The 9th round! failure to return to battery on NEW EAA witness Mat

[SDgecko]

First I have to say I love shooting my Witness match.

Second, this is the mecca of all information on witness pistols, so I think this might be my last resort before turning to either EAA or a gunsmith....

I writing to find out if anyone has ever had a rather strange issue with a new EAA witness match 9mm giving a strangely consistent failure to feed (specifically, the round appears to be only 20% in battery) on ONLY the second to last round in the magazine. Requires a quick slide rack to dislodge the offending cartridge, which can be successfully chambered by recoil operation at any position in subsequent shooting, except the second to last round in the magazine.

Less commonly (2%?), I have a 90% failure to return to battery situation, but I can smack the back of the slide to fully chamber the round.

So far, the following variables have been explored:

-Ammo (115 grain, 124, 3 different manufacturers)

-Magazines (both a new Mecgar 10 rd and a 10/17 factory mag) Both have black followers.

-Shooters (3 different people, different experience levels)

-"breakin" period (>600 rounds through the gun)

-cleaning/field strip (straight from factory, or cleaned/oiled by me)

-Various combinations of rounds loaded in the magazine

eg: put 4 rounds in, ftf on round 3. put 3 rounds in, ftf on round 2

Problem persists.

The only consistent difference in feeding I can feel is that pushing the last two rounds (#9 and 10) out of the magazine with my finger is extremely difficult compared to all the rounds before it. Manually racking the slide on a full magazine fails to reproduce the problem.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

--Sean

[Hi-Power Jack]

Two thoughts before the EAA experts chime in:

1. you mention you oil the gun - have you tried some of BE's gun grease?

2. you might try to load the mags to capacity and let them stand, loaded,

for a day or two. See if that helps.

Sounds like there might be a burr in the mags that needs to be smoothed out?

Good luck with it.

[GrumpyOne]

Jack is on to something with loading the mags and letting them sit...

As for not going back into battery, take some fine sand paper and polish the underside of the slide that drags on the rounds in the mag...much like we do on CZ's....that might help....what is probably happening is the drag is slowing down the slide and not leaving enough momentum to fully seat the round in the barrel. Do a search for polishing underside of the CZ slide...

[aceinyerface]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdF-5BOdbBo&feature=player_embedded

Inspect your mags as in the video

[kneelingatlas]

One thing to add to Grumpy's advice: use a file to put a slight bevel on the bottom edge of the breech on the slide, not a lot, just enough so it isn't sharp.

[kneelingatlas]

The SD in your screen name doesn't mean you're in San Diego does it?

[SDgecko]

Thanks for all the feedback! I spent so much time focused on the magazine, that I didn't think much about slide return hangups.

Let me preface kneelingatlas' question by firmly stating for the record that all 17 rd magazine inspections were performed across the border in arizona. Yep, I'm in San diego.

--magazines all look great; no play in the follower (up or down tilt), no resistance to pushing follower down, unable to tilt the top bullet. They seem to be doing a good job, other than the tight resistance to feeding out round #9.

--feels pretty darn smooth in there, and if you just press the follower all the way to the bottom with a pencil, you can't feel any hangups.

-Mags are now loaded to capacity and simmering.

-I'll study up on putting the slight bevel on the bottom of the breach, and polishing the underside of the slide as well.

-will order some of the BE gun grease...i'm thinking medium. I'm pretty tired of it slinging oil anyway.

Investigating this potential slide issue, I would say the drag is exceptional once the slide comes in contact with the top of the trigger...the finish is already worn off there. Is this normal? I know it has to contact there to reset the hammer, but it seems pretty tight.

I'm heading back to Iowa for christmas on friday, and flying with the witness. I'll follow up with a range report after I try these suggestions. There's also another 17rd factory mag waiting for me there, so I'll see how that performs before it becomes "permanently" CA legal for the return journey.

[Nealio]

To back up what Hi-Power Jack said; I only run grease on my guns. You can go for thousands of rounds with smooth operation, where oil only lasts 6-800. Also you can just use Lupriplate SFL-1 instead of the spendy foo foo Slide Glide.

[BiggMike]

To back up what Hi-Power Jack said; I only run grease on my guns. You can go for thousands of rounds with smooth operation, where oil only lasts 6-800. Also you can just use Lupriplate SFL-1 instead of the spendy foo foo Slide Glide.

+1

[SDgecko]

range update:

-beveled the bottom of the breach face with a file ever so slightly, then polished it

-polished the bottom middle rail of the slide.

-beveled the lower back of the slide where it picks up the hammer.

- removed the extracter,lubricated the arm good with clp. worked it back and forth for about 10 min.

- lithium moly grease from the automotive store on the barrel, slide. clp on everything else

initial impression: the slide action is now very, very smooth during racking.

3 different magazines (10,10,17), 150 rds later (aguila, american eagle, blazer 115 grain). not a single failure!

let's hope it wasn't just the weather in Iowa (35f).

thanks again everyone for the awesome advice! looks like one of those things (or maybe all) may have done the trick

[echase1]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdF-5BOdbBo&feature=player_embedded

Inspect your mags as in the video

Does anyone know how to fix k9 mags with these issues? I have been having issues with the 9th round as this thread and I have several mags that the follower will tilt up on like this video demonstrates.

Thanks!

[himurax13]

Well the video seems to elude to the fact that the followers labeled with #2 have the issue.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

[echase1]

I am seeing this issue with both the number 1 and number 2 followers

Sent from my SM-N915V using Tapatalk

[Nealio]

Do you use a "U-die" when you resize?

[echase1]

Do you use a "U-die" when you resize?

Yes, I do.

Sent from my SM-N915V using Tapatalk

[leemoe83]

I think the issue is the sharp edge at the bottom of the breach face biting into the round underneath the cartridge being fed. I checked all of my mags and they all tilt upwards but with a round in the mag this is impossible. The follower can only tilt when the front face that contacts the slide lock/release lever has cleared the cutout in the front of the magazine which it cannot do until the magazine is empty. This would only cause an issue if the follower tilts upwards after all rounds have been fired and prevents the slide from reciprocating and or the slide is dropped on the empty mag with the follower tilted upwards and the edge of the breach face bites into it jamming it up. The slide release also keeps the follower from tilting up when in the gun. I have had 4 failures to feed and felt a few hiccups is return to battery were something hung up momentarily and then the slide went forward. 2 failure to feeds happened in the initial 1000 rounds and I didn't get to worked up over it. The other 2 happened in a match and I didn't have time to examine the issue. But during some slide hang ups I have found some empty cases with dent in the middle of the case. I am going to bevel the edge on the breach face, shoot 1000 rounds, and report back.

[leemoe83]

Okay, it was the extractor not letting the round slide up the breechface. Replaced the extractor and it feeds much smoother but had 1 failure to eject. Case stuck parallel to bore and started feeding next round. Go figure.

[Nealio]

Make sure to check your extractor tension with the new extractor