Mainspring Replacement

[hube1236]

Following a lot of the threads here, I replaced my recoil spring with a 14 pd'er and the mainspring with a 20 pd. I worked flawlessly last night at Thurs IDPA- even if I didn't!

My SA still sometimes jams the last casing into the 8 round Wilson Mags I have, but loves thoses CMC's. It's funny, it buggs me that the gun won't run with overpriced magazines, but will run all day with the cheapies.

I am wierd

 

[1911Tuner]

Last Case

Hube said:

My SA still sometimes jams the last casing into the 8 round Wilson Mags I have

Elaborate on that a little, if ya would.

Standin' by...

Tuner

 

[hube1236]

When I use Wilson Mags, 20% of the time, the last round as it is being ejected will jam into the feed lips of the mag. It rotates front up as the extractor tries pulling through, and the slide will catch the lip of the case and jam it even further and lock up the gun.

The problem does go away to 5-10% with very heavy main spring, but the trigger then becomes too harsh (maybe perception). I do not have problems with CMC's.

My local smith could'nt solve it, and springfield says it is typical of W-8 rounders. Springs seem (perception) lesser in the Wilsons- I bought them used though.

 

[1911Tuner]

Last Case Jam

Howdy Hube,

That sounds like an extractor problem more than a magazine issue. Either
there's not enough tension on the case to keep it nailed to the breechface
until the ejector kicks it free, or the extractor is clocking...rotating in the channel...and it lets the case fall low enough to hit the magazine lips.

I've seen a few instances of this, and the empty case actually gets stuffed back in the mag. Weird one, for sure. Try a little more bend in the extractor. Easy does it...too much and you'll get failures to return to battery.

Standin' by...

Tuner

 

[hube1236]

By why only wilson's?

 

[1911Tuner]

Wilson

Hube asked:

By why only wilson's?

Likely a difference in how high the feed lips are in relation to the breechface, or even how high the magazine sits in the magwell.
Tolerance stacking sometimes goes against us, sometimes in our favor.
Maddening stuff at times.

If the notch in the magazine positions it say.... .010 higher in the well
than the McCormick's, and the feed lips are another .010 higher, there's
over a 64th of an inch of feed lip in the case's path...maybe just enough.

Or...The McCormicks's tolerances stack up in the opposite direction, there's more than a 64th less in the path of the case...also maybe just enough to let it slide by.

Another Wilson mag might work fine...and another McCormick might not.
It's all in the tolerances and which direction they go. If one dimension is .010 in one direction, and the other is .010 in the opposite direction, they cancel each other out.

You've got those possibilities in addition to the location of the mag catch
and the position of the shelf that catches the notch in the magazine...
It goes on and on all over the gun, and tolerances being a little out of spec
keeps many pistolsmiths busy and pounding their heads on the wall at times. (Wanna see the knots in MY head? COme see me after I've been into a Thompson Auto Ordnance or an old Safari Arms or AMT Hardballer)


Hope this explains things...

Luck!
Tuner