9mm 1911 - Ejector Round Clearance

[Dragline45]

I just picked up a Colt Govt 1911 in 9mm and have heard about the potential problem with the longer 9mm ejectors and the magazine or top round in the mag making contact with it potentially causing it to bend or snap. I had checked my gun and while my magazines do not hit the ejector, with the slide locked back and mag seated with me pushing up on the mag, the top round in the mag does make contact with the bottom of the ejector.

I see that some people recommend filing down the underside of the ejector until there is enough clearance, others recommend a shorter .38 super ejector. Really don't want to send it back to Colt.

[Don P]

with the slide locked back and mag seated with me pushing up on the mag, the top round in the mag does make contact with the bottom of the ejector.

Do you plan on pushing up on the magazine all the time??? The only issue I had like you are describing is using magazines from Wilson Combat with extended base pads

[WC145]

Does your pistol function reliably? If so, there isn't and issue and no point in messing with it. I've had numerous 9mm 1911s, including Colts, and not one of them has had an ejector length problem or required ejector modification, and they ran reliably regardless of ammunition.

[RickB]

If the gun works, don't mess with it.

[Dragline45]

I’m going to put a few hundred rounds through it and keep an eye on the ejector. Should have mentioned that the top round hitting the ejector is known to bend them.

[RickB]

I'd think your predicament would be same for the owner of every 9mm or .38 Super Colt, and I'm unaware of damage to the ejector being caused by the cartridges in the mag.
I'm always concerned about the mag hitting the ejector, but the rounds in the mag are not solid objects, in the sense that they can be compressed against the pressure of the spring, so will the ejector bend, or will the cartridges be compressed, by the contact?

[Jim Watson]

Now you do.
My 1991A1 9mm bent then broke the ultra long ejector.
I had it replaced with a .38 Super ejector which does not make contact but still gets the empties out, contrary to some posts I have read.

What happened to me, and at least one other I have read reliably of, is that the stack of ammo in the magazine is held down by the disconnector rail. When the slide came back, the rounds popped up and the top one hit that long beak, tap, tap, tap, every shot. Eventually it bent. I straightened it but the process continued and it cracked.

You can file the ejector beak to clear, but in some cases it would leave the ejector needle thin. One replacement ejector is beveled enough to clear in most guns.

[weblance]

My new Ruger SR1911-9MM Target was fine with the factory 9 round mags, however, with 10 round Mec-Gar mags, not only did the magazine lip contact the ejector, so did loaded ammo. IF you slam the 10 round mag into the pistol, it hits the ejector pretty hard. I did what the OP stated, I filed the underside of the ejector until I had clearance.

Just because a 9 round mag clears, doesn't mean a 10 round will also.

The Mec-Gar also has a feed lip profile that is very different from the Factory 9 round mags, but they function 100%

[rpenmanparker]

I just checked my Ruger SR1911 Commander 9mm. As others have said, all is well with the OEM 9-rd mag, but I also use Wilson Combat and Brownells 10-rd mags. The top round can hit the ejector when slamming the mag home. Not the mag lip though. But I notice that there is no problem if the top round is positioned slightly forward, i.e. not pushed all the way to the back of the mag. That is how it tends to be anyway after the mag is reloaded. I will just keep all my mags in that condition and use the gun as is as long as it works properly. If I ever need to replace a bent or broken ejector, then some change of procedure may be in order. At the very least I could just go back to using only the OEM mags.

[Dragline45]

Rather than jump the gun and replace a part that may be fine I am going to shoot it until I see a problem. The only time the round touches the underside of the ejector is when I push and hold the mag all the way up with the slide locked back. With the mag locked in at rest the round has a good amount of clearance. Since I wont be shooting it while pushing up on the mag it may just be a total non issue.

[Don P]

The only time the round touches the underside of the ejector is when I push and hold the mag all the way up with the slide locked back

I'll ask, how often are you planning on doing this?????? 99% of the time the mag will be inserted with the slide in battery

[Aguila Blanca]

Heads up -- Wilson Combat ETM magazines are, by design, too high for 1911s. When Wilson first came out with the ETMs, I had a couple they sent me for testing. The first one locked up my 9mm Colt Combat Commander so badly I had to clamp the slide in a padded vise and use a leather hammer to beat the receiver out of the slide. I sent the gun and the mags to Wilson Combat to figure out what happened. (At my expense.)

Their answer was that, "Your pistol is out of spec." Really? It's a Colt pistol that was more than 20 years old and had never encountered a hiccup with any other magazine, but suddenly the pistol is "out of spec"? Further correspondence finally revealed that in an attempt to "improve" feeding, Wilson had intentionally designed the ETM magazines to sit with the feed lips slightly higher in the gun. Obviously, they overdid the "slightly" part enough that ther ETM magazines simply won't work in some pistols because the magazines are intentionally out of spec. Not out of Wilson's spec, but out of spec for a standard 1911.

Caveat emptor. There are other good magazines out there.

[Don P]

Caveat emptor. There are other good magazines out there.

I would recommend Chip McCormick mags, but Chip sold out to Wilson. Checkmate mags are good 9 round mags

[gwpercle]

Originally Posted by Dragline45

Rather than jump the gun and replace a part that may be fine I am going to shoot it until I see a problem. The only time the round touches the underside of the ejector is when I push and hold the mag all the way up with the slide locked back. With the mag locked in at rest the round has a good amount of clearance. Since I wont be shooting it while pushing up on the mag it may just be a total non issue.

That sounds like a most excellent plan. Let us know the results.
Gary

[Jim Watson]

I would recommend Chip McCormick mags, but Chip sold out to Wilson.

Are they going to change the designs?

[Don P]

Are they going to change the designs?

Good question. Don't have the answer. My common sense tells me for mfg simplicity it would make sense to make one design. Only Bill knows

[RickB]

CMC is apparently going to move into a new plant in Texas, so, while I might think Wilson would want to quietly kill their biggest competitor in the magazine market, both companies will continue.

Maybe the plan is to take advantage of increased production capacity?
Wilson is now buying their Service Grade mags, and those for their customized Berettas, and for the EDC X9, so maybe they want to move those in-house.

[JDBerg]

Originally Posted by Aguila Blanca:

Heads up -- Wilson Combat ETM magazines are, by design, too high for 1911s. When Wilson first came out with the ETMs, I had a couple they sent me for testing.

The three ETM’s I used in the Springfield Loaded 9mm I had previously, and which I continue to use in my STI Trojan 9mm have always worked perfectly. These are the previous polymer follower design ETM magazines, as opposed to the steel followers in the current ETM magazines. I wouldn’t mind picking up a couple of the older polymer follower ETM’s, if I come across them.