[AGE]

Guys,

The gun is a series 70 Mark IV with the collet bushing. Nice shape and I like it.

I shot 100 rounds of Wal-Mart ammo through the gun this morning, half through the original magazine and half through the identical Colt marked magazine that I purchased at the same gunshow. Actually, the gun may have been unfired (except for factory testring) when I bought it. The original magazine had almost 100% finish when I started and was scratched up quite a bit when I quit.

During the first 50 rounds I had 4 failures; twice the slide locked open before the magazine was empty and twice the fired case was lodged in the chamber (wasn't extracted) after firing and a new round was lodged against it. One lock open happened with the original magazine, the other three failures happened with the new magazine. I don't know that any of these failures were caused by the magazine.

Then I decided to collect any cases that didn't extract and the top rounds in the magazine at slide lock to examine for defects. For the next 50 rounds the gun wouldn't malfunction period. Bummer, no cases to analyze. I suppose the extractor might not be quite right (tension or sharpness) and the slide stop might need a depression where the plunger mates with it. The gun (when I got it) was dry--all lube had dried up and the magazine lips were sharp and felt gritty when rounds were inserted in the magazine.

Anyway, the fired groups were good, the sight alignment is good, the trigger is good and maybe it will break in to be 100% reliable. It seems promising so far and I am hopeful my new toy will do what I want.