RickyD

2023 Open Nationals, left my mag loader at home. Loading my 29rd big stick by hand, 3 to 4 times a day, 3 days in a row was not something I want to do again. There is now a mag loader in any bag that MIGHT go to a range.

I recently had Don build and install a new 9 Major top end on an old STI frame from another open gun. The whole process was quick and painless. Don recieved the frame on April 1st and started the project about two weeks later. He started on a Thursday and I had the gun back on the following Thursday. He kept me informed of the progress almost daily. I could not be more pleased with the finished product. I have about 800 rounds thru it so far and it has been absolutely reliable, could not ask for better. I chose Venom Custom because of the opinions expressed in this thread and found everything said about Don to be true. There are pictures of it in the white posted on the Venom Custom Facebook page, it's the top end for Rick.

Will there be a model that fits a Caspian square trigger guard frame?

I had a chance to try a Wolff 9lb recoil spring today. This was the 4th firing on this 100 rounds of brass since it was new. I had 8 failures to eject. All the rest of the cases were landing 2 to3 feet away., This is the same pattern I have been seeing with this malfunction. So, it appears the recoil spring weight isn't the cause. I do however like the way the gun felt with the 9lb spring so I guess something good did come out of it. Before I shot the 100 rounds, I chrono'ed 10 rounds of new brass and then 10 rounds of fired brass.I used a different chrono to see if maybe my chrono was giving me false velocity readings. My load on my chrono come out to be a 172.2PF. On my friends chrono it works out to a 172.0PF with the new brass and 170.98 with the fired brass. It seem that my chrono is telling me the truth and that the load is the same as has worked 100% before. I knew I was going to have trouble today because the gun FTE'd on the 4th chrono round of the fired brass. While I had the gun disassembled for cleaning, using a head band magnifier, I examined all the things that have been suggested. I didn't find any cracked areas on the slide or frame. The barrel link looked good. The barrel lugs and mating surfaces in the slide do not show any peening. I separated the cases that malfunctioned as they occured to examine when I got home. I was careful not to let the cases hit the ground so any damage to the case would have to have happened in the gun. What I found was a scratch down the side of the case starting approx. 5/32" from the case mouth and ending 2/32" from the extractor groove. The scratch is deep enough to feel by running my thumb nail over it. All the other cases have this scratch also. This may not mean anything but at this point, I am willing to consider most anything. Once again, thank you all for the ideas and suggestions.

Thank you all for the suggestions, I will investigate each one. On the possible cracked grip, that was the first thing I considered. A new grip was installed but the problem remained. I have two new 9lb recoil springs that I'm going to try this weekend. One is a variable and the other conventional. I suppose it's possible this could be the cause but since the gun will run 100% with this load in new brass and a 10lb spring, I'm doubtful of any improvement. On any changes to the gun from when it ran to now, there were no changes made. The weekend before this problem occured, I had shot a 150 round club match with twice fired brass and it ran flawlessly as it normally did. The gun was cleaned after this match and dry fired the following week. I went for my weekly practice session the next weekend, using the same ammo that had run fine in the match and had 7 failures to eject. Needless to say, I was stunned. The gun had never done that before. After trying to get it to run with once and twice fired brass without success, I loaded new brass and it functioned fine. Next I decided to try new and fired brass in the same session. I took 400 rounds, 200 new, 100 once fired and 100 4 times fired. The results in order of firing were, 100 new brass = no failure to eject, all spent cases landed 6 to7 feet away. 100 once fired brass = 2 failure to eject, spent cases landed 4 to5 feet away. 100 4 times fired brass = 6 failure to eject, all brass landed 1 to 2 feet away 100 new brass = no failure to eject, all brass landed 5 to 6 feet away. All rounds were fired without any cleaning or lube being done during the session. I find it puzzling that the gun will have a total of 8 failures with fired brass then run like a swiss watch with new brass. The failures do not seem to be mag dependent either. They occur regardless of which mag is in use. In fact, I can chamber a round loaded with fired brass, remove the mag, fire the chambered round and get the same failure. I will confirm my load PF on a different chrono this weekend in case my chrono is lying to me. The powder charge weighs out to within .1 grains of what it has always been so, I don't hold much hope of excess pressure being the cause. Thank all of you for your help. This is truly bizarre. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I am having an odd failure to eject problem and would like your thoughts on a possible cause. The gun is a Rusty Kidd 6" Viper in 38SC. I am the original owner so this problem is very unusual for this gun. The problem is a failure to eject in that the extracted case either remains under the extractor on the breach face or will stove pipe. This does not happen with unfired brass but gets progressively more frequent as the number of loadings on the brass increases. With 5 loadings, I am getting 7 or 8 FTE in 100 rounds. The load is 8.5gr of N350 under a MTG 124gr CMJ bullet. This is a 172 PF out of this gun. I have shot this load for years without problem. I chrono each new batch of powder to maintain a consistant PF. It appears as though something is impeding the rearward travel of the slide. On ocassion, the slide will not go back far enough to cock the hammer. I can not find any indication of anything rubbing the outside of the slide. The safeties are Swenson with thumb shields so I'm not getting on the slide with my thumbs. I have paid close attention to my grip and limp wristing doesn't appear to be the problem. The chamber has been polished to a mirror finish so, I don't feel a rough chamber is the cause. A new 38SC AFTEC extractor has been installed with no effect on the problem as the problem existed before the extractor change. The ejector isn't damaged in any way and is firmly mounted in the frame. I am running a 10lb variable Wolf recoil spring and have run this type spring with no problems ever since the PF was lowered. The ammo is loaded on a Dillion RL450 and chamber checks good with both new and fired brass I am left with the feeling this might be brass related since it doesn't occur with virgin brass and gets progressively worse with each loading. I have only used Starline 38SC brass in the gun. It has run flawlessly until recently, then out of the blue the FTE popped up. Could Starline have changed the formulation of the brass? Rusty has had the gun back and couldn't find anything obviously wrong. Any ideas are appreciated, Thank you, Rick