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Getting Discouraged w/New Stock II - Failure to Feed


ALO11

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Let me start off by saying, new to the forum and sorry post is so long, trying to provide supporting info.

I have read a couple of threads on this topic but none of them seem to have any real resolution, and I'm starting to get discouraged with my fairly new purchase... :(

Here are all components in my stock II 9mm before people ask:

- Wolf long slide 8lb recoil spring (so as I understand it in a stock II that has regular slide length it's the equivalent to a 10lb recoil spring)

- Wolf reduced firing pin spring

- Henning gen 5 firing pin

- EGD extreme light hammer spring

- CGW reduced firing pin spring for trigger plunger spring

- CGW reduced sear spring

- I have done polishing on the components (trigger bar, plunger, hammer sides, breechface, a little on sear, center rib on slide) but haven't gotten crazy with this as it's not that big of a deal to me to chase the lightest possible trigger pull

With all the gun internal facts out of the way, here is what is getting me down and frustrated with the gun. I am having failure to feed problems and can't figure out how to resolve them. Usually happens on 2nd to last round in mag, sometimes on last round. My gun is fairly new, probably 1k-1.5k rounds through it. Has been happening since the beginning I believe (I installed lighter recoil and hammer spring shortly after I got it, and only had one range visit with stock spring so I don't remember if it had FTF issues with stock spring or not, but to me with everything I've read and people I've spoken with, the gun should run fine with the equivalent of a 10lb recoil spring so that shouldn't be the issue). I thought it may be the extractor so I bought a new one from EG's website. That didn't solve it. I didn't change extractor spring because I would think symptoms of worn out extractor spring would be failure to eject not feed (atleast in my mind). Thought may be stock mag, bought 2 other EAA mags from patriot defense, fails to feed with each one. One so much more frequent than the others and I noticed the follower can be angled up when the "nose" is pressed on unlike the other ones making you think a double feed could be likely (pic attached). Polished breechface to make sure there are no burs catching preventing rim from going under extractor. I've tried several brands of ammo, happens to each, some more than others. I've cleaned extractor removing any carbon buildup often.

I can't isolate the problem, so this becoming a very frustrating issue. I love the way the gun shoots but the reliability problems are getting me discouraged with the purchase, I haven't even brought it to a match yet because of them. It's getting very costly to troubleshoot because each time I try something I have to run at a minimum 100 rounds though the gun to get an idea if it worked, that with a range fee each time is racking up money.

Please help out someone who is new to tanfos! Is there a gunsmith or someone who is known in the tanfo community/industry who is a guru and works on these? I just want it resolved and shooting reliably so I can actually use it do what I purchased it for. As soon as I figure out how I'll attach some pics (doing this from phone right now)

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There are plenty of this going on with the new batch of Stock 2/Limited Pro.

The solution is rather easy.

Take 2000 grit sand paper, sand down:

1. Breech face

2. The front rib edge of the slide (in fact do it for the back rib edge too as it also helps smoothing the cycle)

3. Repeat step #1 and #2 with a Dremel felt polishing head + BlueMagic (or your preferred polishing compound)

The end result should be a very shining and mirror like breech face, and a very very smooth front rib edge.

This fixed my FTF problem that happens on the 2nd to last round in the mag. I have tried switching mags, new mags, old mags, changing OAL of my handloads, etc. None worked until I did the above. Good luck!

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There are plenty of this going on with the new batch of Stock 2/Limited Pro.

The solution is rather easy.

Take 2000 grit sand paper, sand down:

1. Breech face

2. The front rib edge of the slide (in fact do it for the back rib edge too as it also helps smoothing the cycle)

3. Repeat step #1 and #2 with a Dremel felt polishing head + BlueMagic (or your preferred polishing compound)

The end result should be a very shining and mirror like breech face, and a very very smooth front rib edge.

This fixed my FTF problem that happens on the 2nd to last round in the mag. I have tried switching mags, new mags, old mags, changing OAL of my handloads, etc. None worked until I did the above. Good luck!

I already polished the breech face and rib somewhat, but could probably do a better job. Are you basically trying to chamfer the rib edge so it isn't square? How tight does your case fit under the extractor? For both my extractors it takes a little force to get the rim to slide under the extractor and I can shake the slide vigorously and the bullet still won't fall out, hence why I originally thought maybe the extractor was too tight and bought another one, but the new one was the same. I will say, if this is indeed the problem, you would think for a gun that cost this much you wouldn't have to "gunsmith" it to run correctly.

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If the issue is that the 2nd to last round having trouble to feed due to the next round also pulled up, then polishing the rib would help.

If the issue is stovepipe, most people find extra power extractor spring helpful.

I solve my Stock 2 2nd to last round issue with the polishing, and my Limited Pro stovepipe issue with an extra power extractor spring. The extractor should be pretty tight on the rim, certainly the brass won't fall loose just by shaking the slide. Mine has enough force to hold the brass in there until I use some force to pry it out with my fingers.

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Don't know if the fact one magazine does it more often than another would indicate a magazine problem. But it might. One of my S2's came with a defective magazine catch which caused a magazine seating problem. I replaced the mag catch, spring and plunger and it now works fine. My other S2 would sometimes jam on the next to last round also. I replaced the extractor ( made sure it was one marked with a 9 for 9mm gun) , reused the stock extractor spring, and stoned a slight radius on the front corner of the slide rib. This seems to have worked on mine since I have run 2500 rounds with no failures. Recently I have been running mecgar magazines with Henning base extensions and Grams springs and followers. Keep trying, S2's are great shooters when you get them running.

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There are plenty of this going on with the new batch of Stock 2/Limited Pro.

The solution is rather easy.

Take 2000 grit sand paper, sand down:

1. Breech face

2. The front rib edge of the slide (in fact do it for the back rib edge too as it also helps smoothing the cycle)

3. Repeat step #1 and #2 with a Dremel felt polishing head + BlueMagic (or your preferred polishing compound)

The end result should be a very shining and mirror like breech face, and a very very smooth front rib edge.

This fixed my FTF problem that happens on the 2nd to last round in the mag. I have tried switching mags, new mags, old mags, changing OAL of my handloads, etc. None worked until I did the above. Good luck!

Only thing I have to add, is that I use blue magic too, and it's the sh*t.

So is the intention to actually remove metal and radius the front rib edge so it is more rounded than square?

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Don't know if the fact one magazine does it more often than another would indicate a magazine problem. But it might. One of my S2's came with a defective magazine catch which caused a magazine seating problem. I replaced the mag catch, spring and plunger and it now works fine. My other S2 would sometimes jam on the next to last round also. I replaced the extractor ( made sure it was one marked with a 9 for 9mm gun) , reused the stock extractor spring, and stoned a slight radius on the front corner of the slide rib. This seems to have worked on mine since I have run 2500 rounds with no failures. Recently I have been running mecgar magazines with Henning base extensions and Grams springs and followers. Keep trying, S2's are great shooters when you get them running.

What sort of things would I notice if its what you mentioned? What made it obvious to you that it was a defective mag catch and a mag seating problem? My mags seem like they go in just fine, and release fine.

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There are plenty of this going on with the new batch of Stock 2/Limited Pro.

The solution is rather easy.

Take 2000 grit sand paper, sand down:

1. Breech face

2. The front rib edge of the slide (in fact do it for the back rib edge too as it also helps smoothing the cycle)

3. Repeat step #1 and #2 with a Dremel felt polishing head + BlueMagic (or your preferred polishing compound)

The end result should be a very shining and mirror like breech face, and a very very smooth front rib edge.

This fixed my FTF problem that happens on the 2nd to last round in the mag. I have tried switching mags, new mags, old mags, changing OAL of my handloads, etc. None worked until I did the above. Good luck!

Only thing I have to add, is that I use blue magic too, and it's the sh*t.

So is the intention to actually remove metal and radius the front rib edge so it is more rounded than square?

The goal is to remove any sharpness on the rib edge so that it does not pull the next round up when the current round is being chambered. Yes a round edge without any sharpness will work. You can check the round that is being pulled up causing the current round to FTF - you should see scratch marks on the brass. That would be the key indicator of rib edge being too sharp/with burrs.

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Your FTFs are identical to mine and I've done everything that is generically recommended, with polishing of a breech face, breaking the edge of the rib, changing recoil springs from 8 to 14 and back, and adjusting extractor, all without desired effect. I was ready to have the chamber reamed. Then, after discussing this with a pro gunsmith and carefully observing round's position during a misfeed, I came to a conclusion that I needed stronger mag springs. I got some Wolff extra power and went through some pains figuring out how to fit them into K9 mags. I've not had a stoppage since and I purposely use a mag that gave me the most misfeeds as my #1 mag.

I am hesitant to call this a final solution because I've not shot this gun a lot since then, just a couple of practice sessions and one match only. I do feel optimistic about it though.

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ALO11, My defective mag catch was making insertion difficult and not always locking the mag in position. If your mags go in easy and latch securely your catch should be fine. The sharp front edge on the rib tries to pull the round under the intended round forward I think. I was having the 3rd round from last trying to enter the chamber high since the 2nd round from last was nearly out of the magazine pushing up on the round above it. Many guns will slightly pull the top round still in the magazine a little forward with no problem but, if the round moves forward enough to tip up it causes a problem.

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Your FTFs are identical to mine and I've done everything that is generically recommended, with polishing of a breech face, breaking the edge of the rib, changing recoil springs from 8 to 14 and back, and adjusting extractor, all without desired effect. I was ready to have the chamber reamed. Then, after discussing this with a pro gunsmith and carefully observing round's position during a misfeed, I came to a conclusion that I needed stronger mag springs. I got some Wolff extra power and went through some pains figuring out how to fit them into K9 mags. I've not had a stoppage since and I purposely use a mag that gave me the most misfeeds as my #1 mag.

I am hesitant to call this a final solution because I've not shot this gun a lot since then, just a couple of practice sessions and one match only. I do feel optimistic about it though.

I'll go ahead and give polishing the center rib, breaking the rib edge, and getting the extra power mag springs a try. Which extra power wolf mag springs did you get, the +5% or +10%? I do have to say though, I would have thought a stronger mag spring would make the round underneath slide out more as the round above is chambered due to being pushed against each other more and therefore higher friction, but hey at this point I will try anything to get this gun reliably functional.

I'll report back after I get everything implemented and have a range day under my belt. Please keep the experiences and suggestions coming people. Thanks!

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AL, I used +10% Wolff. I specifically ID'd a mag that gave me several malfunctions and changed nothing but a spring. I required some clipping of the spring to put it on the locking plate. I now use that mag more than my other mags to get a more robust verification. My other mags, I just replaced the baseplates that don't require locking plates.

If you get a FTF and you can't tap the slide forward in place, and I assume that you can't just like I can't, it tells you that the cartridge and chamber are not coaxial. Assuming that your loads aren't outrageously long (which is why I use 115-124 gr factory ammo to trouble shoot my gun), either the chamber is not wide enough or the round doesn't get high enough up on the breach face. The latter could be affected by the timing of a gun (for example, oversprung gun), imperfections of a breach face, obstructions like that bottom edge or burrs around firing pin hole, extractor tension too high, or mag spring too weak. I personally dont believe we need a mirror shine on surfaces. My extractor seems OK, and this is how I arrived to mag springs as a possible culprit.

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YVK, the pictures above may not be the best but most of the time the round seems like it starts to go in the chamber, and the round does not go all the way up on the breech face under the extractor. I actually can bump the back of the slide and make it chamber correctly. That's why I originally thought maybe it was my extractor and bought another, but what are the odds of both extractors being bad, low I would hope, or else we need to start questioning tanfos manufacturing and quality assurance. I have previously polished the breechface (not necessarily mirror shine) but can't see or feel any burs on it.

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I think he ^^^ is right. I know how to mod the extractor to get more tension but I need to take a look at it again to see if the opposite can be done. Of course, you can always clip a tiny bit off that extractor spring and see if it helps. That said, a stronger mag spring might be enough to push it up in place.

It is probably worth it to play with recoil springs a bit. Too light may not have enough force to complete a slightly imperfect feed, too heavy will demand a very strong mag spring and perfect extractor tension. I am personally gonna stay between 10 and 12 lbs for now.

Let us know how it works. This is just a theory for now. Who knows, maybe it does need to be reamed. I'll report how mine runs after 1000-2000 rounds but I won't be shooting mine for a couple of weeks.

Edited by YVK
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Check your extractor for smooth travel. The machining for the extractor slot in the slide is typically bad and you may have burrs in the slot and around the pin hole. You can also polish the chamber, some barrels have rather rough chambers. Just polish the high spots you won't get all the tooling marks out.

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  • 1 month later...

So here's the update on the FTF's.  Sorry it took a while, been dealing with the aftermath of the flooding here in Louisiana.  I put the extra power mag springs in and broke down the slide center ribs front edge by radiusing and polishing it.  So far I've only been able to do one range trip so I'm not yet calling it complete success, but it's definitely promising.  I fired 250 rounds through the gun using all 3 mags with no feed problems.  I started with the mag that was giving me constant FTF's and put just under 100 rounds just through that mag.  I would only load 6-7 rounds in each mag to give the gun more opportunities to have the problem as most of the feed issues were on the last or 2nd to last round.  I was firing American Eagle 124 and 147 gr.  With only 250 through it I'm hesitant to say my issue is resolved but by far this is the longest streak with no issues the gun has had.

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