I took my .45 (DA/SA, full-size, steel frame, reputable manufacturer) to the range today and if the damn thing wasn't my only large bore semiauto pistol I would have been tempted to pitch it into the ocean (the base gun club is ~1/2 mile from the Pacific) so I'm hoping I could get some help figuring out what was wrong.
Background:
Gun is bone-stock, I bought it in Spring '05, and it's got ~1,500 rounds downrange. It was clean/lubed before firing and function-checked fine with snap caps.
I was using OEM mags (2x7-round, 2x8-round) with pretty much an even amount of load/fire cycles on each of them. The mags all have plastic followers but none of them are chewed-up and weak springs, considering that they're OEM mags and haven't been abused or used to the point of wearing-out, seems a bit of a stretch.
Ammo was a mixed lot--100 rounds of Aquila that was old enough I cried seeing how little I paid for it, 150 rounds of my reloads (Rainier Ballistics 230gr. FMJ in R-P cases over 6.5 gr. of Unique and a Federal Large Pistol primer), and 50 rounds of new-ish UMC.
If any of these problems were most likely my fault, please tell me so and I can work on correcting them. I'm out of practice with a pistol, I'll shamefully admit so any/all of them being due to my lack of practice wouldn't be a surprise.
Main problem:
No matter which combination of ammo/mags I was using, firing strong hand-only, weak hand-only, or both, the slide simply would NOT lock back on an empty mag. I made sure the magazines were seated firmly when I inserted them in the pistol and none of them would drop free w/o me hitting the mag release button.
Secondary problem:
A couple of times with the Aquila only, so I'm thinking this one is ammo-related, the slide was REALLY tough (borderline impossible) to pull back to chamber a round. I had to eject the magazine, smack the back of it on the bench, and then reload it into the pistol--then it would chamber/fire the first round fine but it seemed odd that doing so would be required for the piece to work.
Tertiary "problem":
Using as solid a rest as I could set up, the sights seemed regulated for ~7 yards or so--is that normal for .45 semiautos in general? I've been thinking about sending the gun off to a particular gunsmith known for doing good stuff on this brand of pistol to get some work sooner or later and while it's there I'd like to get a tritium front installed. The trajectory of .45 ACP isn't too rainbow-like inside of 25 yards so perhaps if I had them regulated for somewhere around 10 yards I wouldn't have to hold over/under for center-mass hits at the farthest range inside Casa de JV (15 full paces--I just checked)--does that sound sensible?
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Originally Posted by loupav
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