Jam That I Cannot Figure Out

[TMC]

My 6" SV with a Caspian slide is having problems. At any given time it will fail to feed and the cause is always small burs on the case rim which makes it stick on the breechface as it's trying to slide up. The burrs/nicks match up with the feed lips on the mag but I find it hard to believe that anything happening while the guns is recoiling can cause the case to hit the feed lips hard enough to cause these burrs.

These are mags I have had for years that have never given a problem in my other SV.

Most of the damaged cases are nickel but there have been a few brass.

It doesn't seem to be an individual mag as far as I can tell it.

Its not happening in the same place in the mag, meaning its not always the first or last round or at the same place in the mag, its just random.

Any ideas?

[Al Capizzo]

If you know who built the gun, wether for you originally or someone else, I'd contact the smith and ask him about it.

Most gunsmiths are proud of the work they've done and want it to run.

[TMC]

Thanks Al, but I built it, guess that makes it my problem, eh?

I've built a few guns but have never incountered this situation before. I was hoping someone might have.

[HSMITH]

Are you sure the nicks that are hanging it up are from the mag lips?

The three times my Limited gun has puked on me have all been from extractor gouges in the cases that happened some time before the cases met my Limited gun. A Case-Pro would eliminate my malfunctions entirely......

[TMC]

In trying to figure this out I checked all of the rounds I test fired and none had the marks. The nicks are not in the extractor groove but on the outside of the rim. The nicks make the case too wide for the breechface.

I have smoothed all of the mag feed lips and the bottom of the ejector. I'm going to try it at the club match tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

[Eager]

This was happening to me the other day. Weird cuts on the outside diameter of the rims and some nasty jams where the new cartridge wouldn't feed, but the mag wouldn't eject either. It looked like the mag lips were cutting the nicks, and the lips were expanded causing the mags to jam in the well. Later I noticed that several of my mags seemed to have expanded lips causing them not to drop free. I rubber malleted them back into shape. I have been looking for the rim cuts, but they haven't showed up in my last two outings, so I don't know what caused them or why they went away. This was with a single stack 1911.

Edited September 17, 2006 by Eager

[eric nielsen]

I don't know what's going wrong with your gun either but I think you'll have good luck if you explain the symptoms to Bob@Brazos [thru the forums] or George@ EGW-guns [thru his website] - they have both been very generous to me with their time & knowledge & they're 2 of the best gunsmiths ever, as well.

Also Benny Hill has probably made more 6" guns than anyone & should be able to help, too.

If you send photos or links to your 6" gun gallery I'm betting they will like what they see & be happy to get you & your creation up & running like a champ. It's a beautiful gun.

[Eager]

No luck in answering this huh?

Jeesh, I thought someone would have known what this was.

Edited September 19, 2006 by Eager

[TMC]

I wasn't able to make the match last weekend so I haven't tried the gun since polishing the mags and ejector.

[Guy Neill]

Some years back, a shooter had problems with his ammunition at a large match. We found it was due to inadequate crimp. I gave him half of my ammunition to finish the match.

Afterwords, he was complaining because some of my cases were (as I recall) Remington, and his breechface was too tight to allow the slightly larger diameter Remington rims to seat fully.

So, could your problem be similar, in that the case rim diameters for those having problems, be slightly large for the breechface? Something to check out.

Guy