[J.R. Bob Dobbs]

I took the plunge and bought a Pro Eclipse this week. It is my first 1911, and also my first 45, not to mention the most expensive gun I have. It feels fantastic in my hand, and the fit and finish is stunning and the action is ultra-smooth.

Took it shooting today, with the factory (cmc) 8rd mag and also a wilson 8rd, with 100rds of S&B 230g fmj and 25rds 230g Rem jhp. I had 2 failures to eject, both with the last rounds out of the wilson with the S&B. They were somewhat difficult to clear. The case was successfully pulled from the chamber, then just "stuck" to the breechface at a slight angle without ejecting. Not the classic stovepipe, just stuck to the breechface, angled out only a little from being hit by the extractor. I also had lots of trouble ejecting unfired cartridges when hand-cycling with both mags.

There were no other failures, except for one fail to lock slide back on the empty Wilson. This gun is very sweet to shoot. All in the black at 25 yards offhand, and the sweet trigger helped my speed at knocking over steel plates, compared to other pistols I have. And the night sights are still bright!

When cleaning, I paid close attention looking for burrs, etc that might cause FTE. The chamber is nicely polished and looks great. Then I slid a cartridge up into position on the breech, and slowly rotated it out like would happen when the ejector hits it. The cartridge would bind up at the rim and would then require some force to dislodge it. I lightly polished the surface adjacent to the breech (same side as ejector, opposite of extractor) because it was somewhat rough and had a sharp edge on a machined "step". This is where it appeared to be binding the case rim instead of allowing it to rotate out.

Now it doesn't bind anymore when hand-testing; another range trip will tell if it really helped. I just polished it enough to get the surface smooth to the touch; it's still plenty tight enough to hold the cartridge in place against the breech until the ejector hits it.

I'll get some more ammo and maybe find the time to shoot it again tomorrow to see if this helped. I do understand Kimbers need a few hundred rounds of break-in, but I feel the polishing was necessary, because I couldn't even manually clear the chamber of a live round without it getting stuck. If the problem still occurs, only on the Wilson mag, I'll buy another CMC.

After it gets broken in, I think this will become my favorite gun. Heck I might even start carrying it.

 

[J.R. Bob Dobbs]

Update:
Put another 100 rounds thru it today, this time Winchester white box. 3 more FTE's, again all with the Wilson mag. The failure mode has changed from "trapped on the breachface" to stovepiping of the empty cartridge. One classic stovepipe, and 2 others with the case trapped between the slide and the barrel, almost out, pointing backwards.

Also had about 3 hit me in the eyeglasses. Each one of those had the mouth mashed almost shut, like you did it with pliers. I suspect these were almost ejection failures.

At least the night sight still works! Maybe it's more than coincidence that all 5 FTE's have been using the Wilson 8rd mag; never with the Kimber (CMC) 8 rounder. I've spread out the 225 rounds equally thru both mags. I think I might return the wilson and swap it for a cmc (or 2). I'll post this question in the gunsmithing forum.

If this and about 200 more rounds doesnt fix it, time for a trip to Kimber. You know, the only new pistols that have never failed out of the box for me were less than $200 (makarov and ruger). The pro eclipse really shoots nicely; I hope I don't waste too much time and ammo just getting it to be reliable.



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Too Much is always better than Not Enough