[Scooter45]

I am a newb 1911 owner and have a couple questions. I picked up my new SW1911PD yesturday and went through about 150 rounds. 2 issues: 1) spent casings have an indention on the rim (for lack of a better term) of the shell, a flat indention that spans across maybe 1/8 of the "rim". The test shell that came with the gun from the factory has a similar marking, so can I assume this is normal? 2) I had 1 FTF at ~100 rounds, it was the last round in the magazine, and I seriously suspect limp wristing, any opinions on this? I have not stripped or cleaned this weapon yet, I have heard mention of a "burr" that might need to be cleaned up, does anyone have a thread handy explaining this procedure. Also, any good threads on general maintenance and cleaning? Thank You for your time. -D

 

[at-home-daddy]

1) spent casings have an indention on the rim (for lack of a better term) of the shell, a flat indention that spans across maybe 1/8 of the "rim". The test shell that came with the gun from the factory has a similar marking, so can I assume this is normal?

I suspect if you look at your breechface you'll see a thin "ledge" on the left side (looking downward from the top, muzzle pointing to the front). The indentation is caused when the shell slams against the breechface before being ejected/extracted. There was a considerable amount of discussion about it a short while back...some got theirs repaired by S&W (including me), while others had theirs sent back (or denied service shipping) by S&W, saying it did not affect performance so was not an addressable issue under warranty.

Here's what mine looked like before repair -- and gave me the same indentations that I believe you are seeing:

 

[Scooter45]

From that picture, I'm 99% sure that is what is causing the shell indents. If it does not affect performance then okay, but a friend of mine wants to reload these shells, is this going to cause a reloading problem?