Up early this AM, and my thoughts turned to problem chillun that have found their way onto my bench. A particularly interesting case came to mind in the form of a post-war Commercial Colt that had first belonged to his grandpappy...then to his pappy...and finally fell to him. Serial number resolved to mid-1948.
The old gun had seen many rounds, but the finish was in surprisingly good shape, so it apparently hadn't been carried much if at all. It was a range queen, meticulously maintained due to being an heirloom, but used for what it was meant for on a regular basis.
During the last outing, the pistol had functioned perfectly as it always had...and then the trouble started.
Ejection became very erratic with cases falling all over the place. Some even flew over the shooter's left shoulder, and with every magazine...six rounds fed, fired, extracted and ejected, until the last one. The fired case would be left sitting on top of the magazine follower in the port, slide locked back.
Every magazine.
They guy called me and arranged for a sit down. "An odd problem" was all he said on the phone. He arrived and the minute he described the glitch to me, I knew what it was because I'd seen it before. I jacked the slide back and peeked in to confirm it.
This time, I thought I'd give all y'all a shot at the diagnosis. It's very simple, as most of these things are. The fix took all of 10 minutes, including teardown and reassembly, while explaining how the bloody hell such a thing could happen.
What was it?
The old gun had seen many rounds, but the finish was in surprisingly good shape, so it apparently hadn't been carried much if at all. It was a range queen, meticulously maintained due to being an heirloom, but used for what it was meant for on a regular basis.
During the last outing, the pistol had functioned perfectly as it always had...and then the trouble started.
Ejection became very erratic with cases falling all over the place. Some even flew over the shooter's left shoulder, and with every magazine...six rounds fed, fired, extracted and ejected, until the last one. The fired case would be left sitting on top of the magazine follower in the port, slide locked back.
Every magazine.
They guy called me and arranged for a sit down. "An odd problem" was all he said on the phone. He arrived and the minute he described the glitch to me, I knew what it was because I'd seen it before. I jacked the slide back and peeked in to confirm it.
This time, I thought I'd give all y'all a shot at the diagnosis. It's very simple, as most of these things are. The fix took all of 10 minutes, including teardown and reassembly, while explaining how the bloody hell such a thing could happen.
What was it?
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