1911 gunsmith near Newark

[Agent_Smith 1]

My Smith Pro Series 9mm 1911 has about 500 rounds through her and still has a too-frequent FTE (case stuck in chamber). Hoping to bring it to a gunsmith to tune the extractor and polish breach face, etc. Any suggestions for a gunsmith not too far from Newark who specializes in this kind of work? 

 

Thanks

-AS

[twong11219 0]

Strange that it would do that since you have an external extractor. I assume the gun cycles when fired, but the brass gets its way back into the chamber? No round stripped from the mag trying to fight its way into the chamber?

 

You can try and do a quick test. Disassemble the gun and take out the barrel and bushing. Slip an empty brass into the breech face and extractor. If the brass falls out, the extractor is not putting enough tension on the brass to hold it. That needs to get fixed. Now if it is holding, then check the extractor hook for deformity or damage. Maybe the hook face is not profiled well, is rounded or angled funny when it should be square. Or maybe the hook just broke off. If that's all fine, then try looking at the ejector. Try cycling some empty brass using only the slide on the frame, leaving out the barrel and recoil spring. See what happens to the brass when it hits the ejector. It should start ejecting nose first out of the ejection port. If it's not doing a thing, then definitely something wrong with the ejector. Maybe the ejector face needs to be reprofiled.

 

Last but not least, maybe the recoil spring is too heavy. I was getting that issue when I switched out the recoil spring on my 45 with an extra heavy 18.5# spring. Heavy spring with light factory loads makes for a crappy match day.

 

If you don't want to deal with the headache of diagnostics, the only place I know nearby is OMG Customs in Bayonne. Give Rick a try.

[Steve_G 51]

Have you called S&W? I'm sure they would fix it for no charge.

[Agent_Smith 1]

it has happened once at both the past two matches i was shooting. so once out of about 10 mags. gun goes bang, slide goes back but doesnt grab the empty brass. slide goes forward and picks up new round, which gets caught behind case still sitting in breech, resulting in me losing match. i am concerned s&w wouldnt fix it because it is just an intermittent issue.

[nitrospaz9 10]

Bullet hole in Belleville I believe do their own smithing

[twong11219 0]

it has happened once at both the past two matches i was shooting. so once out of about 10 mags. gun goes bang, slide goes back but doesnt grab the empty brass. slide goes forward and picks up new round, which gets caught behind case still sitting in breech, resulting in me losing match. i am concerned s&w wouldnt fix it because it is just an intermittent issue.

Even though it's intermittent, S&W should honor a repair. That definitely sounds like extractor issue based on your description. Try the holding brass on the extractor test to see if the tension is there. Secondly, inspect the extractor hook to see if it's square or deep enough to grab some meat of the rim on the brass. Could just be a poorly cut extractor or weak extractor spring. Might be a simple matter of punching out the pin to remove the extractor, run a file to square the hook and make the pocket where the rim sits in the extractor deeper to get more contact with the rim. If you want to go more aggressive, instead of squaring the hook face, add a bit more angle to the hook like a saw tooth so the edge of the hook grabs the rim. Less likely to slip off the rim and will rely less on the extractor spring putting tension.

 

Possibly polish the chamber too. If you reload, maybe the brass is bulging. Chamber check your rounds. The extractor may be slipping off the rim before full extraction to even contacting the ejector.

 

When it happens again, pull the brass out and inspect the rim. If the extractor it's slipping off, there should be scratch marks at the edge of the rim that contacts the extractor.

[Agent_Smith 1]

thanks. to the excellent advice, all. i will try the diagnostic just to see if i can get a better sense of the problem. i may send to s&w, but i wonder if the expense and time of shipping the gun will outwiegh a tuneup from bullethole or omg.

 

i like the guy at omg custom a lot. he did an ffl for me. bullethole is super convenient, tho.

 

 

[Cmor1701d 0]

Ruger sent me an overnight Fedex label for a similar issue with my SR45. They replaced the extractor and overnight end it back. I think S&W would do the same. Never hurts to call and ask.

[Agent_Smith 1]

how bad was the extractor problem on your ruger?