Colt Government Model in 9mm

[cityfarmer]

I love 5" 1911 style pistols and I love the versatility of 45 ACP cartridge. I have several 1911 pistols in 45ACP caliber with most of them being the 5" variant but also have the commander, officer and defender size 1911 pistols from several manufacturers. My wife has a Commander in 9mm but I do not have any 1911 pistol in 9mm...well, I had one for a while but it didn't function so it sat in my safe. Couple years ago I purchased a good condition Colt Government model in 9mm from a guy for very low price as the pistol would not function reliably. I took it to the range with a box of ammo and fired several rounds only to find the pistol would not eject the fired brass and occasionally failed to extract the brass resulting in double feed. I think the pistol malfunctioned about 2/3 of the time. I gave up after about 25 rounds and put the pistol in the safe with the thought of trying to fix it some time. Well, that some time was 3 weekends ago. I took the pistol out and stripped everything down to the last pieces I cleaned and looked at every piece of that pistol and found couple problem parts including extractor (looked like someone tried to polish it), ejector (broken tip) and breech face had a burr at one side of the firing pin hole.
I ordered a complete set of Wolff springs including 12 lb. recoil spring and new extractor and ejector. I spent two nights installing the new ejector and installing/tuning the new extractor, cleaning, lubricating, reassembling the pistol. I took the pistol out with some ammo and magazines and the pistol worked reliably. I had tweaked the ejector face a little and had all the brass ejecting out into a little pile 5-6 feet away at 4 o'clock position. I fired 50 more rounds of Winchester factory ball ammo and it worked reliably. The factory fixed sights were right on at 20 yards but was a little too small for my old eyes so I'll be installing a set of larger sights this weekend.
I never cared much for wife's Commander 9mm pistol but I love this 9mm Government model. It's easy to shoot and recoils very little with the slide coming right back on to the target after it cycles. It's fast becoming my favorite plinking pistol.

[Ronin.45]

A 1911 in 9mm is a perfect range gun. Light recoil and a great trigger are a pleasant combo.

[Bob]

You know - You raise a great issue here. Am I NOT a fan of 1911's because they are in .45, or do I like the Browning HP BECAUSE it is 9mm?

9mm 1911...hmmm

[JDH]

The proper chambering for a 1911 with a .355/.356 bore is 38 Super. 9MM is too short which can cause feeding issues. Try the heavier bullet loads if the 115 grain ones don't want to feed reliably. Mine prefers the 124 grain. YMMV.

[cityfarmer]

As much as I like my Hi-Power I enjoy shooting the 1911 in 9mm more. It feels more comfortable in my hand and has much better trigger resulting in better groups. I polished the underside of the extractor a little and increased the tension slightly more and cartridge feeds out of the magazine very smoothly. I shot 100 rounds each my reload of 137gr cast RN @ 920 fps and 125gr FMJ @ 1050 fps and both worked 100% and gave some very nice groups from 23 yards. It feed very smoothly and ejected brass in a nice little pile. I haven't fired any self-defense JHP ammo yet but I'll try that next weekend as I have some Speer 124gr. Gold Dot +P and Remington 147gr JHP.
Only problem I still have is the small sights but I have a set of high profile sights coming in this week which will make it much easier on my old eyes. This 9mm 1911 is fast becoming my favorite range and plinking gun.

[Gnepig]

I had the same problem with a Kimber 1911 in 9mm= then tried my 130gr cast reloads and had no problems. The 124gr store bought rounds also work but the 115gr's caused multiple failures. So what JHD said worked for us also. We bought the gun new and it was expensive, disassembled and clean/lubed multiple times, it just didn't like the light rounds. I was thinking that the recoil spring is to heavy but I will look to see if I have any of the problems that cityfarmer had.

[Bob]

Can't the right spring fix all that pain?

[cityfarmer]

Can't the right spring fix all that pain?

Yes, wrong springs can cause a lot of different problems including feeding and ejection issues.
With 1911 type pistols, when I have feeding issues with a pistols I look at magazine first as that is the most common problem.
Then I look at the recoil springs then feed ramp and then extractor. Other places to look include breechface.
When I have extraction or ejection issues I look at extractor first then ejector and then recoil spring.
Some problems are obvious but some can be hard to fix when it involves more than one part.