Recoil springs?

My 1911 has severe ejection issues, the brass catcher cannot hope to catch the brass. Sometimes the brass goes over my head, or lands on the brim of my hat. The ejector has been tuned. The only thing I have not done is install a stronger recoil spring. I noticed that other shooters pistols the brass gently falls out of the pistol. Do I need a stronger recoil spring?

My Ball gun does the same thing. The ejection port is as originally drawn, not lowered and flared. That's why it tosses, more or less straight up. My wad gun has the lowered and flared port and tosses into the net fine. I read on here, you should use the strongest recoil spring that still allows the pistol to function with the load fed to it.

Actually the extractor can affect how ejection works on the 1911.. the bottom angle of the extractor face is the area to look at...also if the extractor is clocking ( moving to a non square angle ) this will affect ejection.. a fit oversized EGW firing pin stop will fix that.

see this article

http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/lid=10261/learn/1911_Auto_Extractor_Adjustment

a small ejector port can be an issue but most all 1911 slides today are lowered from the factory. the lower edge of the port should be somewhere around .480 - .500 from the base of the slide or a bit less.


The extractor can be the root cause of many issues on a 1911.. Find a competent 1911 smith

yes a stronger spring would help, but you might need to replace the ejector with a long one if it doesn't have one. cant tell you what spring, not knowing gun and loads but if you know whats in it, go up about 3 pounds

Your erratic ejection is only a problem if you are having function problems.  There are no points awarded for landing your brass in the net, but there are plenty of points to be lost if you are worried about alibi strings.

Heck there are plenty of points to be lost worrying about your brass going into the net.

It is true that you want your gun springs to be tuned so the load locks the slide back most of the time.

This website is one that I always liked on this topic--this guy is looking for "ejection perfection". I don't care about that....I haven't had an alibi in a very long time--and that is what I'm looking for, even if my brass is in different locations from shot to shot.



http://www.brazoscustom.com/magart/ejection%20perfection.htm

Personally, I would want my brass ejecting to the right as it should and not all over my head and into my shirt or between my glasses and face.

I would not put up with unnecessary distractions, get it fixed.

Clarence

Just something I haven't seen mentioned, but have experienced*:

Make sure the extractor is able to hold onto the case as it extracts and has the proper tension.  Pull the slide off the frame and slip a case up under it.  If the case falls out on its own, it needs some work.

* For a while my ball gun would eject right straight back over the rear sight and place a black semi-circle on my forehead. The extractor wasn't able to make it to the case to apply pressure.  I had to remove some of the shoulder behind the hook to let it move over to the rim.

Thanks guys, I will check it out before too long.

I have determined that the recoil spring is 18.5 pounds. The slide hold an empty case FIRMLY. I spoke with a knowledgeable person at the range during the match on Sunday and he suggested I try a square bottom firing pin retainer to assist with slowing down the slide. I will try that next.

It is a mystery to me why some guns gently eject the brass into the net, and sometimes it won't even make it into the net.

exactly what 1911 do you have.. 18.5 is a lot for a recoil spring.. 16lb is a standard 1911.. Also what ammo are you shooting


you said the extractor holds the case FIRMLY... if the bullet nose doesn't droop a bit while the extractor has tension on  it then I'd suspect you have Too much extractor tension..  the extractor should hold the round so that the slide can be "lightly" moved back and forth without the round coming loose.. that test is done with just the slide and a round slipped up under the extractor..

the Weigand extractor tension tools are great for getting it right..

The extractor holds a loaded round exactly as you have described jglenn21

Andy,

In order for us to help figure this out we need to know the answers to some questions:

Who built your 1911?
What ammo/load are you using?
Did you try any of the tuning techniques in the brownells article or the "ejection perfection" article above?

You have been wondering more than once about guns that gently drop the brass in the net, or barely get the rounds there.  In my experience it's a combination of a well tuned gun + very light ammo.  I have only seen that good of brass control with lead bullets (mainly because the jacketed ammo needs more oomph for maximum accuracy) and charges of Bullseye under 3.8gr.

4.6 WST 185 JWC  The pistol was built long ago and it's lineage  is now lost to time. I will endeavor to have it looked at professionally. After reading the article, it seems the extractor does not have enough tension.