1911 Slide issue

[Skinny Shooter]

My Gov't just started acting up.
I had a few failures to go into battery while at the range.
Hitting the back of the slide with the heel of my hand would chamber the round.
While unloaded, and lowering the slide by hand, the slide hangs up about 1/32" before fully closing.
If I point the muzzle straight up, no issues.
If level or pointed down, there is a spot where something is sticking.
Now not always, but there is an additional issue where the slide feels like it is binding or dragging when working the slide by hand.
There are about 500 rounds thru the gun.
Any thoughts?

[Larryjk]

Skinny Shooter, Usually a 1911 is broken in by 500 rounds. I would disassemble the pistol (take off the slide) and inspect the slide and frame for wear marks. If it feels like it is dragging when you operate the slide, there should be wear marks. As far as failure to go into battery; when you have it disassembled, make sure the chamber is clean, especially the front of the cartridge stop, and see if your ammunition falls into the chamber all of the way. If you are using reloads, you may have an ammunition problem. The other possibility is, if the gun has been worked on by a smith and a new barrel insstalled is that the hooks of the barrel are catching on the slide stop pin. You might take it to a person familiar with rebuilding the 1911 and have it checked over. Be sure to tell the smith what problems you are having.

[Jack]

Larry is far more expert than I am, for sure. I would follow his recommendations first.
When you lower the slide by hand, are you doing it slowly? A tight gun might hang up a bit doing it that way. If the slide hangs up when you thumb the slide release and let the slide go forward on it's own, that's a problem.
You mentioned that the hang up occurs when the pistol is level or pointed down, but not when it's vertical. That would make me suspect the link might be binding.
The only other thing I'd suggest is to check the lug recesses in the top of the slide- if they get some crud in them, that can hang up a tight gun, too.

[GoodOlBoy]

Ok Skinny let me through this one by you because I had it happen on my milspec. If you have a peened on front sight (not dovetailed) sometimes there can be too much peened material sticking through the bottom and pushing onto the barrel bushing. This can cause all kinds of odd fail to feed fail to eject issues because then the bushing rubs the barrel. In the case of many milspecs the barrel itself is not always perfectly machined so if you have a high spot, and the barrel bushing is in a bind due to peened material then you get issues. Also if the bushing and or barrel are parkerized you might be having the same rubbing issue if the parkerizing is thick in some places (had this on my feed ramp actually)

That's my only suggestion off the top of my head.

GoodOlBoy

[Skinny Shooter]

The pistol hangs up while unloaded.
Brand new Kimber Warrior
I'll break it down and check for wear marks in all places mentioned.

Here is a link to someone else with the issue: http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-181632.html

[Rapier]

Skinny,
Plus one for Larry. Also check the lugs with your finger tip for burs and look at the barrel's feet, where the link attaches, to see if the feet are peened over from recoil. The link should move freely between the feet with no burs.

It is hard to diagnose a problem on a key board. So if all else fails, send it to Kimber.
Ed