[David Hunter]

I am loading 6.5g of Unique in 45 Starline brass w/ 230g Fed. Hydra-Shocks. They are 875fps through the chrono. My gun is a WWI Colt 1911 mfg. in 1918. The gun, though it is old, does not have much wear. I am just beginning to load for this gun. It has been in a safe since the end of WWI. I have changed the spring to a 20# variable Wolf spring. The mags are new My question is. Why is my brass dented on the case mouths? The gun throws the brass forward and right about 5 feet and no they are not getting dented when they hit the ground. I am firing in the grass in my yard (my neighbors love me, hehe).

david

 

[David Hunter]

Robb, does your gun ever jam? I have only shot about 50 rounds. I know that is not enough rounds to judge reliability by, but it just keeps spitting them out as if nothing is wrong.

 

[Kevin-64]

David, the cases are hitting the ejection port on the way out, that is what is causing the dent. It is possible for the case to bounce back into the action. On most newer guns the ejection port is lowered to stop this problem.

------------------
Kevin

 

[feedramp]

Your problem is not all that unusual. A year or so ago, I came across a series of articles that had been posted on the website for Larue Targets. They were articles on 1911 mods and how-to articles for problems like yours. I downloaded some of them, but when I went back to the website to get the rest, and get a link, all I found were the article summaries (they're 11 of them) with links to the articles. But, when I tried the links, I got the dreaded error 404. I'm still waiting for a reply to an email I sent to the web site. Here's an exerpt:

HOW TO BUILD UP A 1911-STYLE AUTO PISTOL
BY LAYNE SIMPSON
SPECIAL D0-IT YOURSELF SERIES
PART 5

**edited for brevity**

In fact, the only problem I observed, and it was a minor one,
was ejected cases bouncing off the top of the slide, just behind
the ejection port. That left a slight dent in the wall of each
case and brass "case tracks" on the top surface of the slide.

**edited for brevity**

When cases were ejected from the project pistol, they struck the
top of the slide and were dinged. Installing an extended ejector
and reshaping the ejection port solved the problem.

**edited for brevity**

THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE SHOOTING TIMES, Dec. 1996 AND
IS PRESENTED HERE WITH PERMISSION

If you can get access to those old Shooting Times issues, you've got the whole series.

Hope this helps.

 

[TangoRomeo]

David,

This problem is easily cured by lowering the ejection port; a procedure performed at the factory on most recently manufactured 1911 style pistols. However, I urge you not to have this done to your vintage 1918 pistol. I believe it will detract from it's dollar value and definitely from it's historical value.hth-TR