Analyze your understanding of the 1911 platform and your ability to properly diagnose malfunctions within this platform.

• Do you foresee any shortcomings in yourself that would lead to trouble when diagnosing malfunctions? If so, what are they and what can you do to improve your abilities?
• What are the most important steps or principles to follow when diagnosing firearm malfunctions?
• Are there certain areas/components/operations within this platform that you think will be more difficult to diagnose than others? If so, what are they and why is this the case?

Part Two:

Conduct outside research and identify at least three malfunctions that have occurred in a 1911. Try to make them a mixture of mechanical and non-mechanical malfunctions. Share these detailed descriptions of the malfunctions with your fellow students, but keep the cause of the malfunction to yourself. Allow your fellow students ample time to respond to your post and share their thoughts as to what they believe the culprit could be that would cause that certain malfunction. Later in the week, after your fellow students have weighed in, share with them the true cause of the malfunction and justify how this actually caused the malfunction.

If done right, this second part of the discussion post will prove to be a powerful growing experience for each of you and will simulate the work that a gunsmith does daily.