I have a newish Colt Series 70 Repro. It occasionally has ejection issues with my handloads. I have some mid-power 45ACP FMJ loaded (i.e exactly in the middle of the range for Bullseye powder and a 230 grain CMJ bullet in Lyman's 49th edition) that sometimes cause the shell to remain in the breechface and under the ejector, but not get ejected when the slide goes back. This causes the hard-to-clear situation where the slide goes forward and you have an empty case pushing forward into a newly chambered round. The tap-bang-rack drill does nothing to clear this. Basically you need to drop the mag to get the shell and chambered round out. Unlike a Glock, where you can bend the tang of the ejector a little inwards or outwards to adjust ejection, 1911's have a non-adjustable (AFAIK) ejector. So I believe that leaves me with adjusting the recoil spring.

Anyway, the Colt has a 16lb or 16.5lb (varying info in Interwebs) recoil spring. I was thinking about putting a lighter one in. I know Colt includes a lighter power spring in their Gold Cup Trophy models, but I think that is for 200grain wadcutter powderpuffs only.My ammo is loaded hotter than that and I don't want to batter the gun. Any suggestions? Wolff makes a calibration spring kit with half a dozen spring weights. If worst comes to worst I can buy that and experiment.

Load hotter. Same thing happens with my CZ when i load them on the mild side. Low recoil=short stroking. Upping my charge ensures healthy and reliable ejection.

We had this conversation for real on Sunday at Shore Shot, and now we can repeat it online.

I found that the 16lb or 15lb progressive springs from Wolff will make pretty much any load work fine. The progressive springs behave a bit differently then normal ones. Also, load hotter.

I found that the 16lb or 15lb progressive springs from Wolff will make pretty much any load work fine. The progressive springs behave a bit differently then normal ones. Also, load hotter.

 

Thanks Vlad.