My first day at the range showed that the windage was slightly off on the 1911 and rounds were trending to the left, so I took it to the gunsmith to have it adjusted. He said the rear sight was in there amazingly tight and had to spend some time working on it. While he had the weapon broken down I asked him to inspect it, his report was that it seemed well made and he saw no problems with it.
I took it to the range and had put maybe 12 or so rounds through it when it jammed, a failure to feed (first time I have seen ANY problem with this pistol at all). I grabbed the slide with the intention of clearing the jam and the whole kit and kaboodle slid forward and off, as if I was trying to break it down. Parts fell all over the place.
Lucikly this was an indoor range so I managed to find everything. Cradling two handfuls of parts I walked back over to the gunsmith (in the same building) and poured the parts on the counter and said "Maybe you didn't assemble it correctly?"
After looking it over we discovered what had happened. The Plunger Tube, the little piece with a spring in it that holds the slide release and safety in place, had come right off the pistol. It is supposed to be sort of riveted into place, there are two short hollow legs on the back side of the tube that fit through corresponding holes in the gun, once in place a tool is used that splays out the legs and keeps the tube from coming free. Upon inspection it was obvious that the tubes had never been spread. The gunsmith and his assistant both worked trying to get the Plunger Tube to hold and finally concluded that there wasn't enough metal there to even make it work. The legs were too short.
So it would seem that the Plunger Tube was a defective part from the factory, and all that was holding it into place was friction... the factory had never attempted to secure it. The gunsmith said that is the kind of thing it never would have occured to him to check beforehand.
Here is some photos of the Plunger Tube:
Here is the new plunger tube installled on the pistol. This is with my new Hogue grips which I notice wrap AROUND that tube. Even the slightest pressure would have kept it in place, so I am curious if maybe that's why these grips are built that way:
Anyway I am submitting this because since it seemed to be a factory error on two levels, it might make sense to have a look inside your pistol and see if that tube is properly riveted into place. I am hoping mine is a singular mistake and not a pattern.