1911 Slide Stop question

[polyphemus]

the slide stop pin popped out twice while I was firing.

Popped out as in:fell on the ground?
As you probably have read in your owners manual there is only one point alongside the slide where extraction can take place.unintended extraction is
possible but it is more likely that something is wrong.Some shooters like to aim
their pistol by pointing their forefinger at the target,middle finger on trigger.
constant pressure on the slide stop cross pin can cause the stop to disengage.
Another cause would be a broken or defective slide stop where the inner side of the pawl is not bearing on the slide,here I'd be looking at replacing it,not an expensive thing to try and a good bet.

 

[polyphemus]

Some "improved" designs use a flat face on the slide stop, and rely only on the friction produced by the spring tension of the detent. Those can work loose and fall out

I think you know better than that.
Ok the original design had a spring loaded plunger built inside the face retained
by a small stud on the frame,the addition of the thumb safety and the double plunger changed that to a flat face.The pistol works perfectly well without the
"dimple",insufficient plunger spring pressure and or a short plunger and in some cases somebody's thumb is what causes unintended lockback.The slide stop
is held from falling out by the slide not the plunger.Those 1911's are gonna be the death of me.

 

[SH2pilot]

Problem solved with slide pin

First, I apologize for the thread drift with my previous question about the pin sliding out. Secondly, after doing research and reading numerous posts, it became apparent that I must not have pushed the pin in all of the way when I reassembled it, and then didn't reinstall it correctly when it popped out (moving the slide to the notch) and so it wasn't in properly. I took it apart, cleaned everything and made it to the range on Wed and put 50 rounds through it with no problems. I guess I'm spoiled with my G19 and Shield which are almost idiot proof. I learned a lot from my short time on this forum and look forward to learning more in the future (I promise no more thread drift postings)

 

[polyphemus]

Problem solved with slide pin

What's a slide pin?
Did I just write that? here comes the flame...

 

[Aguila Blanca]

I defense of SH2pilot, it is possible (under rare conditions) for a slide stop to be correctly installed and to pop out during firing. It happened to me.

I won't name the brand, because the model has long since been discontinued, but a number of years ago I borrowed an Officers ACP size pistol (by a manufacturer other than Colt) and I was shooting it at the range. I probably put a couple of hundred rounds through it and didn't notice anything amiss. Being right-handed, when I put the gun down on the bench the grip was always to the right, with the slide stop underneath the receiver.

I let a friend try the gun. The friend happens to be a lefty, so when he put the gun down the slide stop was facing up. One of us (I don't remember which) happened to look down at the gun and said "What the ...?"

The slide stop was partially back out of the receiver. That explained why the slide hadn't been locking back on empty. The question was -- how did it happen? We reinstalled the slide stop, fired a few more magazines through it, and the same thing happened. Mystery.

Mystery solved: Close examination of the slide stop show a lot of brass staining on the underside of the slide stop lug -- the part that engages the magazine follower to lock the slide open with empty. What was happening was that the last or next-to-last round in each magazine was moving forward slightly under recoil and making contact with the slide stop lug. This is a known problem with weak magazine springs combined with slide stips that are marginally out-of-spec -- but neither of us had ever seen it punch the slide stop out of the pistol. Usually it causes a stoppage.

BUT ... this was a short 1911, a 3-1/2" barrel. The timing on a short-barrel 1911 is different from a Government model. And if you look at enough 1911s, you see that there are variations in where some manufacturers locate the slide stop notch in the slide. Apparently, all these variables combined to produce a pistol in which the bullet managed to hit the slide stop at the exact moment the take-down notch in the slide was perfectly aligned to allow the slide stop to come out. A bit of judicious adjustment of the slide stop lug with a small file, and all was well in Dogpatch.

It can happen -- but it's extremely rare.

 

[SH2pilot]

Thank you for the defense of this lowly poster for using the wrong name for the slide "stop." They do use slide stop pin in the instructions, "Press inward on the slide stop pin from the right side of the frame (Figure 33)." That is where I got pin from.

My problem was all operator error which I confirmed at the range. More reps of disassembling and assembling this pistol will ensure I don't make the same mistake again.

 

[polyphemus]

That is where I got pin from.

Honest,just kidding.
I have an AO which came with a bad slide stop among other bad parts and it was interfering with the feed cycle causing the slide to bind an fail to return to
battery,that was my first thought,filing or stoning the facets is tricky so I figured that a replacement would be a better suggestion.