Truly hideous FTE in springfield

R

RHC

New member
I was trying out several kinds of ammo in my Springfield Mil-Spec. The last round in the magazine was Cor bon 230 +p. It fed and fired, but I noticed the slide wasn't fully locked back and I couldn't drop the magazine. The back of the case was still under the lips of the magazine and the front was partly into the chamber. The front of the case was a little jagged. It took forever to clear. I wish I'd taken a picture.

My first thought was that the case had somehow gotten wedged under the lips when the ejector tried to remove it, but then I realized that was extremely unlikely. I guess the cartridge fired out of battery and I was lucky it went right straight up the barrel.

Any ideas, either on what happened or how to prevent it in the future? It has not recurred, but then I haven't fired the Cor bon anymore either.
 
I really can't imagine it fired out of battery. I have never heard of a pistol do that. It physically isn't possible for that to happen with a firing pin strike to the primer. A rim fire maybe, but not a centerfire. Try it with a clean snap cap sometime. Force it to be just a little out of battery and pull the trigger. You will not find a mark on the "primer". Although it sounds unlikely that it wedged back into the magazine, that still sounds more reasonable than firing out of battery.
 
What kind of magazine was used? The most likely thing that I can imagine is that when the barrel lowered during recoil, and the slide was coming back, that the follower of the mag nose-dived and allowed the case to re-enter the mag. Weird.

How was the accuracy of the last shot? Was it where you aimed? (I'm serous...if the bullet was launched all catty-whampus, then the bullet most likely wouldn't have hit where you aimed.)
 
I had a similar faliure years ago with an early 80 series Colt and a Pachmayr mag. Solution tossed the pachmayr mag as far as possible. After that I used only Wilsons and the original Colt factory mags. No more problems!:)
 
Accuracy was OK. Nothing really seemed out of the ordinary until I noticed that the slide hadn't locked back, but then it was the first and only Cor Bon I've fired in it, so I probably wouldn't notice anything if it was only slightly unusual.

Magazine was factory Springfield. Definitely wish I'd taken a picture or saved the casing. If it did manage to shove the rim of the case back under the magazine lips, would that explain the ragged edge of the casing?

Changing the ammo is a good idea. I bought one box each of several kinds of practice and self-defense ammo to try out in it. I was very impressed with expansion of the Winchester Ranger, and the feeding and expansion of the Federal EFMJ. Only the Cor Bon caused this one jam, everything else fed, fired, and extracted. Looking at the Cor bon, it is about as long as the Federal EFMJ, but with a more pointed tip and very small cuts around the top of the hollow point. The Ranger is a little shorter and has very aggressive cuts around the top of the bullet.
 
I had a similar problem with my Springfield V-12.
I discovered that the extractor would fall free of the slide of its own weight if I removed the FP stop and tilted the slide muzzle up. Seems the extractor had never been tensioned at the factory. Adding a little tension solved the problem.
HTH.

marsh
 
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Hi, guys,

If the round fired out of battery that much, the case would have blown open and high pressure gas would have dumped into the mag and the mag well, ruining the magazine and probably cracking or blowing off the grips.

Here is my analysis of what happened.

The cartridge was fed and fired normally. When the case was extracted, the extractor failed to hold it and it dropped down. It then still had enough force to push the magazine follower down and wedge itself partly into the magazine.

Since the slide had not locked back because the follower was not in the "empty" position, the slide went forward, and the slide forced the case mouth into the edge of the feed ramp or barrel, causing the denting of the case mouth.

This is not due to high pressure, but to low pressure as there is not enough residual pressure to keep the case in postion. The solution is to get a new extractor or tune the old one until it grips the case rim the way it should.

You can test this by working the slide manually with an empty case and no magazine; see if the extractor will hold the case.

A new magazine or a stronger magazine spring may also help, but that is not the real problem.

Jim
 
weird SA jam

I recently had the same problem with my SA TRP.Even had one event in which the case turned 180 degrees and got caught in the ejection port ass backwards.Also had just what you described with the rim caught in the mag follower and jammed into the front of the port at a 60 degree angle.
The good news.It was cured by increasing the extractor tension,an easy task if you know how to do it.Or,better still,support your local trusted 'smith.
 
SUGGESTIONS

Polish the crap out of your breech-face, and try different ammo (tee-hee).

Mag-Pack or Wilson mags.

18.5lb Wolff recoil spring.
 
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