Howdy,
In another thread I described a failure to return to battery that occurred fairly consistently and when press checked the slide would lock in place with the rear of the cartridge out of the chamber about 1/8th of an inch. Since this began occurring after the firearm returned from the factory for ejecting the empties into my face, I must say I was pleased before firing that other issues were fixed also. Unfortunately the FTRB problem came back with it. 1911Tuner suggested I remove the extractor and hand function the pistol and see if the problem went away. It did. I contacted the manufacturer and not wishing to send the pistol back or cost them more I asked if I could try polishing the extractor myself. This was o.k.ed by the Repair Manager. The polishing helped, I was going very slowly and lightly, but the press check problem was almost gone and the FTRB while firing significantly reduced. Unfortunately, I noticed that the firing pin stop was loose. You could move it up and down in it's slot with slight finger pressure. The repair manager confirmed that this could be allowing the extractor to move and be causing or contributing to my FTRB issue. While firing it the gun stopped with the slide halfway going forward. I examined and saw that the firing pin was stuck in the fully extended position and the firing pin stop had slid down, blocking the firing pin's return and jamming the slide. The radius on the bottom of the firing pin stop showed gouges. The manufacturer told me not to fire the pistol further and issued a recall shipping order. They requested the top end, the barrel, slide, recoil spring, recoil spring plug, recoil spring quide and barrel bushing. I must say they expedited the repair and I got it back with a repair order that the recoil spring, recoil spring plug, the firing pin, firing pin spring, firing pin stop and the extractor were replaced and the breechface was polished. I cleaned it and installed to the frame. I first noted that I could not hand eject live cartridges, they jammed up in the mag area and ejection port.
I took the pistol to the range and fired somewhere between 100-230 rounds of WWB 230 FMJ (the same box that functioned in the pistol previously) and some Remington 230 FMJ. Approximately over 1/3rd of the time the pistol failed. It seems that 99% of the failure was that the empty was partially up to halfway out of the chamber, the slide had cocked the hammer and on return to battery began stripping the next round from the magazine and jamming the slide halfway open. So I had to drop the magazine, difficult as the top round was partially out and then reload that round correctly in the mag, then hold the slide open and jiggle the pistol until the empty fell out. This occurred with different mags, multiple and singly in one mag and IIRC independent of the location of the cartridge in the mag. The other failures were empties sitting on the magazine some turned 180% some not. It appears that the extractor slipped off of the empty's case rim. The Range Master's opinion was that the extractor didn't look new and the extractor lip was definitely too short. I do not know this for a fact as I am a user not an armourer. The manufacturer stated that it did not exhibit these problem during testing on another frame.
Can anyone advise me as to what may be the cause of the problem, all opinions greatly accepted.
rhtwist
In another thread I described a failure to return to battery that occurred fairly consistently and when press checked the slide would lock in place with the rear of the cartridge out of the chamber about 1/8th of an inch. Since this began occurring after the firearm returned from the factory for ejecting the empties into my face, I must say I was pleased before firing that other issues were fixed also. Unfortunately the FTRB problem came back with it. 1911Tuner suggested I remove the extractor and hand function the pistol and see if the problem went away. It did. I contacted the manufacturer and not wishing to send the pistol back or cost them more I asked if I could try polishing the extractor myself. This was o.k.ed by the Repair Manager. The polishing helped, I was going very slowly and lightly, but the press check problem was almost gone and the FTRB while firing significantly reduced. Unfortunately, I noticed that the firing pin stop was loose. You could move it up and down in it's slot with slight finger pressure. The repair manager confirmed that this could be allowing the extractor to move and be causing or contributing to my FTRB issue. While firing it the gun stopped with the slide halfway going forward. I examined and saw that the firing pin was stuck in the fully extended position and the firing pin stop had slid down, blocking the firing pin's return and jamming the slide. The radius on the bottom of the firing pin stop showed gouges. The manufacturer told me not to fire the pistol further and issued a recall shipping order. They requested the top end, the barrel, slide, recoil spring, recoil spring plug, recoil spring quide and barrel bushing. I must say they expedited the repair and I got it back with a repair order that the recoil spring, recoil spring plug, the firing pin, firing pin spring, firing pin stop and the extractor were replaced and the breechface was polished. I cleaned it and installed to the frame. I first noted that I could not hand eject live cartridges, they jammed up in the mag area and ejection port.
I took the pistol to the range and fired somewhere between 100-230 rounds of WWB 230 FMJ (the same box that functioned in the pistol previously) and some Remington 230 FMJ. Approximately over 1/3rd of the time the pistol failed. It seems that 99% of the failure was that the empty was partially up to halfway out of the chamber, the slide had cocked the hammer and on return to battery began stripping the next round from the magazine and jamming the slide halfway open. So I had to drop the magazine, difficult as the top round was partially out and then reload that round correctly in the mag, then hold the slide open and jiggle the pistol until the empty fell out. This occurred with different mags, multiple and singly in one mag and IIRC independent of the location of the cartridge in the mag. The other failures were empties sitting on the magazine some turned 180% some not. It appears that the extractor slipped off of the empty's case rim. The Range Master's opinion was that the extractor didn't look new and the extractor lip was definitely too short. I do not know this for a fact as I am a user not an armourer. The manufacturer stated that it did not exhibit these problem during testing on another frame.
Can anyone advise me as to what may be the cause of the problem, all opinions greatly accepted.
rhtwist