[benalpha]

Hello everyone, to get right to it, I purchased a Colt Officers a few months back, having had the chance to shoot it just a couple times so far. It seems to be accurate and work well, except for one issue, which is the slide not locking back after the last round. I would suspect the magazine and it's possible that's the issue (though it is a colt mag). However, the safety is very hard to engage and disengage, and if I manually pull the slide back, the slide stop lever also takes quite a bit of force to push up into the slide. Not being a gunsmith in any sense of the word, I can only guess that either the parts are not fitted well, or perhaps the spring between the safety and slide stop is producing far more pressure than is needed.
Any ideas on what it might be?
Thanks!
----I can post a picture later if needed

 

[benalpha]

Thanks for the response. I can't say how much the gun has been fired- it is in good condition but it I believe it was made in the late 1980's so it definitely has use and age. It does have some replacement parts like a beavertail grip safety and aftermarket trigger. I'll include a picture of it here

 

[benalpha]

Thank you for all the information and the suggestions! I have stripped the gun, cleaned it, and lubed it ( this was the first thing I did after getting it). Everything seemed to be as it should, with a good fit but not overly tight. There is a single spring instead of the dual setup, but it clearly has plenty of tension as racking the slide requires quite a bit of force. There are no buffer washers. My thought is that the issue is still with the slide stop/ slide safety since both are just so difficult to engage. one thing i've done is rack the slide with an empty mag inserted. The slide stop should engage but wont, and to make it engage, I have to move the "notch" in the slide right over the stop and then force it up. Hopefully that makes sense. Again, it's possible it's the magazine, but that doesn't explain why the safety is so hard to engage:/

 

[benalpha]

Any other ideas on this one? Or would the best course be to take it to a gunsmith?

 

[benalpha]

Thank you very much for the knowledge and the suggestions! I will attempt to strip everything down and see what I can find out. Hoping I can put it all back together again