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Jagged case mouth, ejected 45 ACP brass
lpaalp
Member Posts: 947 ✭✭✭
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?
Ideas?
Comments
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).
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.
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...?
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
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?
+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.