Springfield Armory Range Officer 9mm. The pistol works well, however, when the casing ejects it comes straight back into the shooters face, down the shirt, etc. What is the best method to adjust where the casing ejects? Preferably to the side not straight back. Thanks for the help. Dan
Hey Dan, I too had a gun come into the shop one day with the same thing happening. I think it was a Ruger 92. Same thing was going on this gun. After looking at it at first and asking the customer if he had cleaned the gun, he told me that he cleaned it after each time he fired it. I took the side apart, checking under the extractor and found 1/8” of junk under the extractor. So after a good cleaning and check. The gun worked as it was made to, extracting and ejecting off to the right side.
If this is not the problem, make sure the extractor is working as it should. Check and see if the ejector is broken or came lose. Hope this helps, Tony
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The bible on all 1911 problems is Gene Shuey’s “Troubleshooting 1911 Style Auto Pistol.” Problems are listed in the menu, so you can go directly to fix. Majority of issues and answers apply to other guns as well. Jack
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It’s a 1911. Assuming the extractor is holding the case up on the breech face as it’s supposed to, ejection angle is mainly a function of the ejector. Both the length of the ejector as well as the angle/shape of the face of the ejector affect ejection and trajectory. The basic idea is that the face of the ejector should hit the side of the case in such a way as to allow it to pivot off the ejector and out from under the extractor at an angle that sends it out the ejection port in the slide with enough force to get the casing away from the gun. If you look at the ejector in the slide you can see the angle it has and adjust accordingly.
Keep in mind that velocity will have some effect so, if you’re using reloads or low power ammunition, you may experience changes in ejection. Before you adjust anything, make sure that all ammunition manufacturer brands and styles eject similarly. You may find that simply changing your ammo choice fixes your issue.
Gene covers ejectors in the 1911 course on several of the DVDs. Dave Waits (RIP) did a great write up of ejector and extractor tuning on the COTEP forums: http://www.cotep.org/forum/showthread.php?t=566. Also, Springfield will cover this under warranty, and can probably tell you the exact change you need to do. Jeff
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Look at the inside of the slide below the ejection port. The port is already lowered on that model I believe so you probably don’t need to lower it, but you may want/need to chamfer the inside edge to give you a bit more clearance. Now onto extractor/ejector. The ejection angle is a direct line between the last part of the ejector to touch the case and the last part of the extractor to touch the case. You can change the ejection angle by moving the last point of the ejector to touch the case up or down. Same thing with the extractor, you can recut it so it will allow the case to pivot a bit and the angle change. Make sure the extractor is tensioned correctly as well as this can also cause the jam you describe. Ken