[huntsman]

I need a little help gentlemen. I have a Loaded stainless which had been shooting great, no problems. Yesterday it failed to chamber any round out of the magazine using the same reloads as had been previously shot through it.
I swapped mags with my other loaded and it continued with the same feed problem.

The shell would enter the chamber but the slide would hang open approx 1/4 to 3/8''. Pushing on the back of the slide did not help and the slide was extremely hard to pull back to clear the round. I oiled the ejector, slide etc. but it did not help. I found a half moon thin sliver of lead on the ramp but could feel no burrs. The oal length of the shell was 1.257 which is what had been loaded previously.

My other loaded fed the same cartridges like butter. No hint of a problem. I haven't stripped the gun down yet to check things out but wanted to ask what would be the obvious things to look for.

 

[1911 guy]

How many rounds through it?

Some 1911 and magazine combinations are a bit rough when feeding and need full spring pressure to do it reliably. If you've got 1,000 or more rounds on this recoil spring, I'd swap it out for a new one.

As a quick diagnosis, swap springs between pistols since one feeds and the other doesn't.

When a handgun goes from reliable to finnicky and nothing else has been changed, always look at the "disposable" items first. On a 1911, that would be springs.

 

[huntsman]

Thanks for the quick reply, I did pull a magazine from my other gun and it didn't help. I even tried a third mag. with the same negative results. I only have 500 rounds through this gun. Maybe after I have a chance to get into it the problem will be more apparent. I have a feeling, due to the sliver of lead on the ramp, that it may need a little Emory cloth to smooth it up even though I felt no sharp edges through the ejection port. That half moon sliver could also have come from seating my boolits and I missed wiping it off.
Thanks,
Tom,

 

[LHB1]

Huntsman,
More info is needed to diagnose your problem. What bullet are you using, cast vs swaged, weight, shape, brand? Did you wipe the loaded rounds carefully to remove small lead shavings and/or lube? What is the crimp diameter across front of case? Did you adjust your loading dies between batches? Are your dies locked to prevent movement/creep in loaded dimensions? What brand of cases did you use before, now? Does the problem occur with just one brand or several brands?

If you are using the 200 gr cast SWC (H&G #68 style), try seating the bullets to an OAL of 1.240 and crimping to a diameter of .470-.471. Good luck.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

 

[Chuck S]

I can think of two reasons:

(1)Lead bullets in (2)reloaded cases.

-- Chuck

 

[huntsman]

Boolits are from a Lee mold, 228 RN design, brass is CCI. I tried some Speer 230 LRN (purchased boolits) loaded with the same brass which also failed to feed. The reloading dies were securely tightened in the RCBS press and checked often for oal as well as powder weight etc.

These same bullets were fired from a second S.A. parkerized 'loaded' the same evening and had no problems. I do realize not all model guns are the same, each a little different...

 

[LHB1]

Did you say these reloads (same batch) had previously loaded/fired OK in the same gun? With the same ammo dimensions? If the same ammo loaded/fired OK in this gun before and loaded/fired OK in another gun, the symptoms seem to point to the gun as having a problem. Have you checked and cleaned the chamber and throat carefully to remove any debris or lead buildup? Look for any other possible difference in the gun between previous and current firing sessions. If this is a new batch of reloads, the culprit is likely the loads. Check OAL and crimp diameters as posted earlier.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

 

[huntsman]

Yes I tried some of my old reloads and some of the new, the old ones had fired without problems the previous trip to the range. After the last range trip both of my guns were field stripped and cleaned well. I'm planning on cleaning it up good tonight and see what I find. I did save four of the last rounds that wouldn't load and plan to mic. them tonight.

Thanks for your replies!

 

[Sdowdell]

I would guess bad bach of reloads

Sometimes pistols are finicky concerning a certain deminsion of ammunition. If a previous batch of reloads feeds fine but this newer batch won't I think micrometer checks between the two batches may reveil the culprit. Do you trim cases after resizing them?

 

[huntsman]

Cleaned up the gun, found one of the slivers of lead mentioned earlier, in the extractor channel. I can't believe it would have been enough to cause the problem but I did notice the extractor was very stiff when I pushed on it with the tip of a screwdriver, after cleaning it wasn't.

The lesson here is to open the case mouth more when expanding it for the boolit and eliminate the bits of lead being clipped off.

The mouth of my brass at the boolit was .472 on spec as was the case oal. Hope this is the fix!