Hi all.

My Sig 1911 TacOps sometimes fails to extract/ double feeds. It shows itself as the empty case being left loosely about 1/4" out of the chamber, with the slide trying to feed the next round in the magazine.

Notable points:
-The brass left in the chamber is loose, never stuck, it will just fall out if I open the slide and tilt it back.
-The brass that FTEs have signifigant marks from the extractor trying to extract the case.
-It only happens when the gun is dirty and HOT. The hotter the gun, the more it stops, but if it's cold, it's as smooth as can be.
-Does this with ALL types of ammo and mags.
-Chamber seems a tiny bit rough, and carbon seems to build up in little peaks in the chamber.
-Extracts and ejects perfectly and consistently with no mag in the gun.

I suspect a rough chamber is the issue but I can't be sure and fitting a new barrel isn't something I want to do just on a hunch.
What say you, internet? I'll appreciate any help.

What you are describing sounds to me like an extractor tuning issue. If your chamber was dirty enough to cause a stuck case, then I can't imagine it would fall freely from the chamber when you go to troubleshoot the jam. Check youtube for instructions on how to tune your extractor. Remove your slide, then place a loaded cartridge up under the extractor on the removed slide in the position that the round would be normally while chambered. If tuned properly, the round should stay in place no matter which direction you turn the slide. Slide the cartridge down just a bit with the slide held horizontal, and the cartridge should fall free. Double check me on those instructions because I'm not a gunsmith.

I have recently polished the chamber of my sig 1911 by chucking a dowel in a cordless drill, then wrapping it in an appropriate amount of toilet paper for bulk and padding, then coating the TP with polishing compound. I kept the drill on a lower speed, although in retrospect I'm sure that I could not get the chamber hotter with the drill than normal firing would. I noticed no degradation in accuracy following the polishing attempt. Alternatively, a strip of emery cloth could be wrapped around the TP. Just be careful not to extend your polishing attempts into the bore.

The extracor has plenty of tension and passes all the tests. Ejection is also consistently energetic when it extracts. I may give polishing the chamber a try. I suspect while the brass is still hot during the firing process it just grabs into the (hopefully rough) chamber and doesn't let go until it's relatively cool.

Alive, did your pistol give you troubles before you polished the chamber?

It's worth noting that this is an external extractor model.

Yeah it started having all sorts of problems after several thousand rounds. No failures to eject though. Mostly inertial feeds and failure to battery. This was resolved by replacing springs, using a heavier main spring, and repacking the Wilson mags with Tripp 7 kits. I suspect the chamber polishing was irrelevant.

Everything I am reading says to toss the extractor and buy a new one. Did you post over on the 1911 board? I noticed this one doesn't seem to get much traffic. User name Samuse is a 1911 expert and he gave me excellent advice and instruction on repairing my sig 1911.

The extractor is an EGW unit, not the factory MIM one. It did this with the factory one as well. I've heard rumors about Sig 1911s having rough chambers and I was curious if there was any relevant info I had'nt found yet. The extractor really does seem to be doing it's job -or trying hard. Leaves marks on the inside of the rim when it fails to extract so I think it's trying really hard.

I've found that Federal 230 grn aluminum case will always work flawlessly when the brass caseed stuff will fail to extract over half of the time. Not sure what to make of that but it makes me think chamber issues as I assume the aluminum isn't as maleable and dynamic as the brass case. Not sure if there's any truth to that, though.

On the mags, my Wilson 8-rounders have been a little troublesome as well. Nice that Tripp makes something for old mags.

This is the only place I've posted about the issue. Perhaps I'll take it to the 1911 forum.

Hmm.. Well I'm at a loss. I know brass expands with heat better than steel, sealing off the chamber and scraping out any built up carbon. That's why it is such a good metal for cartridge cases. Interesting about the aluminum. Perhaps aluminum has more lubricity than brass. I wonder if nickel plated cases would have the same problem in your pistol.

Did you polish up your chamber yet to see if it made a difference? I'll be curious to hear if the problem was as simple as that.

On the mags, Samuse cautioned me about 8 round mags in the 1911 platform. I know that mine for whatever reason could not handle the 8 or 10 round wilson mags anymore, even with new springs and followers installed. I think it is because I started handloading and using hotter charges. He specifically cautioned about wilson mags, as they may have lighter springs than others.

I have had none of the same reliability issues since repacking them with the tripp 7 kits. Tripp does also sell an 8 round magazine that I hope to try soon. I'm not suggesting that this is the cause of your extraction problem, just a heads up from another sig 1911 shooter.

any resolution on this?

Too much Extractor tension is worst than too little.
Slide should hold a loaded round ( Use a loaded round for weight) with the nose of the round drooping 30 degrees down with the slide held horizontal. And still retain the round when the slide is given a light shake.
If the rounds slide in and out of the barrel freely I don't think it's a rough chamber. Alittle Flitz put on a tight patch and twisted in the chamber a few times would not hurt. Just remember to flush the Fritz out of there.
Next recoil spring weight and magazines would be my next stop to check.

I swear I replied and said I'd be back in fall. Oops. Well I'm back and I've just polished the chamber up with some Flitz on a q-tip swab. This stuff is neat, never used it before. There used to be a sort of rough spot in the chamber that always accumulated carbon which is now polished out. The chamber looks good now except some tool marks in there. I'm not going to try and take those out, though. The chamber is much more slick to my finger and seems much smoother to the eye.

Next time I shoot, I'll bring along the brass cased .45 and see if I can make it stop. I'll update after a decent range session. Thanks for the help and suggestions so far.

As a side note, my Wilson 10-rounders are my favorite mags, completely reliable and smooth feeding even when fully loaded brand new. Feels better than factory and Wildon 8-rounders. Funny to hear what works and doesn't from other people. What were the specific issues you had with your Wilson mags? All related to spring tension? I know my Sig loves the 10s, not as much the 8s but I think the springs are worn out on those.

Shot yesterday and the gun still does the same. Fine until it's warmed up, then FTE's every other round. Switch to aluminum cased stuff and it runs just fine, back to brass for immediate stoppages.

I know it's an old thread, but here I post for the sake of anybody googling and finding this thread, I think I fixed the problem.
I got a threaded Ed Brown "semi drop-in" barrel.
It took some fitting with a file and some dykem and twice as much patience, but I shot the gun today and put 150 rounds through it in about five minutes. At one point I flicked water on the barrel and it sizzled away immediately. I couldn't touch the front of the slide it was so hot.

All through the shooting I got consistent extraction/ejection with all ammo. The culprit had to be a rough chamber from Sig because the barrel is the only thing that changed and it was more than hot and dirty enough to have been jamming with the old barrel. The Ed Brown barrel has a much nicer bore and chamber than the stock Sig barrel, making me confident in blaming the rough chamber in the Sig barrel.
The barrel seems to have solved it for me.