Just got back from the range - tried 2 other types of ammo - Winchester and Field & Stream (made in Italy, shoots a little faster). Boy, for a moment I thought I had something with the F&S brand - 20 rounds, then . . . FTE!
Winchester - lot of them Everything I've tried so far is 115gr FMJ. Hey, it's the "basic" stuff, but I was sure hoping that for practice it would work, b/c it's cheapest. I scrubbed the daylights out of the extractor claw area, it had looked a little not much, but yes a bit) dirty, before this session, so I don't think it's dirt/gunk.
So back to square 1 on the FTE's. My original post issue, the slight slide looseness, is nothing! BTW, WHEN it's shooting, I was getting about 2-3" groups at 15 ft (shooting to around 9 o'clock consistently, so I've got to play with the rear sight, no biggie there), so I seem to be getting what others have been saying about it. For a service pistol, it's absolutely fine.
One thing I've noticed on mine, that I was wondering if any other owners could compare and help me out on this - the back of the extractor bar sticks out very slightly from the slide - it's not flush, as the front end is. From a design perspective, it would seem that this should be flush/set into the slide serrations. This is part of my problem - it's the first time I've held one of these, and it wasn't like I could look at a couple examples of a NIB pistol at the LGS. I've tried looking on line at posted photos, but you really have to look at it from certain angles, and those aren't really posted. I've attached a couple pix of mine. Does anyone else's look like this (AND it's extracting w/o any problems)? If not, I really think I'm looking at an extractor/extractor spring issue. EJECTION is fine - if it pulls out of the chamber, it's tossed out nicely! BTW, wanted to post these sooner, so you'll see the chamber's a little "dusty" - hadn't cleaned it yet after the range trip! When it is clean, it's nice and shiny (the chamber/barrel of this little guy were/are clean as whistles) - I don't think that's where it's hanging up (thanks, chucker, for suggesting that as a possibility).
Thanks again to everyone!