Of late, I have seen a lot of jamming caused by magazines, new OEM magazines. Bunches of them.

A little magazine background. First was the relative straight (front to back) lipped GI magazine designed to feed 230gr ball, where round stripped from magazine almost level until nose angled up feed ramp, nose angled into roof of chamber and leveled out as rim slid under extractor in a Mauseresque controlled feed manner.

Then came service pistol competitors switching from revolver to accurized 1911s, them shooting wadcutters/SWCs for better scoring potential of cleaner holes making a difference as to edge of ring cut or not. The magazine needed serious mods to function, much earlier release of round as it slid forward so that it free to feed into chamber without rear held down by camming under extractor, feed lips flared open for less than half of length, extractor often snapping over rim, and leading also to many more extractor failures.

Then came hollowpoint popularity, and the hybrid magazine feed lips, dealing still with essentially same problem was SWCs, only not quite as bad, but still, shorter noses piling vertically into chamber top if rim under control of extractor in back, and so front half of feed lips flared open for earlier release, and like as not, extractor snapping over rim, leading to lively market in extractors, problem made worse by many makers using cast or MIM extractors.

Chances are, if your 1911 is jamming, it is because of bad match of ammo to magazine lip design, and much of newer ammo is jamming with standard hybrid feed lips. If you are shooting some premium ammo with a filler in the HP, lengthening nose, you may have sterling luck by retrograding to high quality GI feed lip mags, such as Checkmate makes, and likewise those are indicated for ball, and especially if gun is double feeding, as heavier round is popping free out of a hybrid under recoil inertia and slide is picking up a second round on return stroke.

Otherwise, swap brand of magazines, including many "name" designs where reliability is comprised of the top round basically floating uncontrolled into chamber for most of return to battery, in order to allow them to float into chamber however they wish.

Again, majority of problem likely a bad match of ammo to magazine, not extractor tension or shape, or slight machining marks which have always been on reliable GI guns, and etc. Look to the magazines. Including former well behaved mags whose flared lips may have flared more.


Edited by Lofty (02/10/18 12:47 PM)
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