spencerhut
Member
I've had my 38 Super Mil-Spec for a while now. I bought it with the intention of doing some target shooting and it's worked out well for that purpose. I intended to run Starline Super Comp cases from the very beginning since they are stronger than the standard 38 Super cases and they take slightly less powder to attain a given velocity than a standard 38 Super case. I ran into problems right away with case extraction being a little on the erratic and far flung side. I was loosing cases like crazy. The guys I was shooting matches with were dying laughing at first, then chasing my empties got old.
My first attempt at fixing this problem was checking and then increasing the tension on the stock extractor. No change. Second attempt was the very careful installation and tuning of an Ed Brown extractor, little if any change. Third attempt . . . and some of you already guessed this . . . change the recoil spring. Heavier springs equal shorter case toss. Light springs tend to let them fly a little farther. I did the EGW oversized firing pin stop mod also. A little bit of change on the positive side, not a big a deal as I have heard from others. This made it way harder to rack the slide though.
So now my gun works very reliable with a 18.5lb spring on the heavy loads and with a 14lb spring on the light loads. More than likely a spring swap and a little extra tension on the extractor is all I really needed.
My first attempt at fixing this problem was checking and then increasing the tension on the stock extractor. No change. Second attempt was the very careful installation and tuning of an Ed Brown extractor, little if any change. Third attempt . . . and some of you already guessed this . . . change the recoil spring. Heavier springs equal shorter case toss. Light springs tend to let them fly a little farther. I did the EGW oversized firing pin stop mod also. A little bit of change on the positive side, not a big a deal as I have heard from others. This made it way harder to rack the slide though.
So now my gun works very reliable with a 18.5lb spring on the heavy loads and with a 14lb spring on the light loads. More than likely a spring swap and a little extra tension on the extractor is all I really needed.