Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911 Endurance Test: Report #10

17,446 rounds

9 stoppages

0 malfunctions

0 parts breakages

After more than 4,000 rounds without a hitch, the pistol bobbled today, six hundred and thirty rounds into a day-long practice session. It was another failure to eject, similar to the ones experienced intermittently earlier in the test. The recoil spring (and firing pin spring) were swapped out just before the day’s shooting.

The pistol went more than 500 rounds without another problem afterwards with no cleaning or additional lubrication.

Also, one round of my practice ammo, a mil-spec 124gr Cleanfire from CCI-Speer, was loaded with a backwards primer which went pop instead of bang. That doesn’t get counted against the gun, obviously.

Otherwise, things have been good. I cycled through two more magazines of carry ammo — one of which has been loaded for about three weeks — without a single stoppage. Wilson Combat sent me some additional magazines (see below) so I’m planning to load a few of them up for a longer term evaluation.

I’ve definitely turned a corner in terms of shooting the gun. At last weekend’s Aim Fast Hit Small class in Albuquerque I set a personal best on the Warren Figure-8 drill (aka, “barrel drill”) with a clean 18.44 second run. I also shot my first sub-5 clean F.A.S.T. in a class with an end of day 4.76 on Sunday… though most of my runs over the weekend were between 5.25 and 5.50.

Another run at the 99 Drill turned in 93 (-2, -2, -1, -1), up one from last week’s 92. The biggest improvement, even if it’s not reflected in the score, was the difference in my reloads. I didn’t have any major fumbles nor was I rushing shots due to reloads that were too slow.

As mentioned above, Wilson Combat sent me some additional magazines for use during the test. These, per my request, came with the narrower aluminum floorplate instead of the wide polymer one. They also sent along some of the low profile steel floorplates. I definitely like the aluminum and steel ones better than the polymer. That shouldn’t have come as a surprise because in general I find that wide floorplates (floorplates substantially wider than the mag body) make for slightly less positive control over the magazine during a reload. Photo at left, from L to R, shows the steel, aluminum, and polymer floorplates.

The narrower floorplates also have the advantage of being a little more concealable, with the shorter steel floorplates being the best in that regard. My plan is to replace all the polymer floorplates with steel and use the steel ones for my carry mags while a mix of both steel and aluminum will cover my practice needs.

From L to R: polymer, aluminum, and steel floorplates.

The 1911 (and I) will be in Texas most of next week teaching a law enforcement only class. The 9mm 1911 is probably extremely popular among Texas lawmen. Right?

Train hard & stay safe! ToddG

You can also follow and discuss via the pistol-forum.com 2012-2013 Endurance Test thread.

Previous Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911 Endurance Test posts at pistol-training.com:

• Report #9
• Report #8
• Report #7
• Report #6
• Report #5
• Report #4
• Report #3
• Report #2
• Report #1
• Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911: The Magazines
• Springfield/Warren 9mm 1911: The Gun
• I Own 1911s
• Springfield Endurance Test Guns
• Why 1911?

 

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