Trouble shooting assistance please...

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JoeSlomo

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The culprit is a kimber custom TLE / RL II with about 6oo rounds through her now that is apparently possessed by demons.

Symptoms...

Right out of the box she was having having feed problems using the brand new 8 round kimber tac pro mags. 1st round would nose dive and get caught and stuck on the feed ramp when loading from slide lock, and slide would not go fully into battery. After some research I tried hand running her without the extractor, and she ran like butter.

Tweaked the extractor a bit to loosen er' up some, and the last time at the range she did better using the kimber tac pro mags I bought with the gun.

However, the 10 round wilsons I bought are now causing both failure to feed and failure to eject issues...

I would like to be able to use my darn mags as this gun is my potential IDPA / USPSA gun and is more accurate than my trusty springfield "guvment" model.

When hand running the slide, the round is extracted from the chamber no problem, but does not get ejected and seems like it is "stuck" on the extractor.

This does NOT happen when I chamber a round, drop mag, and attempt to eject, so I'm thinking the mags are the culprit.

Possible courses of action...

1. Re-tweak the extractor to loosen her up just a bit more.
2. Tweak the mags.
3. Take an 8lb sledge to my $30 mags.
4. Find an old priest and a young priest.

For extractor tension tweaking, I have a link that discusses a "shake" test that I am using as a reference. IE, round on breach face under extractor, shake to test...

For mag tweaking...well, I don't know. I didn't find much in the 1911 clinic thread about mag adjustments, and I don't know much about what I can do to them to enhance or change their performance characteristics.

Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.
 
First question...

Do it have an internal extractor like your Springfield? Or do it have an external extractor? The external extractor is known to cause problems, and Kimber was replacing the whole slide assembly to fix it.

If it has an extrnal extractor I'd call the company.
 
1911 mag tweaking, not much to it.

Hitting low on the ramp open the lips a bit. Hitting the barrel hood, close the lips a bit.

Make sure the follower is not binding, burrs on the follower or inside the mag are not too uncommon these days :(

--wally.
 
Thanks gents.

This particular model has the internal extractor.

Made another slight adjustment to reduce extractor tension and now it hand cycles as it should with all my mags. Now, to the range. :)
 
Second question Joe....

Isn't that pistol a bit expensive to come out of the box with an improperally fitted extractor??? Somethin you maybe should ask Kimber...
 
Old Fuff - you have a very good point, but I can't tell you how many 1911's I have seen brand new [ working in a gun shop ] where the extractor is set on the tight side ! I think the people doing the assembly believes that the Extractor will loosen up after a "break-in" period. Of course, that should not be the case with a "good" extractor - you set it and it should be fine for thousands & thousands of rounds ! I think an improperly set Extractor is the number ONE cause of malfunctions in brand new 1911's ........... why they can't get such a simple thing right is beyond me.

JF.
 
Hey, Old Fuff,

In the wonderful world of 1911 clones, what does cost have to do with reliability? You need to recognize that the higher the price, the more things don't work. But if you pay a high price, you get to brag a lot about the company's customer service and how you sent the gun back 287 times and they were very nice about it. Also you get to score points posting here about how much your gun cost even if it won't fire three rounds without jamming.

It is only if you buy a cheap old Ruger that you actually expect the darned thing to work!

Jim
 
With any failure to feed...suspect the magazine(s) first. That you have bought the latest/greatest tactical magazines is no guarantee that they're good.

Opening and closing the feed lips on a wadcutter-type magazine is almost a guaranteed way to "fix" them so that they won't work in any gun. Old-style magazines...some would say obsolete, but I have to disagree...with the tapered feed lips allow some adjustment. Parallel feed lips with an abrupt release point...don't.

Magazines are not accessory items. The magazine is a removeable, expendable part of the system. If the magazine is wrong, the whole system shuts down.
 
Ha, I get to post again!

I don't get this magazine and extractor issue with Kimbers. I bought a used Kimber Stainless II from a fellow THR'r and have put thousands of rounds through it with NEVER! NOT ONE, FTF, FTE issue. External extractor version.

Well,... I've never shot a single round of factory ammo through it. But the Win HP's, Ball, Lyman or Hensley and Gibbs SWC's, or the Lyman TC bullets I pour and load, all feed, fire and eject fine. I use one Kimber, two Colt, two Randle, and two no-name brand mags with it without issue. NONE. They have different feed lips and different followers. The same mags that I would use in any other 1911.

I just don't get it. -And the price of a Kimber, compared to a Colt of equal tollarances... When I was looking for a 1911, Colts were more expensive. Don't get me wrong Mr. Keenan, I have several Colts, and love them. But higher price at the cost of reliability is not the issue here.

It's too late, but I would have suggested that JoeSlomo contact Kimber about the issue before tinkering with anything.


OldFuf, I will never question your knowledge of the designs of John Browning. You are one of the most knowledgable about them as I have ever had pleasure of conversing with, but... you asked whether his Kimber Custom TLE RL II had an internal or external extractor... I believe that the RL (dust cover under-rail), II, would be such a late series for Kimber that they would have discontinued the external extractor version years before this model became available.

http://www.kimberamerica.com/pistols/custom/custom_tle_rl_II


-Steve
 
Pity the Poor Ol' Fuff....

In his day there were the Government Model, Gold Cup and Commander. Now all of these companies have dozens of variants of sub-models, all with exotic names, usually starting with "Terminator." and including "Tactical" somewhere. Rather then research the whole Kimber line of pistols I simply ask, "what kind of extractor do it have???"

I should have known better....
 
Back from the range...

3...THREEE stoppages in say 150 ish rounds. Not good for the home team.

The good news is that I had NO rounds get caught on the ramp.

The 3 stoppages were all the same thing. 2 x failure to go fully into battery that simply required a small push on the slide, and 1 x failure to go fully into battery that required me to pull the slide back a bit before it finally chambered / went fully into battery.

I haven't messed with the mags at all, only the extractor, which I will continue to futz with. :)

I don't get this magazine and extractor issue with Kimbers.
Click to expand...

Me neither.

I have used my trusty springfield "guvment" model for thousands of rounds with NO reliability issues. I trust that thing with my life, and have NO gripes with the 1911 design.

This Kimber? Not so much. Not until it EARNS my trust.

The ONLY reason I bought the thing is because my buddie has TWO Kimbers and they are both more accurate than my springer, and they do NOT have the reliability issues that my demon seed pistol currently has. I bought the same model that he owns (Custom TLE RL II)... The intended use is for IDPA / USPSA local competitions.

Needless to say I'm pretty ticked about this, but I feel confident that I can get er' up and running.

Isn't that pistol a bit expensive to come out of the box with an improperally fitted extractor??? Somethin you maybe should ask Kimber...
Click to expand...

Absolutely.
 
No pitty for the Oldfuff.. To be honest, I double checked the model before I assumed one way or the other. Asking, to be sure, was also a correct option.

Tuner,

Why? So they can tell him that he's limp-wristing the gun,
Click to expand...

No sir! I would demand that any gun manufacture 'fix' such an issue.

-Steve
 
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