[tomchevell366]

Hey my name is Tom and I just ran accoss this forum yesterday. I bought a pt1911 back in June 2007 and I love it! Since then I have put roughly 2000 rounds through it and broken it down twice to clean it. Now the gun fails to lock back on epmty. It does it with the cheap blazer brass ammo and on remington ammo. It also will fail to lock back when just pulling the slide back with an emty clip but not always. I thought maybe it was a mag problem but on some of the other people on the 1911 forum sites with the same problem say that switching differant brand mags did not help. I have heard that Taurus takes forever on warranty claims and I dont want my taurus gone for 7 weeks! What should I do? I love the 1911 pistol and want to customize mine. I already have put on a set of pachmyer grips and I think I want to put a gold trigger on it are these interchangable with other 1911 triggers? As you probably already know the finish on these guns is horrible! Mine looks grey. How hard is it to reblue this gun? Any suggestions? Thanks for your help. Tom

 

[thunderjohn]

I have the same problem with my PT745.
Tried a new factory mag - same problem. I think the little piece
that the mag follower is suppose to come in contact with is too high.
You can see it when you look down inside with the slide back.
I don't know what the piece is called, but it's part of the slide release lever I guess.
I sent mine in cause I have enough others to shoot. I didn't want to go
and start banging away at it. But to me it just seems like it needs to be bent down a tad, so the follower puts pressure on it to lock the slide open. Hope that helps.

 

[DRAEGER]

Does the slide lock back manually (pull the slide back and engage the locking sear by hand)? The magazine isn't what locks the slide back, but should cause it to lock back after the last round is fired, so generally the mag is the problem. Have you cleaned it since you started having the problem?

Having your pistol reblued or refinished isn't hard to do or have done, basically decide on your look your after and do some shopping for a competent gunsmith to do your work. Often there are no local people that do or do a top notch job, so check their past work.

I have 4 of the PT1911's and love them, the best ones are the Stainless Steel 1911's but I like the look of the matte black too, but I plan on getting one blued at some point. Knowing me I'll buy another new PT1911 and have that one done... I can handle owning 5 of them

 

[tomchevell366]

Yes it does lock back maually when you pull the slide back and engage the slide stop upaward. I read on another forum that a replacement slide from Taurus fixed the problem. I dont have any other mags other than the stock taurus ones to try but every other person who has had this problem said they tried other brand mags and that didnt fix it. I have not taken it apart since this problem but I have cleaned it. The slide the slide stop left to right a little and somtimes it will lock back maybe once but not again. Is it supposed to move like that? I love the look of the Stainless Pt1911. I think it would be better for me since I take it out into the weather and really shoot it a lot. But I need to fix this problem so I can sell it and get the stainless version. How much did you pay for yours in SS? Was it hard to find?

 

[Cimarron]

Don't compare the PT745 with the PT1911... totally different designs... in fact the slide stop on the PT1911... all 1911's... is in the interaction of the slide stop lever and the magazine spring. If you can thumb the slide stop up to lock the slide with the gun empty (mag removed) then the culprit is in the magazine... and most probably just dirt. Take the thing apart and clean it good and it should work! Listen to DRAEGER... anybody with that many 1911's knows them and love's them!

 

[Hanzo]

check your mags for cracks on the feed lips. mine too wont lock back because of the damage, but works great with other mags

 

[tomchevell366]

Ok I totally field stripped the gun last night and gave the gun a good cleaning. After putting it back together it is locking back now when you pull the slide back manually with an empty clip in but I have not shot it yet to see if it work with live ammo. So you say to clean the mags? Ok I will do that. Thanks for your help. Tom

 

[schlemer]

I'd like to add my report as well.

Today I gave the new stainless a proper cleaning (didn't have time the other day after 200rnds at the range). I go to pull back the slide on an empty mag and it will not catch. Of the six mags I use two are KimPro Tac-Mags (which seem a bit shorter than the Taurus), A Sig (also short), Wilson 47D & Taurus factory. The latter two work great. When I try all the magazines on my blued 1911, it works fine with all the mags on empty.

What should I do?

 

[SFW]

If other mags won't lock the slide, then I would find a good smith.

When I bought my Pt1911 one of the factory mags had a few FTLs and I replaced both mags with Wilson Combat 8 round mags and have had no issues since.