[Farley]

How many of you have seen a collet style bushing break and jam a gun? My gun smith who was a comp shooter in the Air Force said he has seen it only once in 42 years.He has built hundreds of 1911's and worked on has many. He says its almost like an urban myth.

 

[Ken Neal]

I have seen one broken 70 series bushing and that was well over 20 years ago. I never did think they were as bad as the rumors would have you believe.

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No man is above the law and no man is below it. Nor do we ask any mans permission when we require him to obey it.

 

[prplhrtx3]

Not a single one in 25 years of shooting! Have seen a few slide stop pins shatter though.

 

[pxchang0]

Originally posted by Farley:
How many of you have seen a collet style bushing break and jam a gun? My gun smith who was a comp shooter in the Air Force said he has seen it only once in 42 years.He has built hundreds of 1911's and worked on has many. He says its almost like an urban myth.

I can testify that it's not an urban myth. I had one break on a Series 80. Jammed the slide and had to pound it forward with a mallet. It happened after about 10k rounds through the gun. I replaced it with another collet bushing and it's still going strong after another 50k rounds.

If I had to carry the gun, I'd replace it with a standard bushing. I realize that 1 failure after 60k rounds is real low, but it really makes the gun unusable if it breaks.

 

[jaydee]

Yes they break, and yes, i have broken 2, but I have not had one in a gun since 1984, so...

Proper care and feeding can go along way...

Me, i am hard on them

 

[dsk]

I can vouch for pxchang0's experience. They don't break very often, but when they do the broken piece tends to wedge between the barrel and slide somewhere and locks up the gun. It creates a very dangerous situation as there might still be a round in the chamber.

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D. Kamm
USGI M1911/M1911A1 Pistols Website
http://www.geocities.com/M1911_M1911A1

 

[mark 4 45]

Broken collet bushings....

Since I started shooting IPSC in 1976 I've had one collet bushing break on me {in my first Gold Cup} and have seen one other...

Both required serious force to remove the slide!!

It didn't take long to go completely over to solid bushings ..

 

[Colt shooter]

Is their any difference in accuracy between a solid bushing and a collet bushing?

 

[dsk]

The whole idea of the collet bushing was to increase the accuracy of new 1911s without the expense of a hand-fitted bushing. Depending on tolerances it worked on some guns, but not others.

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D. Kamm
USGI M1911/M1911A1 Pistols Website
http://www.geocities.com/M1911_M1911A1

 

[PigPen]

Originally posted by dsk:
The whole idea of the collet bushing was to increase the accuracy of new 1911s without the expense of a hand-fitted bushing. Depending on tolerances it worked on some guns, but not others.

As I understand it, the collet bushing was an attempt to achieve greater accuracy than older type bushings could provide (which was already being done by custom gunsmiths) without having to invest the manufacturing time and manpower necessary to properly fit a match type bushing.

IOW, it was not an advancement initiated by Colt made in an attempt to improve the pistol's accuracy but was a defensive action to protect their market share at a cheaper (and I might add a less reliable/dependable) cost.

PigPen

 

[dsk]

The first part is what I said, in more words. The second part I can't really agree with, because in 1970 there weren't even any competitors to Colt (unless you count Vega!).

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D. Kamm
USGI M1911/M1911A1 Pistols Website
http://www.geocities.com/M1911_M1911A1