Greg G Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 I have a friend of mine who has an sti slide and barrel in 38 super on a pachmyer frame (pretty sure it is a pachmyer frame anyway). It has been working without problems until now. When the pistol fires the slide comes back all the way but the case does not eject it gets fed back into the chamber. We were looking at it for a while the other day at the range and I simply cannot work out what is happening. This is weirding me out because: - The pistol is not short stroking - The primer strikes are normal - The extractor will keep an empty case against the breachface - If the pistol is hand cycled it will feed an eject entire magazine without any problems - it exhibits the same problem when only a single round is loaded and the magazine is removed - The hammer is cocked when the pistol goes back into battery feeding the empty case. The loads and the recoil spring have not been altered at all we even tried hotter loads to see if if was sort stroking, he is running a 12lb recoil spring and what feels like a 17lb mainspring, the loads would be about 130 PF. Anyone got any ideas what might be the cause of this? It is causing me to lose hair on his behalf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zorba Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Is the ejector still there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg G Posted January 4, 2004 Author Share Posted January 4, 2004 Yep... the ejector works fine when it is hand cycled but cases do not eject when it is fired..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L9X25 Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 Greg, Is this a new gun or has it run before? My guess is that the gun is short cycling and not reaching the ejector. The hammer will cock with the slightest rearward movement and a full cycle would cause the slide to strip a fresh round from the magazine, regardless if the empty had been ejected or not. The two facts that the ejector works when being hand cycled together with the fact that it is not stripping a new round from the magazine tells me that the slide is not cycling completely. Just a guess, has the barrel link been recently replaced? A short barrel link can trap the slide preventing full travel and a too long link can do something similar by not pulling the barrel out of battery. If the link is not broken, and has not been changed, you might just try a lighter recoil spring to see if that improves the situation. If the slide/frame/barrel fit is tight it may be robbing enough energy that it does not cycle completely. Good luck, Leo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg G Posted January 4, 2004 Author Share Posted January 4, 2004 Thanks Leo, from what I've been told it simply stopped after working fine after a few months. My first reaction was short stroking but it has been running the same load and spring combo for a few months reliably, not being my pistola I'm not 100% on the situation but the shooter is a pretty experienced master grade IPSC shooter and knows his stuff. I am thinking that maybe the ejector has been chipped or something but I don't know what shape it was when it was working. It's definitely not an extended ejector though, might ask him to try a new ejector. Thanks for the reply =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duane Thomas Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 Not sure if this will help, but a very experienced pistolsmith once told me, "Whenever a previously 100 percent reliable auto pistol suddenly starts choking, the first question you should ask yourself is, "What did I change?" If your friend recently changed something, either in the gun, ammunition, or his technique, that's probably the culprit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Chevalier Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 If the answer to Duane's question is "no changes" I would be very inclined to pop in an extended ejector and test fire a few rounds. If the gun ejects then, you know the preexisting one got chipped enough that it impacts performance under load. If the ejector is the cause, your gunsmith should be able to tune it properly. Alternatively, if you are comfortable doing some work yourself (or your friend is) Bob Londrigan had an excellent article in Front Sight a few months back on properly tuning an ejector. Cheers, Ross Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bountyhunter Posted January 5, 2004 Share Posted January 5, 2004 - The extractor will keep an empty case against the breachface Mkae sure the tip of the hook is square and sharp. If not, it's possible for the extractor to slip the rim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg G Posted January 6, 2004 Author Share Posted January 6, 2004 Thanks for all the suggestions guys, looks like some more time down the range or a trip to the gunsmith. Might try looking more closely at the extractor, thanks for the advice it looked to me that the ejector was very short we'll have to have a better look next time... Ross, we don't receive front sight here in Australia =( wish I did I keep hearing about all these useful articles in it.. might have a search and see if I can get hold of it in Aust... Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Schwab Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Greg G, Has the cause been diagnosed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pdhsc Posted March 18, 2004 Share Posted March 18, 2004 I have seen this 3 times in the past 2-3 years. It is more prevalent with supercomp or rimless but I have seen it with super. The breech face is a little sloppy and the case actually rides up enought to let the ejector slide underneath it, and then the hot case is pushed partially back into the chamber. The best way to fix it is to replace the ejector with an extra tall "not long" one. I believe that both BP and Ghost products sale a tall one. The slide will usually have to be dressed up a little to allow it to fit properly. Hope this helps. This problem can be very frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg G Posted March 18, 2004 Author Share Posted March 18, 2004 Thanks guys.... replaced the ejector and it now works 100%... =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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