I had a chance to pick up a Stainless loaded V10 Ultra Compact with 3 magazines for $350 and couldn't pass it up EVEN if it had extraction problems. The logic was as long as everything is within specs, I could narrow down the problem and fix it. I'm going to talk a little about what steps I went through.
After picking up the pistol, I proceeded to the range with a variety of ammunition to include LSWC, LRN, Ball, Hydra-Shoks, Gold Dots, and Remington HPs. It was disappointing right from the first magazine. From the first magazine, I experienced failure to extract FTE and FTF at the time when the new round was not able to enter the chamber. Most of the times however, it was just a straight FTE. I pulled the extractor and examined it very carefully but every looked fine. I retensioned the extractor and proceeded to shoot again but again the gun experienced FTEs. Wondering if maybe I missed something on the extractor, I went home to order a new extractor from Brownells. While looking through the website, I saw a few things that I thought I'd order to customize my new gun so along with the new extractor, I ordered an S&A Magwell, some Wolff springs, and a Wilson Combat two piece guide rod to get rid of the annoying stock guide rod and spring set up.
When the package finally arrived, I was pretty excited to start working on my UC V10pistol. I tensioned and fitted the new extractor and installed all of the other parts. I quickly grabbed the same assortment of ammo and headed to the range. Disappointingly again, the pistol jammed with FTEs. I headed home and started searching through the internet for all the possible reason a 1911 would have extraction issues and came upon an article about barrel links. I read how in the old days, the guys would install longer barrel links to cam the barrel up harder resulting in a tighter lock up. Wilson also came out with a guide rod set up call the Group Gripper or something like that. In that same article are other reasons why you would and would not use longer links and the effects of using longer links. Well to make it shorter, if you have a short link, the barrel would unlock sooner and vice versa, if you have a longer link, it would delay the unlock a little longer. I then realize that maybe my link was too short and the extractor was trying to extract the case while the case is expanding at the same time inside the chamber. Reading the article a little further confirmed that having a link that is too short will in fact cause extraction problems because the barrel would unlock too soon and the extractor will indeed try to extract while the case is expanding. I remembered I had a set of links that I had ordered before for another 1911. The set I had consisted of 5 links of varying sizes in increments of .003 inch. I measured the links and selected one that is the next size up from what was in the pistol.
The next day, I was at the range again with 250 rounds of the same variety of ammo. Oh, I forgot to mention that I polished the ramp since I had the pistol apart also. Anyway, I'm happy to report that the little booger digested every round with no malfunctions whatsoever! I was a little sad when I ran out of ammo as I wanted to shoot some more. It grouped beautifully from the 10 and 15 yard line. I did not test it for accuraccy at the 25 yard line because my primary concern was the reliability. The tightest group was with the 230 grain Federal Hydra-Shoks. So after all this, I guess all I'm trying to say is that if you experience FTEs, make sure you check the extractor AND the barrel link for timing. I hope this helps. I'm still really glad I didn't pass this pistol up as it turns out, a $4 link solved all of my problems.
