Did you just buy your first Rock Island Armory 1911? It’s a great, reliable choice—but as a responsible owner, there are a few things to know when it comes to caring for your new 1911 pistol.
Here are a few 1911 upkeep tips to remember.
Store Properly
Humidity sucks. Especially when you’re keeping your Rock Island Armory 1911s stored away for long periods of time. The best thing you can do to keep unfinished parts of your favorite guns rust-free is to keep them stored in a consistently dry environment.
Of course, this can be hard if you’re in a particularly humid environment, like Florida. And, yes, since humidity is in the air, it can find its way into your home and gun safe. A couple of methods for keeping your guns dry are to install a humidifier in the room or even within the gun safe itself. Silica packets, like the ones used in bags of beef jerky to keep the meat dry, can be placed throughout a gun safe to fight humidity.
Keep it Lubed
In addition to combating humidity, you should keep an adequate amount of corrosion-preventative oil on the gun. Everyone seems to have a product they're partial to in this area. Break Free CLP and Hoppes #9 are popular options, but even something like WD-40 will do the trick, as well.
You don’t need to go nuts and bathe your 1911 in oil. It shouldn’t be dripping wet. A good wipe-down that results in a light film of oil is considered the best practice. Do this as part of your cleaning and before putting the pistol away in long-term storage.
Clean Well
“How often should I clean my gun?” (A frequently asked question that doesn’t really have a “right” answer.) The important aspect here isn’t how often you clean, so much as how you go about cleaning. It’s strongly advised to avoid hitting any part of your barrel with a cleaning rod repeatedly, especially the crown. This can unevenly wear on the rifling, resulting in a negative impact on the gun’s accuracy. When cleaning pistols, this shouldn’t be much of an issue thanks to the shorter barrel length.
The basic points to hit up while cleaning a 1911 are to run some cloth wipes with bore cleaner through the barrel until the wipes start coming out mostly white. Then, lightly oil the barrel and the rest of the internals, primarily around the moving parts.
