Good Morning,

I've been wanting a 9mm full sized and I picked up a Colt Competition yesterday to tide me over.  I ran 100 round through it yesterday afternoon from the two magazines that came with it and four Tripp Research mags that I have.  

The first 30 rounds were fine and the last 30 were fine.  The 40 in between I had 6 instances of the same failure -

1. 5 rounds loaded in every magazine
2. Fired first 3 rounds perfectly
3. Fourth round fires.
4. Slide moves rearward, and round remains held captive by the extractor (does not eject).
5. Jams with empty + last round.

For these rounds, the lip of the case is marred and bent in.  All other ejected rounds look perfect.

Is this in extractor tension issue?  Just keep shooting it to see what happens?

The pistol is great on all other accounts.  Thank you for any advice you can offer.

I would probably just add some lube and keep shooting it for a couple hundred more rounds.  If it keeps up I would play with some different springs.

couple of things you might check... sounds like the ejector is not striking the fired piece of brass... is there a mark on the barrel extractor cut or nose of the extractor that would indicate they are making contact?... is the ejector loose?... remove the slide from the receiver and insert a dummy round under the extractor... it should be held in place and slightly droop (nose)...is the extractor cut deep enough to completely grab the cartridge rim?... a slight radius of the extractor cut and nose might help...finally you might lock the slide back for a couple of days and take a little set off the recoil spring... good luck

I would have a buddy shoot it for you with the same ammo and mags. Sounds like the spent case wasn't contacting the ejector. Check extractor tension. https://youtu.be/A_ybp51lx6w

Does it jam or does the slick stop catch? Mine the slide stop would cause. I polished it and doesn't catch anymore.

Thank you for all the input.  I've had the slide locked back since leaving for church this morning.  This afternoon, I'll disassemble, clean, re-examine, lube and run another hundred through her.  I'll report back.  Thank you.

Thought I'd follow up...

I've run another hundred rounds through it (some before and some now after a new clean/lube) it runs perfect with every mag / any ammo.  It shoots my bunny fart 115grn reloads fine.  Also does fine with WWB and Federal 115 grn.  I'm thinking it just needed to wear in a bit.

I tightened the grip safety a little and now I'm as pleased as I could be.  It shoots great and it looks great.

I know that the Springfield Range Officer has been the darling for this category for quite some time (once owned one myself), but for the price range, this one is nice.

I intend to see if I can wear it out.

Does it have the dual recoil springs? If so it might be oversprung...sounds like it, given that you left it locked open and it runs fine now?

Another thing I've noticed - it seems (to me with my tiny sample size anyway) that recent Colts leave the factory with an extractor tensioned just enough to usually work...but sometimes drop the case. You could try tensioning the extractor a little and see how it does from there? But if it's working just fine for you, then good!

If you start getting brass to face and/or ejection is wildly random with cases flying every which way including to the left (I've had it happen ), add some tension to the extractor; that seems to do the trick.

It does have the dual recoil spring.  I ran a few more magazines through it last night and everything is running as perfectly as any pistol I own.  

Thank you for the extractor advice.  If anything develops, I'll certainly look there first.

How do you tighten the grip safety?

You can only add tension to the leaf of the spring that controls the GS tension to add spring pressure onto the grip safety. The only way to tighten the fit of the Grip safety would be a weld up and refit.

Thank you

This is what I did...reduces play /rattle.  Sorry, I didn't phrase that very precisely.