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Failure to return to battery

9.1K views 33 replies 13 participants last post by  Pupulepeter  
#1 ·
I'm having issue with a combat commander that occasionally fails to return to battery. By occasionally, I mean between one to three percent of the time.
I made it to the range today and brought relatively new magazines with me. Fortunately, I only had one jam out of one hundred. Unfortunately, it was the same jam that has plagued this gun since the new barrel was installed.

The magazine was an 8-round WC ETM and happened on the sixth round. Same jam as before, under the extractor hook and kinda sorta wedged up into the chamber. I've experienced the same issue with the factory colt 7-round magazines and factory Springfield 7-rounders.

In the past, the jam has happened when chambering the first round from slide lock. This is the only time that it has shown some kind of pattern, as it usually happens with JHP ammo. However, the brand doesn’t seem to make a difference and it has happened with FMJ as well. Ninety-percent of the time, I can push the slide into battery with a light tap. If not, the round can be extracted by racking the slide.

As I mentioned before, the issue is seemingly random. So far, I’ve experienced it with 230 grain Winchester Ranger JHP, 185 Federal JHP, 230 Federal FMJ, 230 Freedom FMJ, some other random stuff. All factory new. Today I shot through a 100-round box of 230 grain Federal JHP.

Most frustrating, is that I’ve never been able to intentionally recreate the issue. It is always the first round, from slide lock, or in the middle, but never the last round. It isn’t as if the gun is excessively tight by any means. In fact, I think it is rather loose. I don’t slam in the magazines on an open slide and do my best to make sure the rounds are seated properly in the magazine.

Photo shows the same failure and the round that it failed on. Nothing special from what I can tell. I reloaded the same round into the same magazine and fired all three shots without issue.

Things I do know. It has never happened on the last round. The round is always under the extractor and can be ejected by racking the slide. It doesn’t seem to matter the make of magazine or type of ammo. It is the only type of jam I’ve ever had with the gun. No FTE, no failure to pickup a round or inertia feed. I recently put a wolf 20-pound spring in it and you can ride the slide forward to the last breath without being able to recreate the issue. I've put around 600 rounds through the barrel. It ran like a champ before the upgrades, but shot a pattern at 25-yards. It is now the most accurate pistol I own.:rock:

I've shot 1911s pretty much exclusively for the last few years and never had an issue. The gun has been cleaned after each session and lubricated with Slip2000 EWL or slide glide. The lube didn't seem to make a difference.

I've sent the gun back to the custom shop that did the work once already, but they were unable to recreate the issue during their 50-round test, which isn't surprising. It is hard to fix something you can't see. Customer service has been excellent.

What can it be?


 
#2 ·
You mentioned a new barrel, bingo! That is the first thing I would consider. A tight barrel is not bad but may take some serious shooting to "break in". Don't know how many rounds you have on that barrel but if less than 1000 I would not worry yet. Why the first round? If this is a failure to go into battery rather than. Nose dive type jam, then when dealing from slide look not quite as much return force on the slide as opposed to slamming back under fire and adding that force to the recoil spring when returning into battery. Something you can try. I had a gun smith fit a new barrel and it was tight. He had me use a 22lb recoil spring for the first 500-750 rounds. After 100 rounds or so I returned to a standard spring. I had similar problems when fitting a new but really tight bushing. Took about 500 rounds for the parts to get really harmonious.
 
#5 · (Edited)
The photo appears to show a round that did not slip under the extractor hook. The hook is probably too rough, too square or too tightly tensioned. Remove the extractor and see if rounds will feed 100%. If they do the extractor is the problem. There is still a very old video on Youtube where a very young Vic Tibbets at Wilson Combat shows how to shape and smooth an extractor hook. Watch it.
 
#24 ·
I searched how to tune the extractor. I chamfered the bottom edges so the case rim will feed into it smoothly. I purchased the extractor tuning stuff from brownells. With the pull gage and extractor tuning fixture. She's set within specs and feeds fine now.
My extractor was unsprung from when the gun was new. She was stove piping one round per mag constantly. I did load the first round by hand and let the slide slam shut over it. I might of unsprung the extractor. Now I load every first round from the magazine only.
 
#25 · (Edited)
If you shape the nose if the extractor as a flat slope from the outside top of the claw to the bottom, it will snap over the case rim without damage to the extractor. Not a fix for loading that way, but a preventive measure in case of a push feed.
Image

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#27 ·
Update... Almost made it.

I tweaked the extractor to the lowest tension point possible and fired 100 rounds. Everything went smoothly until the very last round when my old friend reared her ugly head again. This time, the round was not even all the way out of the magazine and the rim was clearly behind the extractor, so the extractor tension has been eliminated as a possible reason. As mentioned before, all of the modifications mentioned to the extractor had been preformed. I apologize for the images not working. I'm not caught up on the photobucketfail yet.

I'll send it back to the shop for some TLC. Thanks for the help.
 
#31 ·
Looking down from the top, the extractor hook is clear/forward of the case rim. The tail end of the case was sitting just forward of the feed lips, so I guess it did clear. .
OK, so where was the nose of the round? Was it against the receiver ramp or had it started into the barrel chamber?
 
#33 ·
The extractor could be clocking (loose firing pin stop). The top of the barrel ramp might be too sharp where it transitions into the chamber. The bottom of the barrel ramp may be too far aft at link down. The barrel bottom lug may be bumping against the slide stop pin. The link may be holding the bottom barrel lug too far off the slide stop. The problem is so intermittent It's probably going to take a good pistolsmith to find it.

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#34 ·
What, that's it? Haha

Off to a good smith it goes. The slide stop was hard fit with the barrel and the extractor was tuned. I agree, it is related to the barrel. The smith is savy to the fact it is a rare occurrence, but consistent enough. I supplied plenty of photos and the jam is exactly the same every time. Hopefully he can figure it out.