P_R

Chris, Here's a good exercise routine to get you started. My favorite part comes in at 2:24. Please do the whole routine and report back with a video of your accomplishments!

OK. I took off a little extractor tension and that really helped the cases come out of there better. However, the last couple shots resulted in one failure to extract at all and one where the spent case wound up wedged in the ejection port when the slide came forward. I took the extractor out and compared it to an aftec. I noticed that the aftec had a lot deeper hook. Plus on closer inspection I noticed the extractor was way less than smooth where the case head would slide up against it. So I filed that gouged up surface down which also resulted in making the hook deeper. Left the tension alone, put it back in the gun and shot again. No problems. I'm going to leave it like this for more testing. I'm in severe ammo conservation mode now, so it'll take a little while before I'm certain whether this fixed it or not. One thing that still bugs me is that the ejected brass really come out to the back instead of off to the side. I'd like to figure that one out at some point since every so often I'll get a piece of brass hitting me.

I searched the forums and failed to find the answers to two issues I have with a new gun. I wonder if the problems might be related. Issue #1: Weak ejection. While it never fails to eject, brass always just seems to barely come out of the gun. Typically it lands around my right foot. Issue #2: Occassional FTF's. The gun feeds and goes almost all the way into battery but the slide stops about .1" short. It takes just a slight bump to get it to finish going all the way forward. I'd say this happens about one out of 20 shots. Background: STI Spartan, factory barrel, factory extractor. No work done on it that I know of. Dawson mags. Ammo = 4.2gr TG, 124gr Precision bulets. Lube = Rem Oil Extractor tension = I have to definitely push the case head up underneath the extractor claw. Once I get in a loaded round up under the extractor I can vigorously shake the slide and it won't fly out. It certain doesn't rattle around under the extractor at all. Tried various weight recoil springs - no change. Tried removing shock buffer - no change Tried polishing the inside of the extractor. Even tried cleaning the gun - still no change! My thoughts: It seems like both issues could be due to slow slide speed. Or Maybe the extrator is too tight?? (In fact as I write this and think about it, I'm betting this is it. I'll make an adjustment and post again with results.) Thank you much for any insight you're willing to share.

I'm left eye dominant and right handed. When I cut over to shooting a rifle left handed, my scores went up almost immediately. I still shot a pistol right handed for awhile. But then I decided to shoot everything left handed, and it wasn't to long before I was better than before. So I say maybe be a little more open minded about what might work and what won't work. It seems you never really know until you give it a good honest try.

I practice and practice, but I can't seem to get a lot better. So I had someone video me at a match the other day. Here's a pretty good stage for me, but I think I see a huge issue. I think there's major tension through my shoulders and traps when I shoot. I draw, then my shoulders come way up. Then I move to the next shooting position and my shoulders drop down only to come up again when I start shooting. Finally, at the end, when I get done with the stage, my shoulders drop down again to a relaxed position. I'd be curious to hear any thoughts as well as some ideas for drills or something to help me get out of this habit. Thanks for your time. http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/jj245/P_R_photos/?action=view&current=155.mp4

Okay, I just got back from changing out the FP spring. I took it out of there and it was broken. I'll be curious to see if that was the issue. If I don't have any more issues with it in the next few times I shoot, then I'll put another reply back here for the sake of future troubleshooters.

I decided to try to search feature again. Turns out my searchfoo was pretty weak. It helps if you pay attention to the search section box. Quite a bunch of stuff comes up in the gunsmithing section. Anyway, I found a few sites with function tests for 1911's and ran through all of them. It passed. I see there's now another another mention of the disconnect polishing issue. I find myself conflicted on this because that did indeed change so it would make sense to look at the disconnect for the problem. But on the other hand I just have trouble with the analysis that brushing away a few molecules of metal off the disconnect would do this. I can't imagine that the tolerance between good and bad are THAT tight. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just have trouble wrapping my head around that one. I'm going to try a new firing pin spring first - at least until the gunsmith returns my call. I'll definitely keep that disconnect in mind if the quick and simple fix doesn't work. I'd still be curious to know if there's some way to figure out whether the hammer followed of if the firing pin floated forward a little bit. One thing that's got me just a little curious is the reason the gun wasn't feeding before seems to have been that the cartridge was hanging up just a little bit on the extractor. This would have caused the slide to slow down a little bit before going into battery. So now that I've got the cases are slipping up under the extractor better, there's less slowing of the slide before it goes into battery, making it more likely that the firing pin would fly forward as the slide stops. Does this make sense?

You guys really helped me out with the problem of my open gun failing to feed. I wound up rounding the lower corner of my extractor just a little bit, and polishing it up some. I think that really helped. I also did a little polishing on the ramp of the barrel, the breech face and and the top of the disconnector. So it's feeding well, but now I notice that on two occasions it has doubled. I thought I might have imagined it the first time. But the second time I decided that's what it must be doing. I've read all kinds of diagnoses out there - hammer hooks or sear worn seem to be the most common issues. Spring tensions were discussed. But one person said an overpolished disconnect could do it. Since that's all that changed recently, I wondered if anyone here would concur that a disconnect that's too polished could cause this issue. I also kind of wonder if my increased amount of shooting lately might be sufficient to require that I change out some springs (leaf spring, firing pin spring...). I've never changed my firing pin spring. I'd be interested to know if most doubles are the result of firing pin issues - FP stuck forward on rifle going into battery or pin inertial issues OR are they more generally caused by the hammer falling for some reason. The two times this happened, it was real, real fast. The timer didn't even catch it. If my search-foo is weak, please advise on better search terms than "1911 double", "open gun doubling". I'm starting to lose my mojo with this gun. I just want something that runs and runs.

Okay, I thought I'd post an update on this. I took the a little bit of the corner off the aftec and polished it up real nice. I haven't had any issues with it since. I did reduce the OAL on my ammo to 1.236 (from 1.265) but it feeds both of them now. I intend to do the ramp polishing procedure described a few posts above. Thanks much for the help.

Wow! Thanks for all the fast replies. I checked my OAL - 1.265 with MG 124JHP's. So I might run a few a bit shorter to see if that helps. I also checked the crimp on the ammo. It seems like the the brass my be about a half a thousandth wider at the mouth than it is a 1/4" lower. So I might make an adjustment there. I also managed to recreate the problem by just hand cycling the slide. I noticed that when it happens the case head always seems stuck on the bottom corner of the extractor hook. I'm thinking hard of just giving that hook a tiny bit more of a radius. I really think that that looks like the problem. I was pretty zeroed in on looking at the inside of the extractor for the problem, but now that I look at it again, that low corner of the claw looks real suspicious. I'm going to do a search on extractor tuning now, but if you have any thoughts on the matter, please let me know. Thanks again for the help.

Hello. I have an open gun that was but by a local gunsmith. It seems to be choking (FTF) on the last few rounds of the magazine lately. It always looks like the picture below. I first thought of a new mag spring but that didn't help. I was then thinking of the extractor as the issue, but I took it to back to the gunsmith and he says the extractor (aftac) tension is just right. His solution was to run more lube on it and buy new brass (38SC). I took it out and ran it real wet and got the same results. My brass isn't that old and it certainly doesn't look so buggered up that it shouldn't run. One thing I find interesting is that when it chokes like this, I can't just give it a little tap on the back of the slide to make it go into battery. It's really stuck there. I have to really give it a hard bump or else ease the slide back just a little bit and let it go forward. I'm now running a 10 pound recoil spring on it with one shock buffer. Which mag in the gun seems to be irrelevant, but it always happens when the mag is almost empty. So the question is have I overlooked anything? Is the gunsmith BSing me with the buy new brass line? Thanks for any thoughts you might be willing to share and sorry for the crummy picture.