Interesting 1911 problem, rectified.

It's been a long time since I did a stint as a federally licensed Gunsmith, it was quite the bother. But on occasion friends still seek me for assistance. No money is exchanged. In this instance a friend of a friend. The guy is just getting in to reloading and the story was he figures he double charged a case. How he came to this conclusion is uncertain but it must have been a little dramatic.

The gun in question is a late Rock Island 1911A1 Govt. style in .45 cal. I could not rack the slide and the recoil spring plug was missing. I was told it shot across the room and he lost it. A $12 fix. It was locked up tight and the slide would not come off after removing the slide stop. I had to coax it off with a brass hammer. Then the barrel would not come out of the slide without a like treatment. Finally it was apart.

I carefully examined the barrel which did not mic to be bulged and all looked normal. The lug that holds the link and pin would not fit easily into the mortise in the frame. That's why it was locked up, point one. The fact it would not come easily out of the slide also confirmed a too large dimension, point two. The slide was examined with a magnifying optic and bright light, no peening or cracks. What gives?!

A "double charge" in a .45 ACP is not always a drastic thing to begin with, it depends. A 15K CUP load doubled to 30K CUP is extremely hot and hammers the gun but it's not even in revolver +P range. I have no true way of knowing what happened.

With the calipers the frame mortise was 0.3675" wide and the lug was 0.367", and not uniform. I filed the sides of the lug flat and removed about 0.002" from each side, then polished. I also polished the sides of the mortise where the lug fits with the locking link. This all seemed to fix everything. Checking with factory ball the headspace was a bit long but it is a 1911 service grade and probably within spec. I fired (3) rounds just jiffy. Examining the fired brass they were perfect.

There is NO way the gun ever cycled or left the factory with the barrel binding at the link point in the frame. Much less assembled with a brass hammer! Something had to have happened firing that too hot load. I just wonder if the barrel somehow hammered the frame flaring the two legs of that lug? I chose to modify the barrel lug ($50 new barre) rather than mess with the frame, other than polish and de-burr.

Any thoughts?