1911 Cleaning

hey he got 45 guess what we're going to do finally after two three years of requests a 1911 cleaning video gun a disassembly video but we not clean one for you a lot of requests to do that John and I shot this about a box and a half worth 60 70 grounds worth and took my ears off and we're just going to work on this gun this is a series 80 colt 1911 had this for quite a while nice gun I enjoy it and that's a magazine out now before we start let's make sure nothing in it because this this process you really do put your fingers up by the muzzle and everything else it's definitely clear no doubt about it ok I'm under percent positive so what I do and there's different ways to go about it like [ __ ] it and put the safety up the thumb safety engage that and turn it up and want to depress the the recoil spring plug here because yes do I take pressure off the barrel bushing to turn it now it will mainly you want to turn it see it won't really go that be counterclockwise you want to turn it clockwise to the left more or less okay clockwise that releases this plug lots of pressure from the recoil spring now there's no pressure on anything alright then I go back down here take the safety off I bring this back you have to line up the slide lock you know serration there with the this little bit cut out in the slide you see that I'll move it forward it's just a little bit cut out that will allow this to come forward now I'm going to flip it over slowly and you see the button you push on that which does no good unless this is lined up see that releases it okay slide lock is out and now there's nothing to lock the slide slide lock is gone all right yeah yeah like carbon so then what I do again we're doing what I do whether you like it or not this is what I do you might have a different approach to it I take all the little parts out recoil spring guide rod and you know barrel bushing plug the slide lock and my normal operation here since they're dirty they get carbon on them I just soaked them that don't soak a spring down yes but I just don't do that but he's like take this out sometimes I don't think shot a lot you know he's not really that dirty that part I didn't shoot quite enough to get filthy filthy filthy okay and these are all these contact parts and I like to get plenty of Lube on them and cleaner if it just kind of coats it seals it it ends up slicker even when the Lube is off you know so we've talked about that before how the the lube I use balisok kind of cures things and even when it's dry so to speak of Lube you have a lubricating property there okay same with a barrel course in fact the most important thing you see that isn't that lovely okay what I do get it over here and again I spray it liberally I'll do something in my work shed and my workbench in there you know I've got a you know would like this two by fours and I just I don't worry about it Val stalls good for wood suckers doesn't matter and I just soaked it I'm gonna put a patch through it I just it's just soaking all right now depending on what I've been shooting if I've been shooting nothing but lead cast bullets I'm out let it soak longer and let it you know take a sec a little bit longer I shot I shot some led here and now shot some jacket around Stu so letting shouldn't be any kind of issue but if it is I let it soak a little bit longer and it will release that as well then I go in here in the front part this is kind of a truism I guess about any semi-automatic at least for me I will take the front of the slide let gravity be my friend and be kind of the same thing I don't worry about getting too much just go ahead and soak it down in there where it gets filthy and we shot it a couple hundred times would be dirtier this life is soaked you know you get that good bounce on those rails and in there in the grooves and that's nothing but good stuff don't worry about it getting hitting the table not a big deal and you know I'll just dip something there even and now I'm careful about working back here on a slide sometimes I'll just use alcohol just depends how bad it is this isn't so bad I didn't bring the alcohol out so I'll use kind of a damp q-tip maybe get the worst of it off back there I mean this gun would shoot who knows how many more rounds if I did nothing to it but I tend to just go ahead and clean them if I'm finished you know shooting it firing it put it away you know the money I get it out for a few months so I go ahead and pretty pretty well you'll give a good cleaning job and for some reason I feel like I didn't I was in a rush it was really late at night we just finished up a video or whatever I make a mental note or that I get it out the next day or two and give it a more thorough cleaning so I'm using a bike cleaner here you know some getting down in that that groove there see because I'm trying not to use too much bowel stall or oil lubricant in there you notice I didn't just soak that down just like I did my Glock you know you've seen the Glock cleaning video this rear part of the slide I'm more careful because you get your firing pin block right there and you know it you know obviously it depresses and/or for the gun to fire and you could get Lube down in there into the firing pin channel all that and it attracts dirt yeah it's not not ideal probably work a long time with some in there but it attracts dirt okay so see that's pretty clean there and then this back part of the slide I'll have some ballast all tubes and lube you know make sure when I feel like it's pretty well clean enough for me I'll make sure I'll get those rails or that groove back there you know with cement and so I didn't just dump it in there all right now what I'll do for the face here the bolt face is I'll take usually this how dirty it is I've got a wire brush or a brass bristle brush and I hit it with that not often that early get the carpet off I don't like to put the lube right there because it's going to go can go right back into the firing pin channel you know so you get the carbon off there often I don't even use the brass brush bristles I just use a regular cleaning brush some kind of toothbrush make sure that's playing behind that extractor I like to make sure that extractor is free moving freely you know and so and then you just just fend off dirty it is how obsessive you are right and you could use a little Lube you could use some alcohol right here if I wanted to feel a lot better about it and knew I was going to touch it for a long time or I was going to be carrying it it had been very very very I'd be dipping this maybe in some alcohol and just you know cleaning that's really well and of course it evaporates and doesn't leave anything there but that's pretty good right there it's pretty good okay and then I have my patches so I like to dampen a patch there just to make certain that all that part around there just carefully balanced all a little cleaner as I get closer to the firing pin in that area just a little bit more careful with it and I'll just drench it like I do down here there's nothing down here that I'm going to hurt okay not at all really and then I'll use q-tips when the little grooves there the barrel locks up perfect yeah okay now I'm just mainly trying to get the dirt out there's not a lot of dirt but you can see it's kind of dirty and then I want those two lubed I want oil in there a 1911 it's a little bit like an ar-15 it does run better if it's it's well lubed so almost better to be over lubed as long as you're not you know soaking the rear of the slide that that's my feeling about it okay and of course we're cleaning up that bad up here and I'm pretty good alright now you've been paper towel something just to make sure it's pretty clay on the outside of it and everything once your gun to look good I want to be clean outside and in the insides maybe most important in a lot of ways but then if you've got grit on the outside of it and you're putting in and out of a holster you end up you know scratching the bluing or wearing a little bit more so get that clean and I'm finish drying it off now so actually right now that that's lies is in good shape maybe not lubed enough so before I put it back together and I may just go ahead and do it I'll put a little bit 4 on it just as a final touch there in the grooves and the rails in it contacts because I want it to be well lubed I like to lube up front there okay and we're probably in pretty good shape but let's hit that q-tip and make sure we've got Lube back here and then of course we're pretty good shape by I can I can lubricate the rails here and take care of that kind of you notice how it dirty I gets the ramp usually straight a little bit there and wipe that down definitely want that ramp clean if you don't do anything else if for some reason you were firing your your 1911 and I don't know you're visiting a friend at your carry gun and I mean I've been in situations where that has happened with me or somebody else a couple of different officers were over here local deputies once and firing 1911 took a few shots with it and that was their carry gun so you know I can say you want to clean that a little bit at least clean off the ramp you know because some 1911's are not quite as reliable in terms of the feeding ramp as others and just make sure that part of it's nice and clean and then because again how anal you want to be about it and you clean down an air and then wipe off the rails wasn't too much on there looks pretty good and then just to make sure it's lubricated of course you can get the rails will balance all where you got all your moving parts that are concealed that might attract dirt like I don't like to get a lot down in here the mechanism and the springs there's not a reason to get a lot of oil down in there so try to you notice I don't just take off spraying like crazy right there same with a Glock okay so we're well lewd right there I think it's pretty good okay so this frame is basically and it's clean enough for me okay I will shoot this gun at some point before too long all right so that's a pretty good shape I don't worry about making a mess the slide is in pretty good shape and it's even lubed I didn't don't think I'm putting back there in those locking grooves there we go knock a little oil in there that's where your barrel locks up see it matches up there your grooves right there in the slide locks there so I like a little Lube there all right now critical parts kind of critical over here the barrel is a big one I'll take a look at his I'm working on the gun and I'll make sure it's really soaked down well the link all of it all right and everything here is pretty good shape I think let's wipe off the guide rod here now is this is this whole process is a little different if you have a full-length guide rod I don't like full-length guide rods to be honest with you I don't think they're really that necessary you might a lot of guns have them a lot of 1911 have them especially high in competition guns and that kind of thing I had one I used in the competition for a couple years that had written I hated it it was difficult to take it down and I couldn't tell any difference in accuracy tell you the truth so my barrel the bushing barrel bushing again I'm mainly cleaning it and I'm not trying to get all the balance to off other than just trying to clean it and then I'm gonna put some more back on it okay so I put on the guide rod the slide lock very good now you notice all that's pretty much ready put back together except the barrel it's been soaking I usually save it for last I want it to soak the longest and then I'll get a patch or two here and run through it I tend not to use the board snakes on handguns so much just have been known to on occasion but I still kind of old-school with that use the old rods just run and through a little gritty there see we actually did shoot this this gun and Barrel shows that this solution I use is a great preservative and everything it really does the job and I get them pretty clean I think I told you before I don't sit here and run patch after patch after patch after patch they're here 40 patches until I absolutely cannot find a brown lubricant coming through there you know I don't do that because I know the bow salt will take care of it even at this point if I didn't long as I keep the barrel you know dampened with that stuff I do the same on muzzleloaders that's the beauty of it I don't I don't worry about every little last patch being perfectly white because they suck under us it's not going to deteriorate it's going to just stay right where it is if it's a little bit dirty as long as I knew Trull eyes to all the assets and everything with the bow stop so that's getting pretty good there and okay and that's close to where I'll just leave it because it's going to be what I will do often before I shoot a firearm and talk about that another time to die check the board I'll right patch through it most of time for bring it out here make sure there's not like Lube just hanging in there but I'd like to leave guns coated with with Lube especially by use because it it's kind of a penetrating Lube cleaner Lube that's different thing I don't mean to be selling it everybody likes their Lube there's a lot of good ones out there okay that's not too bad is it I can live with that alright and it's you know it's definitely coated in there then I'll wipe the barrel off make sure it's clean enough to suit me because you do get a lot of crud around there around the link everything and it's been soaking for a good while so it's just a matter of really wiping it off alright and then power put it back together I'll make sure this there's Lube on that thing doesn't hurt a bit it doesn't hurt thing alright I believe that's about it the spring usually doesn't get that dirty I'll just wipe it on you know spent it on a paper towel or something you know my pants with my dress pants you know just playing it dry okay there we go now I have no idea how to put this thing back together maybe y'all can do that for me get John to do it all right so the junk out of the way think I got it pretty clean alright put B take the slide the barrel unlock a Glock I tend to want to stick it in your leg lock that you have coming to the front through barrel link down and let's run the plug through the bushing now if you never mess with one of these the bushing will only go in one way it's a little slot Neri turn over here to that point and then then spin it back well that wasn't with the spring out and show you that it will only go in one way and it's more - stout see the little knob on it there so it's not a big deal you just writing it locks right there locks kind of open and thing I didn't put in as a guys Ron usually goes I stick it in this way and get your little cup there goes down against that and I'm more success if the link is down okay these are line up and get the slide lock back in all right put them oh if you want to at this point now usually this just goes right back together and it's funny sometimes like 1 out of 10 you'll slide together and you have trouble getting that slide lock back in but usually when I do this start upside down it's lined up their weight fly fly much like the balance though and I did it pretty good ok then you line up the little notch again because this will not go in unless you do that now you'll notice that I'm not a lot of 1911's there's a scratch right here and that comes from just turning that up against the gun you know so I don't I don't think I've done that of course this is an older gun I bought it new so I got a little bit so it's just destined to happen eventually but a lot of guys even new ones of an ugly scratch right there ok circular scratch so flick that out just a little bit and get it up there and then push on that little tube plunger and sometimes it's a little bit of trial and error you disconnect there we go sure we're all the way down there we go and hold my mouth right and see we got popping in there like I said I want to have ten times feel sometimes when you tap it a little bit you just take it down make sure oh I see you see I'm being seen that hole there it wasn't lined up perfectly it looked like it was but when I pulled that out part partially it got off-track there there that's it okay not too big a deal and then I lock that back and we're kind of back where we started right because I've got to get this plug back on there back over the recoil spring and we're just going in reverse order you know the barrel bushing is where we left it push this down hand carefully not putting your eye over it and back around and back in business 1911 magazine in a nice clean gun you notice I got oil on it and so what does it matter again it's like a 19 like a any ar-15 you're better off to run it if you're going to air probably better off to air from everything I understand and read on the side of being a little wetter than you'd like it a little more oily than you would maybe think it should be if you're going to air okay here on that side of it it's better for the firearm it'll function better be more reliable and feels good so we have a gun that's clean that's the way I do it it's worked for me for a long time for thirty years or more that I've had 1911's and you may do it differently you probably use a different glue a lot of you and maybe even a different approach to it and I might be doing it a way that's a little more awkward than what you do I don't know but I'm probably not going to change because that's what I've been doing for a long time it works for me I don't have to think about it too much and any time I don't have to think that's always good for me so hope you got a little bit out of that good old 1911 there's all lot of them but they're all basically the same aren't they that's why we love them and they just work and they're not that hard to clean hope you got something from that life is good

Channel: hickok45

Views: 1,660,672

Rating: 4.9130998 out of 5

Keywords: 1911 Colt 1911, cleaning lubrication, cleaning, John Browning, Colt 45 ACP, .45 ACP

Id: 8wPPUXU3Lhc

Length: 19min 15sec (1155 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Hickok45 is a good resource for getting info on 1911s, been watching his youtube channel for years

[u/SierraHolden]

agree

[u/John336kjb]

Gospel right here brothers and sisters... :-D

[u/Numinak]

Never even thought about it getting into the pin and areas. I'll have to make sure I'm more careful in cleaning that end of the slide from now on.