Occasional 1911 hiccup

[Crow1108]

The past two times I brought my Kimber to the range, it had a weird failure to eject. The first time was shooting the rest of my dirty handloads (4.5 grains bullseye under a 230 grain LRN bullet), and it was well into the second box of fifty. The second time, I was at the indoor range with a couple of friends, and I decided to run the three magazines of carry ammo through it that I've had loaded for about a year (Federal HST, 230 grain), and it happened about halfway through the first magazine. What basically happens is it starts to chamber the second round like normal, but the case from the last round stovepipes horizontally (so the slide and the barrel catch on the rim and the mouth of the case).

This only seems to happen once a range trip, and this particular malfunction has only manifested itself the past two trips. I find it slightly concerning, since the malfunction usually requires me dropping the mag and holding back the slide and shaking the pistol to clear the offending piece of brass (which would take an eternity in a bad situation). Every other round goes off without a hitch.

I try to keep the slide components as clean as I can (detail strip the slide every 300 rounds or so of factory ammo, 200 for hand loads). What is the usual cause of this? Have you guys seen this before?

EDIT: Another anomaly I discovered. Forgive my ignorance, since this is my first 1911, and I am pretty new to the platform. Should the hammer drop at ALL when the hammer is pulled and the grip safety is not depressed? I know on Kimbers the grip safety enables the schwartz firing pin block to do it's thing, but from John Holbrook's sticky, it looks like the grip safety is not depressed, it should block the trigger from moving. On mine, I noticed pulling the trigger causes the grip safety to depress itself a few milimeters, and the hammer drops. Is this common?

 

[Tamren]

If the grip safety isn't depressed, it should stop the trigger from moving fare enough to release the sear and drop the hammer. How new is the gun? It may not be a bad idea to send it back to Kimber and have them fix it.

Do you know if the failure to eject is occurring with one particular magazine, or does it happen with all three?

 

[Jim Watson]

You should not be able to drop the hammer without depressing the grip safety.

Your trapped cases sound like a bad extractor shape or fit.

 

[rcmodel]

Your Grip Safety is defective.
Get it fixed!

Intermittent stove-piping can also be caused by the extractor "clocking" or turning back and forth in the slide due to a loose firing pin retainer plate fit.

rc

 

[Crow1108]

If the grip safety isn't depressed, it should stop the trigger from moving fare enough to release the sear and drop the hammer. How new is the gun? It may not be a bad idea to send it back to Kimber and have them fix it.

Do you know if the failure to eject is occurring with one particular magazine, or does it happen with all three?

The gun is a little over a year old. I got it Feb 2008. To be honest, I haven't kept track of the magazines to see if the failure is due to a bad magazine.

Looks like I'm gonna have to give Kimber a call tomorrow after the holiday. Thanks for the responses guys.

 

[rikman]

Crow,

I'm not an expert but I just had the same thing on my Les Baer Concept VIII.

I guessed it was my reloaded ammo from Georgia Arms?

I don't remember it doing it with factory ammo.

I don't know about the grip safety thing? I've found that if I rest my strong side thumb on safety I sometimes don't put enough presssure on it, howver the resulting effect is that the gun does not fire, not a stove pipe horizontal .

Let me know what Kimber says, I might call Les myself also.

Rick