gose Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) Shot the Gold Elite for the first time today and had a bunch of FTEs. In pretty much all cases, the spent brass was caught between the slide and the barrel with a fresh round partially in the chamber. Also, the last round in each mag were usually not ejected and just rattling around loosely on top of the empty mag. The previous owner said that the gun was back to EAA for a tune-up just before he sold it, and all springs should be all new and shiny. One thing I did notice was that the hammer spring seemed extremely heavy, way heavier than on any of my other guns (or any of the mix of guns I compared with on the range). My suspicion is that EAA tunes these guns for running major and that together with the heavy hammer spring just wasnt enough to get reliable ejection with the loads I tried. I'm mostly shooting 3-gun and dont really need to run major, so the loads I had were up to maybe 155-160 in factor The first thing I was going to try is a lighter recoil and hammer spring. Any other ideas? Replace the extractor spring while I'm at it as well? ETA: this is a 9x19... Edited December 30, 2011 by gose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Have you tuned the depth of the extractor? If its not deep enough you will have FTE issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) Have you tuned the depth of the extractor? If its not deep enough you will have FTE issues. You need that for a 9x19 as well? Thought it was mainly for 38... Edited December 30, 2011 by gose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 They all need to be tuned Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nealio Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) My 9x19 limited gun would stovepipe like that when my recoil spring was too stiff. I was running a 10lb which worked fine for my 100gr@1300fps loads, but when I switched to 124gr@1050fps I started getting stovepipes like you describe. Putting in an 8lb recoil spring seemed to fix it. Edited December 30, 2011 by Nealio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Hepworth Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 (edited) sounds like my problems....try a wolf extra power extractor spring....then perhaps a light recoil spring. If it is new...might just need to work in a bit. Biggest thing to remember with tuning the extractor is that fitment and tension can be two different issues. Edited December 30, 2011 by Mo Hepworth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Do the hammer spring on your Golds seem very heavy as well? Not really sure what its supposed to feel like, but it was noticeably heavier than on any of the CZs, S_Is, SIGs, and 1911s I compared it to. Handing it around even resulted in a few "Wow, thats heavy..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mo Hepworth Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 yes...it is a 16lb hammer spring. Chuck a 15 or 14 in it and also use a Henning firing pin and you will also smooth out the action. Polish the breach face rail/ rail that runs over the hammer when it cycles to smooth out that movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 Update... (had a baby, so not much time to play around with my guns) Threw in a 14 lbs main spring and tried with 10, 8 and lastly a 6 lbs recoil spring. The loads tested were 125 and 131 pf, but neither worked. I'm still having extraction issues where the empty case sometimes gets stuck between slide and barrel and sometimes wont even make it out of the chamber (it falls out easy enough when I clear the jam, so its not really sticking in the chamber). Guess tuning the extractor is the next step... On the good side, no FTFs and the 14 lbs main spring seemed to set off the primers just fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted April 29, 2012 Share Posted April 29, 2012 (edited) Update... (had a baby, so not much time to play around with my guns) Threw in a 14 lbs main spring and tried with 10, 8 and lastly a 6 lbs recoil spring. The loads tested were 125 and 131 pf, but neither worked. I'm still having extraction issues where the empty case sometimes gets stuck between slide and barrel and sometimes wont even make it out of the chamber (it falls out easy enough when I clear the jam, so its not really sticking in the chamber). Guess tuning the extractor is the next step... On the good side, no FTFs and the 14 lbs main spring seemed to set off the primers just fine. Silly question, but I'll ask anyway: Are you sure the way you are gripping the gun isn't slowing down the slide: either the weak hand thumb rubbing against the slide, or the weak hand thumb pushing up on the slide release? Do you get the same FTE when shooting one handed? Chances are that it's the extractor tuning, though. CHA-LEE has a great instinct for these kind of things. I've been lucky that my guns have not had extractor issues other than simply breaking them after extended use. Edited April 29, 2012 by Skydiver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted April 29, 2012 Author Share Posted April 29, 2012 Examined the extractor a little more today and if this: http://henningshop.com/catalog/?Iit=59&Ict=17 is what its supposed to look like, then someone already did some serious filing on it. I'll order a new one so I have something to compare to before I waste time and ammo on an already "tuned" extractor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littletoe Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 make sure your mags are tuned correctly as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 make sure your mags are tuned correctly as well With the K series mags, I was under the impression that no tuning was required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pivoproseem Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 Have you run any 165PF+ ammo through it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littletoe Posted April 30, 2012 Share Posted April 30, 2012 i have 6 of the new mags and have had to tune 5....the last one just started to give me problems....its next to be tuned. the only problem seems to be a failure to fully eject spent rounds.....not sure why....i tuned them and all failures stopped.....running 100% again.....not saying that is the problem in this case but its worth checking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted May 2, 2012 Author Share Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) i have 6 of the new mags and have had to tune 5....the last one just started to give me problems....its next to be tuned. the only problem seems to be a failure to fully eject spent rounds.....not sure why....i tuned them and all failures stopped.....running 100% again.....not saying that is the problem in this case but its worth checking So, what tuning is needed for the mags? Though, in the case where the empty case is still sitting in the chamber, I doubt the mag has much to do with it, but I might be hitting several different issues here... Have you run any 165PF+ ammo through it? It will be used exclusively for 3-gun, so no need to run anything but minor loads through it. If I cant get it to work with minor loads, I'll get rid of it. I've seen too many cracked Tanfoglios to want to run major loads in it... Edited May 2, 2012 by gose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 i have 6 of the new mags and have had to tune 5....the last one just started to give me problems....its next to be tuned. the only problem seems to be a failure to fully eject spent rounds.....not sure why....i tuned them and all failures stopped.....running 100% again.....not saying that is the problem in this case but its worth checking So, what tuning is needed for the mags? Though, in the case where the empty case is still sitting in the chamber, I doubt the mag has much to do with it, but I might be hitting several different issues here... Have you run any 165PF+ ammo through it? It will be used exclusively for 3-gun, so no need to run anything but minor loads through it. If I cant get it to work with minor loads, I'll get rid of it. I've seen too many cracked Tanfoglios to want to run major loads in it... As I understand things, the Gold Elite was targeted for playing in the IPSC divisions where shooting major is the norm. I've heard of the 10mm issues because of the gun being undersprung, but in 9mm? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littletoe Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 The slides that are cracking are all on the steel and polymer guns.....the elite series are much better guns and you should have no issues with it.....as for the mags causing FTE....they sure will....i used to be skeptical as well ....now if i have a jam of any kind i will check my mags first and then look at other things Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
littletoe Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 if you want to get rid of it... let me know... ive been kinda looking for one in 9mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pivoproseem Posted May 2, 2012 Share Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) Unless you have one of the non-ported barrels that come with some Gold Teams, low power 9mm loads from a comped open gun is not a recipe for any sort of reliability. SHooting the ancient 9x21 gold team I used to have, the thing wouldn't work with a 14lb spring running 170pf. You should just buy a 9mm cone barrel, non-comped, to drop in. Edited May 2, 2012 by pivoproseem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted May 3, 2012 Author Share Posted May 3, 2012 (edited) Got my new extractor from Henning today and just like I suspected, the current one has pretty much every area and angle worn or "tuned" Top is the new one for reference. I'll throw in the new one and give it a spin without modifying anything else... Edited May 3, 2012 by gose Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted May 6, 2012 Author Share Posted May 6, 2012 Just back from the range after another ~250 rounds of testing. Ran a few mags with the 6lbs recoil spring without any FTEs and decided to try the 8 lbs one. Still no FTEs with the 125 and 131 pf loads, but I ended up with one FTE with the 120 pf load. Seems like the new extractor did the trick! Getting there... 25y accuracy seemed to be the same between the three loads, so I'll probably do another 500 round test with the 131 pf load for now. However, one of my mags was giving my an FTF on the last round, locking the slide open. Seemed like it might not have enough juice to go all the way back, since a light pull and release put it back in battery. It only happened a coupled of times with one of the mags, so thats the next thing to figure out, though its not really as big of a deal as the frequent FTEs and potentially a topic for a different thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skydiver Posted May 6, 2012 Share Posted May 6, 2012 Congrats! I know that you've been struggling to get past those issues for a while. I bet you are a much happier camper now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gose Posted May 29, 2012 Author Share Posted May 29, 2012 700 rounds and one match win later and still no issues Time to spend some money on it and really get it running.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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