Thread: The Commander!
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Old 08-01-2020, 08:00 AM
stansdds stansdds is offline
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Originally Posted by dandyrandy View Post
ATI Commander by Dandy Randy, on Flickr

So we are back with the Commander series of pistols. I just finished the upgrade process on the new ATI Wilson Combat Commander Po Man Special. I was going to lower and flare the ejection port but after shooting the gun it does not look like its necessary plus I would have to re-parkerize the pistol. Maybe many moons down the road Ill do that but not now. I may put in a new extractor though. I did have a failure to eject but not on live rounds it was on my heavily worn plastic snap caps. I believe the FTE was due to worn out and damaged old snap caps and not the pistol extractor. I had 100% reliable on all 500 FMJ and HP rounds. Had one issue with failure to eject magazine but that was due to a knock off rip off "Colt" junk magazine I had layin around for many moons. They work however the metal and paint was very thick on the mag so it got stuck in there. Stay away from those knock off "Colt" mags! I can tell you later how to identify them if anyone is curious. Basically if the price is too good to be true its probably a fake Colt mag.
Very nice!
That ejection port is what I would consider to already be lowered. The original 1911 port barely extended into the flat of the slide and even those can be reliable for ejection, they just leave a dent on the case mouth. Flaring the back edge of the port can help in preventing the cases from getting dented in the case head area, but beyond that, the flare is not necessary.

Most factory produced 1911's have a sloppy fit to the firing pin retainer and extractor. This allows the extractor to rotate slightly, which can affect extraction and ejection. A 1911 that ejects brass over a wide area is almost certain to have an extractor that is rotating. A fitted firing pin retainer and possibly a new extractor are the answers to this problem.

1911 feed reliability horror stories often come from crummy magazines. The 1911 needs a quality magazine, held to fairly tight specifications, and the magazine needs to be held at the correct height within the receiver. I have experience with an old Thompson Auto-Ordnance 1911 (1980's production) that had receiver with a poorly positioned magazine catch hole. It worked if you applied pressure to the bottom of the magazine when firing, but without upward pressure, a feed jam was likely to occur.

Poorly made magazines are the bane of the 1911. Gun shows are often filled with cheap knock off mags, sometimes in military style wrapping paper and with a NSN number on the base plate. A 1911 magazine that costs you only $5 is going to give you a $5 performance. You get what you pay for. For reliable and affordable magazines, genuine Colt magazines are good as are Springfield Armory, Mec-Gar, Metalform and Checkmate. There are others, but they will cost more.

If you want to know a whole lot more about 1911 magazine identification, check out this thread over at the m1911.org Forums.
1911 Magazine Identification
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