Had a catastrophic failure today, and am hoping I can get some diagnosis feedback. I'm fine, besides a mildly fragged face. Couple bloody pin pricks,and a chip in my very expensive prescription safety glasses, right in line with my right eyeball...
It has some characteristics of firing out of battery, but also potentially just a bad reload...
This is a gun I fondle a lot, but really don't shoot much. I'm a tupperware guy, but I'm not a complete newb with 1911s either.
Here's what I know...
0) Series 70 Colt.
1) Ammo was literally a "mixed bag" of trash I found lying about during a recent cleaning spree. The round that Kaboom!ed was an ancient JHP of some sort (XTP?). They were probably bullets made by my mom's cousin (more on him later) in the early 90s. I did fire 3 magazines of my own relatively recent reloads, spicey +P 200 gr XTPs, with no issues whatsoever, right before the kaboom!.
2) Magazine was ejected, hands and fingers were charred from explosion escaping out of every gap in the frame (slide, safety, trigger, etc). Fingers were numb like a firecracker had gone off in my paw, but otherwise no damage.
3) Gun jammed up after slide had only traveled a 1/4 inch backward. Had to beat it open with a dowel rod. Before getting it open, I could see down in the action, and the case was stuck in the chamber, with the primer protruding out of the case, resting against the breach face.
4) Case failed in a typical "unsupported kaboom!" manner, but also split about halfway up.
5) Hard to say for sure, as I dropped the f@&%ing thing like a hot potato due to the explosive outgassing, but the recoil didn't seem particularly potent. Bullet hit the steel plate too.
6) I installed a beaver tail grip safety, heavier recoil spring, and maybe a new trigger/sear? Can't remember for sure whether I messed with trigger or not. See below though...
7) Same nutbag 2nd cousin who made the ammo in the 90s, "tuned it up" for me when I wasn't paying attention, after I'd brought it to him to install some Trijicon night sights. He did some filing and grinding that I wasn't sure I approved of, resulting in a too light trigger pull. Front sight also fell off after 4 rounds, so perhaps you're getting an idea of the "quality of work" he's capable of. He had just taken a class on 1911 gunsmithing, was a gun store owner, and also the guy who got me into shooting when I was too little to remember, so at the time (naive younger me), I thought it was all OK...
Here's a picture of the case...
View attachment 257872
Gun is superficially just fine, and functions as expected. I'm obviously not gonna shoot it till I've investigated things more thoroughly, and regardless of what I find, I'm gonna pitch all the crusty old scrap rounds I have.
So, anybody have experience enough to guide me along the path to feeling safe to shoot it again?
BTW, I'm not stupid, and I don't intend to shoot it till I'm certain it's safe, so "Take it to a smith" is completely unhelpful advice. Right now, I want opinions on what to consider as the source of failure. How I deal with that information is my business...
