The subject of firing out of battery came up in another thread recently, and I made a statement that may raise a few eyebrows, so I thought it might be a good time to touch on this myth.
Assuming that the upper and lower barrel lugs are within spec, the 1911 pistol can't fire far enough out of battery to produce the dreaded kaboom. Can't happen. John Browning wasn't an idiot.
The first thing to understand is that preventing an out of battery discharge is not the purpose of the disconnect, nor is the disconnect a "safety." The disconnect has two functions. It bridges the gap between the trigger and the sear when it's up in the connected position, and it creates the gap when it's down in the disconnected position so that the sear can reset.
With the slide 1/10th inch out of battery, the upper barrel lugs are still vertically engaged. When the gun isn't being fired, the barrel will drop a few thousandths from gravity, but the lugs are still engaged, which means that even if the pistol could fire...which it can't...the slide and barrel can't separate and open the breech. The gun would simply function normally. It's not the best situation for the lugs, but one occurrence won't hurt anything.
With the slide 1/10th inch to the rear...should the disconnect fail to disconnect...the hammer stem contacts the bottom of the slide center rail at the firing pin stop before the hammer's face can reach the firing pin.
A 1911 kaboom is caused by one of two things.
Either the cartridge has been double charged or the chamber support has been destroyed by Bubba's super-duper double throwdown ramp and throat job. Your warning of the latter will be the tell-tale "guppy belly" bulge just forward of the case head.
A third possibility is rare, but can happen when the barrel's linkdown timing is off, causing the barrel to stop on the link or the barrel hitting the frame bed before stopping on the vertical impact surface and the lower barrel lug has pulled away from the barrel all the way through the chamber. I've seen that happen a few times, but it was always caught before blowing up the guns. Most of the time, it just pulls the lug off the barrel without going all the way through.
Assuming that the upper and lower barrel lugs are within spec, the 1911 pistol can't fire far enough out of battery to produce the dreaded kaboom. Can't happen. John Browning wasn't an idiot.
The first thing to understand is that preventing an out of battery discharge is not the purpose of the disconnect, nor is the disconnect a "safety." The disconnect has two functions. It bridges the gap between the trigger and the sear when it's up in the connected position, and it creates the gap when it's down in the disconnected position so that the sear can reset.
With the slide 1/10th inch out of battery, the upper barrel lugs are still vertically engaged. When the gun isn't being fired, the barrel will drop a few thousandths from gravity, but the lugs are still engaged, which means that even if the pistol could fire...which it can't...the slide and barrel can't separate and open the breech. The gun would simply function normally. It's not the best situation for the lugs, but one occurrence won't hurt anything.
With the slide 1/10th inch to the rear...should the disconnect fail to disconnect...the hammer stem contacts the bottom of the slide center rail at the firing pin stop before the hammer's face can reach the firing pin.
A 1911 kaboom is caused by one of two things.
Either the cartridge has been double charged or the chamber support has been destroyed by Bubba's super-duper double throwdown ramp and throat job. Your warning of the latter will be the tell-tale "guppy belly" bulge just forward of the case head.
A third possibility is rare, but can happen when the barrel's linkdown timing is off, causing the barrel to stop on the link or the barrel hitting the frame bed before stopping on the vertical impact surface and the lower barrel lug has pulled away from the barrel all the way through the chamber. I've seen that happen a few times, but it was always caught before blowing up the guns. Most of the time, it just pulls the lug off the barrel without going all the way through.
Last edited:
