Brass
Howdy Greg, and welcome to The High Road.
Gettin' beaned by ejected brass is one of those things that REALLY
ticks me off...Sometimes the cure is easy, sometimes frustrating.
Extractor tension plays a role. If the extractor is clocking, that can do it too,
but a clocking extractor generally produces a crunched case on the last round out.
When a case ejects straight back in your face or over your head, it's usually
being knocked backward by the slide. Look for the brass tracks around the port. The brass can bounce more than once before it heads for your face.
MOST OF THE TIME...it strikes the port low at about 3 O'Clock, and bounces up while the slide is still movin' backward. At that point, the edge at the top of the port hits it while it's in the air, and kicks it straight back.
The key is to get the ejector to send the case in a more upward direction than sideways. This sounds backward, but it took me a while to figure out
exactly what was goin' on.
Rule of thumb:
The higher on the rim the ejector hits, the more straight up it will eject it.
The lower it hits...the more straight out. Playing with the shape of the
ejector nose can angle it sligtly backward...forward...or at 90 degrees to the slide.
The extractor hook can have an effect too. If the bottom corner of the hook is square and sharp, it tends to send the brass straight up and delays the release a little. I've found that a slight radius or bevel on
the bottom corner vectors the brass out at 90 degrees at about 2 O'Clock...which is ideal...assuming that the ejector isn't striking the case too low.
If the extractor hook is too long (too deep from the wall to the tip) it
can get the case rim in a bind with the ejector...especially with an extended ejector.
If the recoil spring is too heavy or too light, it can have an effect too. If
you have a shock buffer in a gun with a Commander-length slide, it can
cause your ejection pattern to go haywire. It will change the ejection pattern even on a 5-inch gun, though not as dramatically as with a shorter one. I run a buffered recoil system of my own design in my three range
beaters. There's a lot of difference when I shoot'em with a standard
recoil system...and the brass isn't being hit by the slide with either one.
My guess is that your ejector is striking the brass too low, and possible that your extractor needs more tension...easy does it. Too much, and you'll
get failures to go to battery. Check the bottom corner of the hook. If it's
square, radius it a little on a stone.
Luck!
Tuner