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Jagged case mouth, ejected 45 ACP brass

lpaalplpaalp Member Posts: 947 ✭✭✭
edited September 2016 in Ask the Experts
Friend has a ARMSCOR / RIA 1911 Compact 45 ACP (4.25" barrel); fairly new, about 250 rounds thru it. Cases eject properly with no indication of any problem, but occasionally (@ 1 in 20 rounds) ejected brass has jagged case mouth, 1/4 to 1/3 around the mouth (appearance is similar to the teeth on a saw). On at least one occasion, this occurred on the last round in the magazine - possibly on more or all instances, but only once identified. Magazine used is whatever the factory provided. No sign of scratches or wear on the firearm. Cartridges are reloads using a recipe which has been used for years in a variety of guns with no problem.

Ideas?

Comments

  • MobuckMobuck Member Posts: 13,733 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    How old or how many times has the brass been loaded?
  • charliemeyer007charliemeyer007 Member Posts: 6,579 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I agree a brass issue. Metal fatigue, it's work hardened and brittle. Annealing will usually prevent chunks from breaking off but the cases will split when worn out.

    added I never had issues with 45 ACP brass, usually they get lost before I wore them out. I have had many that split and some that no longer held a primer. If the split was short I loaded them one last time and used them for chasing bunnies threw the brush, where I didn't expect to recover any. Somewhere in my collection I have 2 1911 barrels that show no hint of rifling, it took a heck of a lot of shooting to wear them out.

    I have seen revolver and bolt gun brass fail in the saw tooth type pattern. Usually its just a chunk missing.

    It never hurts to carefully inspect your chamber(s). Fitting new parts is good practice (save the old ones - I think they are just fine).
  • Hawk CarseHawk Carse Member Posts: 4,365 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Need a picture. I have never seen a case mouth with chunks breaking off.
    What I HAVE seen is the case mouth chewed up by being rammed into the edge of the ejection port and it is barely getting out of the gun.
    Light load/strong spring or weak extractor. Most common on the last shot in the magazine.
  • lpaalplpaalp Member Posts: 947 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by Hawk Carse
    Need a picture. I have never seen a case mouth with chunks breaking off.
    What I HAVE seen is the case mouth chewed up by being rammed into the edge of the ejection port and it is barely getting out of the gun.
    Light load/strong spring or weak extractor. Most common on the last shot in the magazine.


    Strong spring or weak extractor sounds reasonable... and the brass does look like its been jammed into something - my first guess, but there are no visible marks on or near the ejection port. The jagged portion looks like 3-5 points of a saw blade viewed horizontally. Brass went home with its owner, so no pictures at this time.

    The loads are not light - 6.1g of Unique, 230g Hornady JHP.

    Brass is mixed in age from once fired to multiple reloads - not certain which are deforming.

    Strong spring or weak extractor sounds reasonable...?
  • perry shooterperry shooter Member Posts: 17,390
    edited November -1
    Hello the shorter the barrel The more likely one is to have damaged cases upon firing short BARREL TIME =shorter recoil impulse time. Have you tried an ejector with a longer nose The military did not worry about damage to a case on ejection "because they did not reload " Target shooters DO . we normally like ejection ports that have been either made with larger opening or we modify the port We also like Ejectors with longer nose to start the ejection sooner during the extraction cycle
    EDITI have loaded between 250,000 and 350,000 Rounds of target loads of 45ACPThe only split cases I ever had was for a short time when Federal shipped Military Shooting teams some bad lots of ammo they were so bad some were split in the box never fired That was when at least the Marines went to NOSLER 185 grain bullets and VV powder I used to get lots of military once fired and some of my WCC MATCH were reloaded so many time you could not read the head stamp
  • swearengineswearengine Member Posts: 1,329 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Cast bullets? Lack of lube.
  • lpaalplpaalp Member Posts: 947 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Understand used cases become brittle, but if they are ejecting properly, without banging into anything, don't see how the mouth can be made jagged (?).

    At this point we're gonna check the front of the chamber for build up and/or a lower power recoil spring, then maybe a replacement ejector, consider enlarging the ejection port (if the owner wants to foot the bill).

    Unless there are other ideas?
  • TRAP55TRAP55 Member Posts: 8,270 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    quote:Originally posted by forgemonkey
    +1 on the brass fatigue,,,,,,

    Also, inspect the chamber shoulder that the case mouth stops on ,,,,,,,,,,I've seen 'crud' build up to the point of slightly indenting/breaking a portion of the case mouth when chambering/firing.

    Or a dull chamber reamer "chatter" on the shoulder.
  • tsr1965tsr1965 Member Posts: 8,682 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Manually cycle and eject a few live rounds and inspect the cases. This will tell us if it is doing it upon chambering, or ejecting. If it is doing it upon chambering, then there is something not right with the feeding. I suspect a rough feed ramp, or a bad chamber.
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