I purchased a Dan Wesson Pointmat 7 a while back and I have fired about 1000-1200rounds through it. Recently it has begun to develop a failure to feed problem. Sometimes the failure will be on the first round of the magazine. Other times it will be at various rounds throughout the magazine.

 

I have changed magazines and the same problem occurs with my Wilson Combat mags. I have also swapped ammo, but the FTF still occurs with various factory ammo (i.e. Winchester white box, Magtech, Blaser).

 

I also posted this on another gun forum site, and I have not received much good advice. I did replace the recoil spring with a slightly heavier one. The problem continues but now it seems as though the FTF occurs mainly on the 5th round. But it still happens regardless.

 

The only other thing that seems different since I picked up the gun was that the bushing seems looser than when I originally got the gun.

 

Any thoughts? Or any recommendations on a good armoror here in the Centeral/South Jersey area? Shoot me a PM if you do.

 

I have some pictures if that helps to post as well.

 

Thanks everyone,

MSax

why not just send it back to the mfr and have them look at it

When you say FTF (failure to feed) is it not chambering at all; i.e. the nose of the bullet hanging-up on the top edge of the chamber/barrel - or, ist partially chambering, but not going fully into battery? Are these reloads or factory ammo? Was this a Dan Wesson manufactured prior to CZ purchasing them or after?

 

Unless it is something simple, I, too, would vote for sending it back - not sure what happens with a pre-CZ DW though. If you persist in wanting a local remedy, try John Robinson at Classic Pistol in Southampton, PA. He is running about a three week lead time right now.

 

Good luck.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

When you say FTF (failure to feed) is it not chambering at all; i.e. the nose of the bullet hanging-up on the top edge of the chamber/barrel - or, ist partially chambering, but not going fully into battery? Are these reloads or factory ammo? Was this a Dan Wesson manufactured prior to CZ purchasing them or after?

 

Unless it is something simple, I, too, would vote for sending it back - not sure what happens with a pre-CZ DW though. If you persist in wanting a local remedy, try John Robinson at Classic Pistol in Southampton, PA. He is running about a three week lead time right now.

 

Good luck.

 

Adios,

 

Pizza Bob

 

Can we take a handgun across the river to a gunsmith and back (secured in the trunk, no ammo, etc.) without any paperwork for NJ?. It's less a transport question than it is a "possession" question. I'd like to have some 1911 work done also

I am guessing that you are using ball ammo since you mentioned that you have tried several brands. I am also assuming you have given the gun a good cleaning and oiling (i.e. it's not embedded crud slowing down the slide or clogging the feed ramp) The FMJ round nose bullet profile is the easiest feeding . Unless you see any burrs on the feed ramp, it makes me think it's a timing issue. I suspect the stronger slide spring is pushing the slide forward before the magazine can push the next bullet up to be stripped by the breech face. As a test you could try a lighter slide spring or a heavier magazine spring, or both. It's a cheap experiment. If it doesn't work, send it to DW.

Can we take a handgun across the river to a gunsmith and back (secured in the trunk, no ammo, etc.) without any paperwork for NJ?. It's less a transport question than it is a "possession" question. I'd like to have some 1911 work done also

 

 

Of course you can. Legal @ origin / legal @ destination = FOPA. We may think of ourselves as prisoners in this state, but the last thing they want to do is to trap us in state with weapons

Check the extractor and breech face for crud build up.

Check the extractor and breech face for crud build up.

 

1st thing I thought of too, get in the extractor claw with some kind of cleaning object

Of course you can. Legal @ origin / legal @ destination = FOPA. We may think of ourselves as prisoners in this state, but the last thing they want to do is to trap us in state with weapons

 

Thanks, Bob. I failed to consider their desire to drive ALL guns out of the state!

Thanks for the feedback guys. Yes the gun is very clean when I'm encountering the problem. I have made sure the feed ramp and extractor are clean, along with the breachface.

 

The gun was purchased in the past year or two so it is post CZ era. All ammo has been factory FMJ various manufactures. All ammo has the same problem.

 

Here's some pics that may shed some light.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm leaning on sending it back to Dan Wesson, but if its something easy to fix I'd rather try myself and save the expensive shipping and time lost at the manufacturer.

 

Any insight with the pictures? Need any additional pictures?

 

Thanks guys,

MSax

Factory extractors on factory 1911's tend to suck. Replace the extractor with a quality unit. Its something I would do anyway so its not a wast... I would also replace your recoil spring with a wolf. If you give a little tap on the back of the slide does it go into battery?

Factory extractors on factory 1911's tend to suck. Replace the extractor with a quality unit. Its something I would do anyway so its not a wast... I would also replace your recoil spring with a wolf. If you give a little tap on the back of the slide does it go into battery?

 

I did replace the recoil spring with an Ed Brown. So, I'm assuming that's a pretty good spring. As for the extractor, do you have any suggestions?

 

No, if you tap on the back of the slide it will not go into battery. But if you were to pull back on the slide a "smidge" it will adjust and allow the round to slide into the chamber.

 

Maybe taking a little tension off the extractor would help?

 

Let me know about which extractor recommendation.

 

As always, thanks for the help.

 

MSax

Last 1911 I built I used a Wison Combat ectractor.

 

Do you remove the extractor whe yo clean normally? If so, did you have issiues after the last time you removed it?

 

Also, what does your barrel link look like? Any cracks or a loose pin?

It almost looks like there isnt enough clearence between the hook of the extractor and the breachface for the rim to slide up into. Or am I just seeing things?

It almost looks like there isnt enough clearence between the hook of the extractor and the breachface for the rim to slide up into. Or am I just seeing things?

I was thinking the same thing, but it is hard to tell with the light reflecting. Although it worked for the first couple k rounds.

What weight spring was the replacement? I got one of EGW's new extractors. Im giving that a try. I have been using Caspian extractors.

I was having trouble like this.

 

I took some jeweler's rouge, polished the feed ramp and the chamber, and held the 1911 like I meant it, then problems went away.

 

Have you posted this over at 1911forum.com?

I also have a PM7 and was having feeding issues. PM7's are target guns and are tighter than a frogs a** and from my experience, can be very sensitive to any change in operational parameters. For me, i notice that in the winter, the gun grease i used on the slide would slow the slide action down and cause feeding issues so i run thin oil/militec in the cold. Also, the oem mags will accept 8 rounds but don't like to be loaded to that level and will jam on the first one every time.

 

I did have to send mine back to DW for a legitimate issue before and they polished/relieved a lot of things so it runs a little more reliable overall. the issue i had was that the locking lugs were so tight, they would be hard to engage/disengage causing it to not go fully into battery sometimes. This was usually when it started to get dirty or when i has having the cold/lube slowness problem which further compounded the slide slowness and the gun's inability to operate within the proper parameters. When i had the slide and barrel out and disassembled, i could engage the lugs, then pick up the entire slide assembly by the barrel and they wouldn't drop free unless you pulled it at just the right angle.

I just recieved 6 new mags, had to tweak all six mag springs to correct the same issue you are having..it may also be the extractor..

I may be looking at the pic wrong, but it looks like your extractor. If you look at this pic that you posted, you can see a large burr on the back of the extractor where it is machined to "hook" the base of the cartridge.

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In the back of the pic, you can see the machined groove for the cartridge, then a booger of metal. I may be looking at it wrong, but it is worth a look.

If you look at the feed pic, you can see what i think is that booger of metal stopping the round from going under the extractor.

I could be wrong, but it may be your problem.

Now that Eric mentioned it I saw the same yhing initally and thought it just may be the picture.

But looking at the second picture it appears obvious. Why did it take so long for someone to pick-up on this?

Were you shooting any steel cased ammo? Being that this is a controlled feed system There's your problem.

Now what do you do with it? Clean it up and try it, a smith or back to the factory?

"Why did it take so long for someone to pick-up on this?"

 

It didnt. My post right afetr his pics was

 

"Factory extractors on factory 1911's tend to suck. Replace the extractor with a quality unit."

 

However, boogered or not was a bit to hard to tell for me because it looks like someone did some modding to it which left some areas black and some metal making it to hard to tell if there are burrs and or metal being pushed around. Replace that sucker!

JACKPOT!!!

 

OK, after long last, I think we have come to a solution. I took a closer look a the extractor and it did have a very slight burr on it. However, I it was so slight didn't think that it was enought to really do anything. Oh, I might add someone had mentioned that someone had done some modding on it. It wasn't modding, but I'm guessing what you are seeing is the tuning from the factory. Because I purchased the gun new and I never touched it.

 

Regardless, I very gently deburred the extractor, but while looking at that I noticed that the tension was much strong on this gun than my others. So I eased the tension off and BINGO.... the gun worked flawlessly this weekend!!! I shot about 175 rounds through it with various magazines and the gun didn't have a single hiccup.

 

So all this trouble was caused by the extractor. I'm not sure how it got out of tune after so few rounds, but if it happens again, my first step will be to replace the extactor with what you guys suggested here.

 

Thanks for the help guys.

 

MSax

If you are replacing extractors and want to be rid of any extractor issues then go with an AFTEC extractor. They cost more and are a little more technical to install but once its installed...Voila...end of extractor issues!

The odd thing to me is that extractors dont get heavier by themselves. Since you ran a lot of rounds trouble free, this is puzzling. Perhaps it was to heavy from day one causing it to burr up which pushed it over the edge? This is the one Im trying in my current build.

 

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