Problem w/Springfield 1911 9mm

GunGeek

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I know all the diehards will laugh at me for buying a 1911 in 9mm. I have no problems with .45 and plan to get one soon, but I bought this to practice a 1911 frame with cheaper ammo, plus I got it almost new (400 rounds or so) for $550.

ANyways I am having a problem with it I can not figure out. When I first bought it it had a small problem, about 2 rounds out of a box of 50 would be a FTF, the round would enter the chamber but stop about 1/4 inch from fully seating, trying to move slide is tough but possible, often a push with my thumb on the slide will seat it. This happened for about 400 rounds. So I talked to a few people over that week and one day went home and used a felt brush on a dremel to smouth out the slide,bore and ramp. next day I brought it to the range and it chewed through 100 rounds with no problem. The slide was still a little tight so I figured I'd finish it up that night since it appeared I had found the problem.

That night I used the felt brush to smooth out the slide action a little more thinking let me make sure it is smooth and this problem never creaped up again. 2 days latter I go shoot it again and get almost a 1 in 2 FTF rate.

The rounds seem to scratch against the side of the chamber enough to hold up the round. If a round is chambered and moved in and out a few times it will have scratches at 2 points from the left side of the chamber. I have pulled out the barrel and a round will slide in the chamber with ease, it seems to me that the barrel is either slightly off alighnment or something on the slide is making the round push hard left or right. As I said before you can feel this as you try to work the slide with a round in the chamber.

Only thing I can see that may be the problem is a small burr in the slide where the case rim would rest oppisite the extractor. I don't have a file handy to work it off and it is to large to use the dremel felt wheel on (I tried). I hate to use anything on the dremel stronger then felt.


Any ideas on what could be wrong? I know it probably needs a gunsmith to work on it but I am really broke right now and just can't afford to send it to a smith without some idea of the cost. I am the second owner but the gun is under 6 months old, I am going to try and call Springfield Tuesday but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas first or had seen this problem before. Any help is appreciated.
 
Are you sure it's not a problem with the extractor?

Yes, the extractor can cause feed failures... keep in mind that as the round moves from the mag to the chamber it's rim has to slide up the breech face and under the extractor. If it doesn't slide up completely, then it tries to enter the chamber at an angle and stops.

Too much tension on the extractor, too little clearance under the hook of the extractor, too much friction with the breech face, can all lead to failures to feed.

Just something to check...along with using more than one magazine since an improper release point on the feed lips can cause feed failures as well.
 
Doing some research yesterday I started to suspect the extractor tension too. I think that mixed with this large burr in the slide might be the problem.

It happens on all magazines eagually so that isn't it.
 
If that doesn't fix it, polish the feed ramp lightly. Round over the top of the ramp where it meets the barrel and also lightly polish the top inside of the barrel throat. The tight feed problems should dis appear.
 
Polished all of that already, was of no help.

Thanks for offering an idea though.

I managed to get that burr out of the slide breech, was of no help either.
 
A low cost suggestion:

Remove the extractor and clean it and the tunnel it sits in, it could be that a piece of brass or gunk is interfereing with the extractor function.
 
I agree, either the extractor is placing too much tension on the cartridge rims or is dirty. Also, be aware that there is a lot of variation in rim thickness and diameter in 9mm ammo. You may want to try different ammo to see if it is indeed ammo related. Also, have you tried different magazines? You might have a mag that is not allowing the rims to pop up soon enough during the loading phase of the slide movement.
 
Thanks for the ideas, I removed and cleaned the extractor with no luck, very hard to tell if the extractor is giving too much tension, any easy way to test this or should I just experiment? I tried a different extractor but it seems that a standard straight 1911 extractor for a .45 won't even get close to a 9mm's rims. The current extractor has a noticable bend to it but seems as if it has to to grab the round.

This occurs on both magazines and with 3 diffrent makes of ammo, Wolf (by far the worst almost 100%), PMC and Winchester (both run about 50%.

Oh I have noticed if I put all my stength into preventing the pistol from recoiling upwards the condition gets better. But this means to the point of ignoring all fundementals of shooting to push the weapon forward (arms tensed till point of shakes) and even then it will occur once in 5 rounds or so.

Durring my reasearch I figured out this is a FTRTB (failure to return to battery) more then a FTF.
 
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