[Knut_the_Viking]

I went back to the shooting range with my S&W Stainless yesterday.
I got 100 rounds of range ammo, they wouldn't allow my Remington UMC, so I bought some Federal 230gr (at 16.95 pr 50, exact designation unknown. Red boxes...)

After the previous range session, I made my best effort to clean and lube it, and I think it was perty clean in the obvious places.

I started getting feeding failures at around 40 rounds, the round would not enter the chamber properly, and the slide was about 5-7 mm (I don't do inches and fractions) away from fully closed.
A small tug on the slide, and the round would click in place and the slide would close up. Click in place as in "jumping up and getting trapped by the extractor claw" kind of thing.
This started happening quite frequently. In one magazine (5 rounds) I had 3 out of 5 rounds malfunction. :scratch:

This of course put a damper on my enthusiasm.

I got home, disassembled and cleaned. To the best of my abilities...
The frame feed ramp is completely smooth. I cannot detect any grooves or nicks with my fingers. The breech is smooth, there are some nooks and crannies on the breech that are hard to reach with a cloth patch or Q-tips. The breech itself look smooth, there was a little fouling above the circular area where the bottom of the cartridge rests against the breech face.

I do not have any pictures to illustrate at this point.

So I'm tapping into the vast body of experience here, both 1911 in general and S&W in particular, hoping for some diagnostic ideas.

Knut
(Hope nobody takes offense that I post on forum.m1911.org also)

 

[45MoonClip]

I've had this happen with lead reloads that where not properly sized. Was this Federal ammo lead or FMJ? With the pistol disassembled and on your bench, take the barrel out of the gun and check one of the offending rounds for size by inserting it in the chamber of the barrel. It should drop in without a hitch and headspace on the case mouth. If it doesn't drop in, it is oversized. Remove the live round and look carefully at the chamber. Is it dirty or otherwise fouled? Clean the chamber with a brass brush and powder solvent. Thoroughly wipe it dry and check that live round for size again. Be sure and remove it before you reassemble the pistol.
This is where I'd start. If the extractor is the problem, a trip to S&W is in order.

 

[Knut_the_Viking]

Would have been a good idea to keep one of the rounds, I guess...

They all seemed to enter the chamber fine, without exessive force or anything.
The barrel now has a total of 300 rounds, I have not yet used my brass brush, there is very little copper fouling that I can see.
I have used regular cotton patches with Hoppe's on it, followed by dry patches, followed by a patch with a little oil, followed by 1 dry patch.

I have been cleaning the magazines with patches/Hoppe's without magazine disassembly. I've alternated betweent the 2 magazines, so they should be equally dirty and I could not see anything change between using either.

I'll retry a session with Remington UMC.
If I see any Winchester White Box, I'll pick up some.

 

[mitrod3]

knut:

let us know how it runs with different ammo. range ammo is usually OK but i prefer what i buy on my own and have a track record with. if it is a gun problem S&W will make it good so don't lose heart on this. i had to send a new gun back (Springer, but with good service like S&W ) and when she came back is was and has been one incredibly fine gun through 1000's of rounds.

oh...hand cycle slide with empty gun and let the slide ease back closed ever so slowly. see if it hangs up before going fully closed......could be tight slide to frame fit that needs some more smoothing out with break in.....but...actually doubt it.:scratch:

is this happening with one mag, all mags, some mags?

be safe, shoot well.:rock:

 

[junior431]

I went back to the shooting range with my S&W Stainless yesterday.
I got 100 rounds of range ammo, they wouldn't allow my Remington UMC, so I bought some Federal 230gr (at 16.95 pr 50, exact designation unknown. Red boxes...)

After the previous range session, I made my best effort to clean and lube it, and I think it was perty clean in the obvious places.

I started getting feeding failures at around 40 rounds, the round would not enter the chamber properly, and the slide was about 5-7 mm (I don't do inches and fractions) away from fully closed.
A small tug on the slide, and the round would click in place and the slide would close up. Click in place as in "jumping up and getting trapped by the extractor claw" kind of thing.
This started happening quite frequently. In one magazine (5 rounds) I had 3 out of 5 rounds malfunction. :scratch:

This of course put a damper on my enthusiasm.

I got home, disassembled and cleaned. To the best of my abilities...
The frame feed ramp is completely smooth. I cannot detect any grooves or nicks with my fingers. The breech is smooth, there are some nooks and crannies on the breech that are hard to reach with a cloth patch or Q-tips. The breech itself look smooth, there was a little fouling above the circular area where the bottom of the cartridge rests against the breech face.

I do not have any pictures to illustrate at this point.

So I'm tapping into the vast body of experience here, both 1911 in general and S&W in particular, hoping for some diagnostic ideas.

Knut
(Hope nobody takes offense that I post on forum.m1911.org also)

Did you try different mags to see if that's what could be the problem? As I understand your description, it could be a magazine problem.

 

[MrChicken]

If they wont let you shoot brand new ammo that you brought to the range, find a different range.

My S&W 1911 does the same thing with range reloads. I can find no fault with rounds that fail to chamber, they pass a case gauge, measurements are within spec, and visually they show no sign of defects. I use mostly CCI Blazer for practice ammo, and WWB 230gr JHP for carry ammo. They both work perfectly.

 

[ArmedMainer]

If they wont let you shoot brand new ammo that you brought to the range, find a different range.
.

Very good advice.

 

[Knut_the_Viking]

If they wont let you shoot brand new ammo that you brought to the range, find a different range.

It is not my "regular" range. The reason I went there is that they happened to have a Springfield XD 9mm with a 4-inch barrel. Which I wanted to try out. It's the first range I found with an XD for rent.
It's for the wife, see... and if it happens to be useful in IDPA or IPSC too, that's just an added bonus. The XD was nice, btw. Very long creepy trigger(of course), and a _very_ long trigger reset. Fit my hand perfectly.

I can't really figure out why they wouldn't let me use my regular Remington UMC 230gr ball. Unless for making money selling their own range ammo.

Plus it's a long drive, and packed with kids (well, 20somethings) renting AR-15s shooting at large posters with pictures of Saddam and Usama on them. Not really my kind of crowd or my 'thing'.

 

[[email protected]]

I've had these problems too but with a dirty gun, I then put in a Wolf 18.5 lbs recoil spring (instead op 16 lbs standard) and 'problems' went away

 

[mitrod3]

"making money selling range ammo".....bingo.

be safe, shoot well.:rock:

 

[Tac Four]

Insufficient slide velocity can cause this. What are you using for lube?

 

[mitrod3]

tac four:

good point.....i took it forgranted that it was lubed well, cause mine are. got to stop that.

be safe, shoot well.:rock:

 

[MrChicken]

Or thumbs pressing on the slide....

 

[jungle]

Check the extractor groove in your spent casings. If there is a mark left by the extractor in the form of a scrape at the bottom of the groove you might want to slightly break the sharp edge on the extractor hook.
I've seen a couple that were really biting into the case as they fed and this slowed the slide on return to battery.

 

[Coldzero]

I second what jungle said, mine had the same problem. The extractor was very sharp and excessively long and it would gouge in the extractor groove of the cases which would not allow it slip up under the hook. I took a few swipes at it with a file and broke the bottom corner slightly. I also added a Wolff 18.5 lb. recoil spring and now it runs like a champ with anything I can throw into it :rock:

 

[Knut_the_Viking]

Insufficient slide velocity can cause this. What are you using for lube?

Some blue goop...
"Prolix Xtra-T" Dry lube formula.
Plus what ever came with the cleaning kit.
Will be looking for CLP or any other recommended product shortly.

 

[Knut_the_Viking]

tac four:

good point.....i took it forgranted that it was lubed well, cause mine are. got to stop that.

be safe, shoot well.:rock:

It's lubed along slide rails to the point that drops forms at the slide/frame junction on either side of the hammer in the back, plus along the sides.
Fingers are sorta oily when re-assembling, so there's a slight coat of oil/lube on almost all surface area

 

[mitrod3]

well....sounds like lube is not the issue.....good luck on tracking down what is going on.

keep us posted on how it is going.

be safe, shoot well.:rock:

 

[Tac Four]

I haven't heard of that blue goop before. I have been thoroughly impressed with Shooter's Choice FP-10.

 

[500 Magnum Nut]

Keep the pistol well lubed.
Use a bronze brush and make sure the chamber is CLEAN.
Cock the gun by pulling back the slide completely. (Don't use the slide stop)
Try your new ball ammo again.