Troubleshooting 1911 Ejection

Empties dribble outIf the empties are barely rolling out of the gun and falling at your feet with every shot, your recoil spring is too stout or your ammo is too weak....

Call Kimber, see if they will send you a new recoil spring what types of ammo are you using?


Better yet, call Kimber and have them fix the gun...

Trying to avoid the hassle of shipping the gun and those issues. I have used several types of ammo, federal, remington, and PMC. All produced the same results. I have a recoil spring coming in and will try that. Thanks for the link.

Can you be a little more specific on the ammo? 115gr? 124gr? 124gr NATO any type of +P? 147? Gr?

Try some loads with more umph.

If the spring doesn't work. Send the gun in. Been there done that with not wanting to send the gun back to Kimber...but I should have.

I have only run 115 gr. through it.

Originally Posted by hxer

I have only run 115 gr. through it.

Where are you getting your ammo from? Walmart or an actual gun store?

Remove the slide, slide a live round(bullet and all for weight reasons) under the extractor and shake the slide a little bit, the shell should NOT fall out if it does your extractor may need to be adjusted(tweaked/bent/whatever) till it holds the shell in place w/o the barrel .
If it passes this test and still FTE spent rounds it probably is too stiff recoil spring assy.

This is all based on an internal extractor, some kimbers had external extractors , which is yours?

I have tried this and it seems to hold properly, I have to shake it pretty hard 2-3 times to get it to fall out, it is an internal extractor. I don't have the equipment to test the weight of the hold on the extractor, I have seen that it should be about 25 oz.

Originally Posted by VAMarine

Where are you getting your ammo from? Walmart or an actual gun store?

Most of my ammo is either from wal-mart, academy, and some I have ordered from reputable online sales. I have had no issues with any of the ammo in other handguns I have.

One other point you may already know about but here it is anyway...the short bbl. 45s I have require a very stiff wrist when shooting or the slide will short cycle, Try(if you havent already) to NOT let the barrel flip up at all when firing and see if that helps?
Also I have heard of people cutting of 1/2 coil at a time from the spring and having good luck with that but I dont know that for a fact , I have never had to try it
If it is under warranty I would let them try to fix it first

I have extra springs, I may try to cut one 1/2 coil at a time to see if that helps. Thanks for the advice.

Originally Posted by hxer

I have extra springs, I may try to cut one 1/2 coil at a time to see if that helps. Thanks for the advice.

I wouldn't go cutting on the springs if I were you, that's a bad habit to start getting into.

As for the ammo and other guns, that's irrelevant as it's obviously not working in this gun. If indeed the spring is too strong, the different loads may function better and provide more information to better find a likely diagnosis for the issues., 1911s can be finicky some times, and 9mm 1911s more so. Try some heavier grain ammo, some +P ammo, or some 9mm NATO ammo

So here is what fixed it - I took and compared a new spring from Wolff and the original. The new wolff spring was exactly one coil longer than the original spring that came with the gun when I got it. I installed new spring and FTE continued. I then cut the wolff spring off (one coil) to make it match the length of the original spring. Fired approximately 40 rounds without any trouble. I even shot several with loose grip letting the barrel jump and there were no issues. One more thing I did was polish the ramp with dremel and polishing compound, couldn't tell it made much difference in looking at it but it ran fine.

That spring was longer because it was new and never was installed to set,it would have matched the old one in no time installed.I'd check for spring bind,snipping a coil didn't really change the spring weight much at all but it gave less to stack.If it was bind you're lucky because it would break something soon.

Remove the plug and spring (leaving the rod in) and run the slide back all the way and mark the slide tunnel at the front of the frame,then assemble and repeat,if it binds you will stop shy of your mark.Things sound good now but you'll want to know for the next spring replacement,which I would go down one weight instead of snipping it.

Also,on your extractor,does the hook catch on the edge of the hole to remove?It should on 9 and 38 Supers to overcome the narrower case head.You said they were losing grip on the head originally so that's all I see since you have tension.The tip of the hook will also bottom in the case groove on a 9,as opposed to a 45 where the rim is what touches the extractor flat.The front still can't ride the case bevel though,you'll never keep it tensioned right if it does.

One other point to check would be the firing pin retainer, sometimes sanding the bottom edge to a slightly rounder profile will let the slide push the hammer back just a tad easier, between the recoil spring and the hammer spring it may just be a little too much for the 9mm

Rex - the extractor does catch on the edge of the hole when removing, I would like to try a 13lb. spring but didn't have one to try. I guess its time to place another order. Thanks for the advice. By the Way we share the same name.


Thanks Scooter I will also do that with the firing pin retainer. Then I may try the regular spring again, I have noticed that this particular gun has a pretty stiff hammer pull.

Rex

Pretty wild on the name,didn't see that coming.Cool she's working now,I'm still wondering why the extractor was losing the rim and the case was partially chambered,very odd.

Since Scooter brought up the FPS and you said the hammer is sprung pretty hard,I'd look there for the cure.I need to look up your gun,I can't remember what size goes with names anymore.I'll be back later.

OK,you basically have a Commander that's 1/4" short.I didn't find any 9 info but they're running a 22lb recoil spring in a 45,a little heavy so I'm wondering how they set up the main resistance to the recoiling mass.Unless you're getting hammer or strut bind of the grip safety or in the mainspring housing,they oversprung the hammer for some reason.I can't remember factory weight for a 9 on springs but a 23lb mainspring should work just fine.Where are your empties hitting the ground now,over or under 4ft ?

The original spring weight is 14 lbs. in the manual. The empties are hitting anywhere from 3-5 feet away now. much better than before.

That's cool.3 is a little shy for full power loads but fine for target and a standard ball round,but 3-6 is the range you want.Once you vary from that you want to control the slide speed better even of it is functioning.

In re-reading this I think I have discovered something important, From all your info it would appear (and I missed it totally) that you have NOT been having a failure to EXTRACT but a failure to EJECT problem. Anyway the recoil spring and hammer spring and firing pin retainer would still be the route we ended up on. The Slide was not coming back far/fast enough to spit the shell out.

Maybe you're "limp-wristing" the gun. Hold it tighter, with rigidly-locked arms and wrists.
See if that helps.

Failures to eject, especially in short-barrelled pistols, can sometimes be attributed to operator error.

Steve I would like to have the gun able to with stand a little limp-wrist so that my son could shoot it also. Another reason it was purchased was for my wife to carry. So essentially I need it to function flawless. I think I have got it there now. It was never a real problem for me to shoot but when I would intentionally grip it loosely it would fail to eject every round. After a few modifications spoken of earlier I can grip it loose and allow the barrel to flip and it is not jamming now.

Originally Posted by hxer

Steve I would like to have the gun able to with stand a little limp-wrist so that my son could shoot it also.....

i would think that you would teach your son proper technique so he wouldnt be limp wristing it

Originally Posted by hxer

Steve I would like to have the gun able to with stand a little limp-wrist so that my son could shoot it also. Another reason it was purchased was for my wife to carry. So essentially I need it to function flawless. I think I have got it there now. It was never a real problem for me to shoot but when I would intentionally grip it loosely it would fail to eject every round. After a few modifications spoken of earlier I can grip it loose and allow the barrel to flip and it is not jamming now.

Originally Posted by TedDeBearFrmHell

i would think that you would teach your son proper technique so he wouldnt be limp wristing it

A bad spring is going to cause issues. A lot of people like to jump up on the limp wristing bandwagon, but it really takes a crappy grip to cause issues in a properly functioning gun. You shouldn't need a death grip to make a gun function.

I'd wager that the original spring was out of spec and that's what caused what appeared to be limp wristing issues with the gun, the weaker 115gr ammo would just make it worse.