Hi-Power Problem

[Billy Shears]

Hi gang,

Long time no see. Wonder if you can give me some advice on a MKIII BHP I'm having troubles with.

Here's the basic facts:

1. Approx. 6,800 rounds through it during its lifetime.

2. Recoil spring was changed out approx. 1,000 rounds ago. Browning factory part. Pistol has been cleaned after each day at the range.

3. When shooting FMJ ammo--of any brand--no problems at all. Hot stuff, weak stuff, it all works fine. [I don't run much +P in it simply because it's a BHP.]

4. When running hollow-point ammo, oddly enough it feeds into the chamber without problem. It fires without problem. And it seems to be extracting without problems, but it will not eject.

5. The empty extracted round stays hooked under the extractor, backed up hard against the ejector and blocking the way for the next round to enter the chamber.

6. It has done this with Federal HST and, surprisingly, with Remington Golden Sabers, which have always been slick feeding rounds in all my other pistols.


I have a couple ideas what may be going wrong, but would like to hear what you have to say. Any ideas or suggestions appreciated.

Thank you all in advance.

[sirgilligan]

Sorry to hear you are having troubles. I probably can't offer any insight, but wanted you to know you post is noted and maybe this will bump it up too.

I suppose it had previously shot those brands before the recoil spring change with no trouble.

Is there a bur or some deformation of the extractor claw?

Is the ejector clean and functioning properly? That is where I would investigate.

[Bill DeShivs]

Put the original spring back in. Clean under the extractor.

[Kilroy08]

I would second what Bill said. Gunk under the extractor, or improper extractor tension will do this.

[Billy Shears]

I'll try the original spring like you suggested. The extractor however has already been subject to two heavy duty toothbrush scrubbings this week...to no avail. It just frustrates me that this only happens with defense ammo. Everything else works fine, including a bucketful of my reloads.

Thank you.

[James K]

I do wish so many folks didn't urge a recoil spring change as the solution to all problems. You change a recoil spring when it needs it, and factory springs are really good enough that you seldom will need to. I don't know who started that business of changing all the springs every 10 rounds or ten seconds, whichever comes first, but I suspect it was the spring makers.

Jim

[Billy Shears]

OK, quick update...

Just got back from the range. After a good scrubbing and scraping as recommended above, I fired 200 FMJs with no problems whatsoever. (115 grain, standard pressure.)

Then I fired a 25 round box of Remington Golden Sabers. (124 grain +P). Of the 25 I had 6 of the failure to eject/double feed type problems I described earlier.

No change. So I've ruled out crud under the extractor.

Can anyone think of anything else I might be overlooking?

Thanks.

[Scorch]

Find a different type of hollow point ammo to try. I would suspect it's the cases, sounds like they are locking into the breech face.

[Billy Shears]

sounds like they are locking into the breech face.



Is this a common occurence in other folks' pistols? That does seem to be what's happening here. The empties lock up in there tight and have to be pulled out by hand. A simple "tap & rack" doesn't do it because the cartridge rim is wedged under the extractor on one side and on the inside of the ejector on the other side, as if it missed the ejector entirely as it was being extracted from the chamber and by missing it caused itself to be wedged into a breechface space where there is almost no room to accomodate it.

I routinely fire more than 1,000 rounds per month (12,000---15,000 handgun rounds per year, every year) although admittedly few of those are in this Hi Power, and I have never seen this happen before. Very strange.

[iraiam]

The defense loads you are having trouble with, are they noticeably hotter than the FMJ rounds?

The reason I say this is because I had a similar issue with a 38 super a long time ago, once my loads got to a certain pressure level I started having issues.

In my case it was an imperfection on the bolt face, the gunsmith who fixed it said it was a "little snug" and he machined a tiny bit off. I can't be more specific, at the time I was kind of green and didn't really ask further details.

basically, when shooting a hotter load, the slide would come back to the stop, but the empty was stuck just enough between the extractor and the other part of the bolt, that it would not get thrown out of the breech properly and would stovepipe.