Failure to extract

[Severian]

I have a Pro 9mm. No FTE's except for rounds that I've failed to case guage and were too fat. Otherwise no problems at all. I run mine with a 11lb recoil spring. I have 10K rounds through the guns and never any problems that aren't my fault because I haven't gauged the reloads properly.

[Sin-ster]

9 Pro, 10k rounds on it as of today-- not a single FTE.

I did notice the crud building up beneath the extractor though-- cripes, it was staggering. Still, it never jumped the rim; guess I've got one with decent tolerances.

I DO, however, have it slip off of the AZoom snap cap every now and again, after the rim has been chewed up a little bit. (It's thin to begin with anyway.) So I can see it being an issue.

I've got the Apex FRE and SSS spring on stand by, just in case. FYI, I've heard that most (all?) of them need a little tuning after they're dropped in. I'm sure someone else with experience in that department can weigh in.

[mcracco]

I've got the Apex FRE and SSS spring on stand by, just in case. FYI, I've heard that most (all?) of them need a little tuning after they're dropped in. I'm sure someone else with experience in that department can weigh in.

The two 9's I did were drop ins. I believe you are likely to need to break the edges of the FRE with the 40, 357, 45 applications. Randy details this in the installation video.

[Sin-ster]

I've got the Apex FRE and SSS spring on stand by, just in case. FYI, I've heard that most (all?) of them need a little tuning after they're dropped in. I'm sure someone else with experience in that department can weigh in.

The two 9's I did were drop ins. I believe you are likely to need to break the edges of the FRE with the 40, 357, 45 applications. Randy details this in the installation video.

I had someone drop one into a 9mm and continued to have problems until he broke the edge. Thought I'd heard that from several other sources as well, but YMMV.

[SlappyM&P]

Range Update! My gunsmithing didn't work. I had a FTE at the last match on the first stage. Once the malfunction was cleard, it ran perfect for the next two stages. I'm not taking any more chances so I installed the Apex FRE last night. So....... back to the range for reliabilty testing.

[splitime]

I wonder how hard it would be to isolate what is working for those of us who have 0 issues and compare it with those who are having issues.

Macro shots? Some measuring? Production years?

My 5" Pro is early 2011 Production I believe and my 4.25 Pro is late 2010 production.

0 Issues with either, 1-2k rounds in the 4.25 and probably around 700 in the 5".

One IDPA event so far and 0 failures in either pistol.

[rack&roll]

I also had FTE's until I installed an Apex failure resistant extractor. No FTE's since.

+1. Ditto. Caveat: The Apex failure proof extractor must be properly radiused polished and fit to be effective. Ask me how I know!? I sent mine to Randy and the boys & girls and they took care of me after my botched attempt to install it. Not that it's hard to do, but I didn't quite have the angle correct. Now...no more failures to extract with my .40 Pro Limited gun.

[Reaper11]

After 6,000 rounds through my M&P 9mm Pro, I had multiple FTE's during a single event. Never before had i had any issues at all, but in one match I had 7 FTE's. However, I sent it back to S&W and they fixed it at no cost to me and no questions. Great customer service.

[optiontrigger]

Have you measured the opening of the barrel chamber? I had an M&P9C that had stuck cases that needed huge amounts of force to unlock the slide. Sending the gun into S&W, they returned it after polishing the barrel and I continued to have problems and sent it back again. This time they gave me a new barrel and I haven't had that problem since.

The same exact problem occured to me with a Kel-Tec pistol and learning from the previous incident, I measured the chamber opening and found it to be smaller in diameter than the max outside diameter of the 9mm per the spec. It took the company two tries to find me a barrel that had the chamber sized correctly. Since then, it's run smooth.

[sierra77mk]

I wonder how hard it would be to isolate what is working for those of us who have 0 issues and compare it with those who are having issues.

Macro shots? Some measuring? Production years?

I wonder if it is the load and slide velocity. I NEVER have FTE's with 147 loads. Factory, Handloads, round nose or flat nose do not matter. As long as it's a 147 it works. When I try 115 or 124's I have cases left in the chamber and the round below it jams into bottom the empty case. A 115-124 with a faster recoiling slide might mean the extractor is slipping off of the rim and the 147's just make the reliability curve by being slower??? Nevertheless; I'll get an APEX and be done with it.