Thread: Never heard of this before, any idea's?

I'm not a gunsmith and can only speak from experience - I've shot literally tens of thousands of rounds through my 1911s. I've been told that the extractor was designed to feed rounds up from the magazine. That is, the rim of the cartridge comes up and under the extractor. The extractor, I'm told, was not designed to ride up over the rim as would happen if you put one in the tube and let the slide forward. I don't know if your procedure would damage or shorten the life of the extractor, but given the finicky nature of the extractor I would refrain from the practice.

General consensus is to load from the magazine, make the gun safe (i.e., safety on, then holster or put it down), then top of the mag, and insert the mag into the gun. (This can be done with the gun in the holster.) Reason is what 69Roadrunner said: the extractor is designed to accept cartridge rims into the groove from the bottom, and snapping it over the rim bends it more than it was designed to bend. Never heard of an extractor breaking because of it, but it's sort of a custom or tradition, I guess.

OTOH, some famous gunsmith (Wilson, maybe? I forget.) published a book about gunsmithing the 1911, and described his method of loading: insert round into chamber, drop slide. So, there you go.

The other two fellows answered your loading question. The grip screws is a easy fix. Go down to the hardware store and get the smallest round rubber washer that will fit over the screw. Take them home and install the grip panels. That's what I do with mine.

I have always dropped one in the tube and close the slide because if you keep using the same round and feeding it from the magazine the more pressure is being put on the bullet and I have seen guns blow up because the person kept loading the same round using a magazine and the bullet finally got pushed into the casing to far and then you got yourself a little bomb. Dropping a bullet in the tube does not put as much wear and tear on the round. I learn that from a Texas Ranger.

Okay, so basically I just need to rotate my ammo every month or so and to feed strictly from the mag (As my old instructor used to preach, clips are for cutting your hair).... . I guess I'll just start practicing that more and break the bad habit of dropping one down the tub. If I do all that then it should save the wear, tear, and exploding right?

I'm not a gunsmith either, but there's a part called the extractor. It's the little arm with a rim that pulls the fired case out of the chamber so that it can be ejected. If you drop one in the barrel you are forcing the rim of the extractor over the case the wrong way. It's not built to do that and it will eventually damage the extractor and you will get failures to eject.

I understand that this is a bigger issue with 1911's that have an internal extractor, as the external ones can ride over the rim.

A little blue locktite will fix your grip screws too.

put a tiny drop of 'lock tight' (hardware store) on the grip screws and they will not get loose, but will come off with a big screw driver...

Thanks for all the information, I'll get some lock tight for her and just train train and train to break my habit.