Springfield Armory was nice enough to send me one of their newest 1911 pistols, and I’m happy to report that, so far, the handgun they sent runs flawlessly with all types of ammo. I have only had one malfunction so far to report, and I attributed it to the cheap ammo I was using.
There is something about this 1911 style pistol that is different from most of the others out there, and I wanted to address it in an entirely different article because I feel that being able to clean your gun is important.

Field stripped EMP 4

L Shaped Tool
Let’s field strip this Springfield Armory EMP 4 Lightweight Champion:
The first step whenever you’re cleaning any firearm, is to unload, show-clear. In other words, physically and visually make sure that the firearm is unloaded. When you do, just lock the slide in the rear-ward position, which is necessary for take down.
This 1911 has no barrel bushing to rotate, but it does have a little hole on the recoil spring guide rod. You need to stick the little “L” shaped tool into that hole, like so:

Notice the little hole

Tool inserted
From here, flip the pistol over to find the other side of the slide release lever, and push on it (it’ll look like a little button). You may then flip it back over, and grasp it with your finger tips, pulling it out. You may need to wiggle it a bit in order to get it out, just be careful not to scratch the frame’s finish.

Pull out slide release

pull it apart

remove and notice notch for barrel.

Push the lug down before you remove the barrel

put it straight up and down.
What you’re listening for, is the hammer to drop (when pulled) and for the trigger to reset (when released). You should be able to see and hear the hammer (or pin, if striker fired) drop. And, you should also be able to hear the trigger reset when you let it go. If these things don’t happen, there is an issue. I’ll usually do this 3 or 4 times after I clean any of my guns—unless it is a gun that cannot be dry fired—but all of my modern day guns are fine to be dry fired.
Please make sure you leave a comment telling us what you thought about this article in the comments below. Let us know if this is the sort of thing you’re interested in learning from us, here at Gun Carrier. Then, please make sure you subscribe to Gun Carrier’s YouTube channel to make sure you don’t miss the actual review of this gun.
Price range should be included in your article.
I’ll take that into consideration for next time. I usually put the price in the actual review of the firearm, which will be uploaded to the website when it’s done. Thanks for the comment.