

I liked the way the Sc shot out of the box so I swabbed the barrel with some CLP and decided to just let-her-rip with the Wolf and just see how things went. I did swap out the grips and mainspring housing. It took over 3000 rounds for things to stop working.

Well it jammed up tight with the hammer locked back while shooting a few days back. I racked the slide a few times and it went back to normal ....but quickly jammed up again. So I tore her down finally and found this:

note the bent trigger bow at the grip safety contact, on perhaps the cheapest piece-o-crap trigger I have EVER seen! Wolf ammo did not cause this. Lack of lubrication did not help any though but cheap parts are cheap parts. I'd expect more for the price S&W is charging.

[FLIPPER 348]

Check out this lovely S&W 'fitting' on the back of the bow. So easy a Caveman could do it!


........gee, I wonder how much pride this guy took in his job at S&W?

You can see the scratch caused by the inner edge of the grip safety face. This contact point is where the bow warped out of shape to cause the lock-up. The trigger bow is SO cheese-y that it is easily flexed with thumb and forefinger pressure.

[FLIPPER 348]

Now, the sear. I had noticed there was not much of a 1/2 cock on the Sc but it was no big deal. Well now I can see why!! I have never been a basher of MIM parts until now. For the folks who know about sears, note the almost total lack of a 1/2 cock bevel, and the same shotty 'fitting' on the contact edge .......which is not even straight across.

[FLIPPER 348]

sear side shot, poor trigger contact angle and you can see the damage at the lower arm caused mis-allinged by the spring tang

[FLIPPER 348]

sear-to-spring tang damage at the lower right

I could have prevented this by adjusting the tang early on had I detail stripped the Sc and taken a look.

This is also a good shot of the poor workmanship on the upper sear-to-hammer contact area. As mentioned above the top of the sear is not even true and as you can see by the wear, only the upper 1/4 edge on the right was in contact with the hammer stop(s). No wonder the trigger pull was light!!

note also the MIM casting lines and some sort of logo I can't make out

[FLIPPER 348]

however all is well!!! as I replaced the sear with a MILLED mil-spec piece and the the trigger with a used Colt nickel plated MILLED commander version. 200 rounds later and all is better than new as the commander trigger and smoother break-away sear make the 1911 fit and operate better than before. I was going to trade this pistol away to pangeris for a used Taurus PT 1911 that he was going to run through a test of his own but not now.......she is just TOO SWEET!

[FLIPPER 348]

another, I really, REALLY like the shorter commanderr trigger over the bulky 3-holer

[FLIPPER 348]

before, the block trigger

I thought the set screw was causing the trouble at first. I still don't think the Wolf ammo was any part of the trouble.

[FLIPPER 348]

mitchshrader, your PM box is full, so here is the answer to your questions:

greetings,
I abused the gun just for fun as I wanted to see how many rounds it could go on Wolf with no care. The round count was just over 3000. I did not contact S&W about the problem because I can fix & build my own 1911s. I will be sending them the crappy parts though!! ...just for fun! I have raved on the performace of this 1911 Sc here on this board as it performed flawlessly and dead-on out of the box for over 3000 rounds.

have a Merry Christmas

-scott

[freepatriot]

Originally posted by FLIPPER 348
I don't care, I would never buy one anyway




Dude, I was SOOOO tempted to use that line on ya, but I just couldn't bring myself to be so evil. ;)

Glad you got it worked out, Scott. I agree with you that you have a very good example there of S&W just not taking care to do nice workmanship on the gun. Used to be a time when SW took care of their production line and took care of their customers.

Merry Christmas,

the other Scott

[jonathon]

Is everything functioning right after the parts change?

[freepatriot]

Originally posted by jonathon
Is everything functioning right after the parts change?


I think so based on:

Originally posted by FLIPPER 348
however all is well!!! as I replaced the sear with a MILLED mil-spec piece and the the trigger with a used Colt nickel plated MILLED commander version. 200 rounds later and all is better than new as the commander trigger and smoother break-away sear make the 1911 fit and operate better than before. I was going to trade this pistol away to pangeris for a used Taurus PT 1911 that he was going to run through a test of his own but not now.......she is just TOO SWEET!

[FLIPPER 348]

Originally posted by jonathon
Is everything functioning right after the parts change?

better then new! The trigger pull is way more crisp as the seat-to-hammer contact is now true and the fit is improved with the short trigger.


I actually liked it best when I swapped out all the parts with some used GI stuff for a test run to see if the frame geometry had been screwed up/stretched (as can happen with alloy frames) but I believe the scadinum is much stronger then aluminum. It, like all other 1911s, looked way sexier with the GI hammer and grip safety along with the commander trigger IMHO

[Chui]

It could be that the person selling you the pistol swapped the internals... I had that happen to me with a used Wilson kit 1911 built by one of Wilson's personal 'smiths (Sam Dunham to be precise) and sold to one of his acquaintances. I bought the gun on gunbroker a couple of years ago and only recently stripped the pistol to see hack-job internals. Perhaps you've run into the same.

[FLIPPER 348]

I obtained it NIB as the trade was made for a much higher value 1911 of mine at a local gunshop.

[freepatriot]

Glad it worked out.

[Matt VDW]

Are you going to attach a lanyard to that mainspring housing or is the loop just for opening bottlecaps? ;)

[FLIPPER 348]

HA!, never tried the bottle caps but my Galil years ago had one!

lanyard-maybe, I mostly just like the look and the fit of the arch.......... so that's why I swapped out the housing