Odd FTE

[BigO]

I was shooting my Full sized Charles Daly this evening and while I had several FTRTB with my reloads it ran almost perfectly with Winchester White Ball with the exception of two stoppages . One the bullet nosedived into the ramp , and the other was the FTE . The casing was in the process of being ejexted as it was in the extractor and was stood almost completely up leaning away from the ejection port yet the odd thing was the rim of the case had fed back into the magazine . The follower was slightly depressed as this was the last round in the mag . Magazine was a brand new Wilson 47D .

I am thinking it is a extractor that is a bit too tight since I am getting the FTRTB with reloads or a dirty extractor tunnel or perhaps both .

When I chacked the extraxtor tension a couple of weeks ago I could shake the slide pretty hard and a round wouldn't move at all .

Dose this sound like the problem to those of you with more experience than I at fixing these sort of problems ?

If this is correct why is it the weapon functions so well with ball and chokes badly with my 200 gr semiwadcutters ?

I polished the frame and barrel ramp and functioning has improved quite a bit but it still has far more FTRTB's than is acceptable .

Could extractor tension have been the real problem all the time ?

[1911Tuner]

Hi BigO,

Excessive extractor tension can cause nose-dives, and contribute heavily to Semt Bind/3-Point Jam. The other player in the situation can also be the distance between the breech face guide blocks (rails) on the underside of the breechface, if it's too narrow. Remove the extractor and take the measurement 2-3 times to make sure you've getting a consistent read. The minimum distance for feed/RTB reliability is .484 inch, and .488-.490 is better.

If that's okay, chack to see if the bottom edge of the tensioning wall....the area behind the hook that presses against the rim...is protruding past the corner of the guide block. There has to be some protrusion in order for the extractor to put tension on the rim, but the bottom corner can act as a speed bump and cause problems while the round is still at the maximum angle of entry. Cutting a bevel at that corner acts as a camming surface to more gradually spring the extractor open, and allow the round to start to break over toward horizontal before the tension grabs it.

Don't get too carried away with the bevel. If it extends too far into the wall, tension and grip on the rim is lost. About a fourth to a third of the way in works best, depending on the width of the hook. Cutting a light radius on the bottom corner of the hook itself can also help, as can cutting an angle
on the bottom of the hook...back to front...that allows smooth entry into the tensioning wall as the round enters at an angle. See the photo below, but understand that the modifications shown are exaggerated, and these cuts should be done carefully, a little at a time, until things start to improve.

Hook/Claw depth...from tip to wall...can also cause problems. About .034-.036 is the range you want. Measure from the back of the stem to the tip of the hook...then from the back of the stem to wall...and subtract.

Stand by...Gotta go find the pictures.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e243/1911Tuner/extractor.gif

[BigO]

Thank you Tuner .
I am betting it is a simple matter of tension because this gun was running very well prior to my sending it in to the Manufactor for repair . The recoil spring plug had broken on me a couple of times , and the barrel bushing had been butchered by someone at the factory , the plug sat off center and I thought the slide had been machined incorrectly at the factory . They assured me that this wasn't the case and simply replaced the bushing with one that hadn't been ground on and sent me the gun back "would you beleive it took them 4 weeks to replace a bushing and return it?" . When I took it to the range it was now a very nice jammomatic which it wasn't prior to sending it in .
So I am thinking they played around with the extractor tension while they had it .

I will adjust the tension and clean the tunnel first and test before proceding with any alterations . It will be at least a week or so before I can get it to a range again as it is an hour drive to anywhere I can shoot . Isn't it nice to live in a civilized world ? LOL

Thanks again