Folks,

Let me try another tact. I have not had any luck finding a new extractor. Visually inspecting the one on my 380 mustang, it looks ok - not particularily worn.

How do you adjust one of these to make it work better? Make a slight bend in it?

I was getting frequent failure to extract. When I exersice the slide by hand, it always seems to work ok. Just when I fire it won't always extract.

Any advice - other then taking it to a smith or selling it?

The Mustang should adjust same as a 1911 from looking at mine. I would go over to 1911 fourm and search. Its posted how to adjust and check tension on 1911 will be same . I have a Mustang and I still carry at times. It has a whole less recoil than our PPK/S  I am more  worriedwith your trigger problem Thats not right.
Now this happens to Mustang owner sooner or later. When field striping for cleaning you can flip the ejector around and it will end up in mag well' Jam mag in hard and ....  You need manual (CALL COLT}so you know what you looking at. If ejector problem comes up you must remove grips and use small screw driver to put back inplace. Also be careful with slide off safety can go higher up and under safety is a spring and couple of small parts that will go in orbit. You may never find at home and likely won't find any were else. If I had $ I would buy yours as I know it can be fixed Remember it may look like a 1911 but their are changes in side that are different. http://www.nrapublications.org/tar/ColtMustangExView.asp  This is a ex view might help you. I wish I had several Mustangs I find them easy to carry and accurate at combat range . They are not target pistols for 25 yd shooting

Michael,

Thanks for the reply. I have a PPK also and I think this would be a better deep carry peice if it were just reliable. The PPK bites me, but I must admit it is totally dependable and very accurate for a little 380. I do not keep any gun that is not totally reliable.

I think my trigger problem is how I hold the pistol. I think my thumb rides up on the safety just a little bit - enough that it partially enguages and will not fire. I found a nice article about that. The author recommends that the shoot keep their thumb on top the safety to prevent this. That seemed to fix it for me. Shooter error!

I will try to adjust the extrator per 1911 directions. That and a new set of springs may help. Waiting for some Wolf springs all week!

The barrel is another issue. I think it is pretty well shot out. Not much rifling left. I sould have seen that when I bought it. Doooooh! When shooting at about 10' it groups about 4" to the left. I thought a new barrel might fix it - but there are none.

Will post once I have the springs.

Thanks for the advice.

:)

Make sure the chamber is shiny clean. Breach face also.

I know you got a PPK I post on walter board.   Natchezss.com has some 380 parts their closing out might look their I have wolff guid rod and spring set in mine. Only problem I ever had was mag release spring not strong enough. Findly had one made Its a little stiff but mag doesn't pop in my pocket any more.  Look on e-bay might find barell.  Have you tried cleaning barrel really good might be foulded  up. Just a idea but have you checked rear sight to see if off to side or loose.

If me I would look for  trigger, hammer ,sear, barrel ,slide stop,ejector and extractor.  Cyl and slide I think thats their name used to do a lot of custom work on Mustangs them might have some parts. Guess I should stop buying pistols anf get some spares for mine.
One last thing If you remove grips the screws. They  screw into frame not like bushing on 1911 Be careful fine thread and could be a bit of trouble if you should strip.

Thanks Michael.

I took it out to the range yesterday and the Wolf recoil spring (12 lb) did seem to help a bunch. I found that it seemed to work better on the original plasic guide rod. On occassion, with the steel one it would jam up in with the slide opened and I could not easly close the slide. Did not seem to do that with the original plastic guide rod.

I did notice that the ramp on the barrel was really scraped up. It needs a good polish job. I got it to the point where it would fire two to three magazines with no failures, but that was about it. Could never get a whole box thru it. Either it would FF or the extractor would not extract a shell. Then it would be good for another couple of mags.

And you were right about E-bay. I did find some old slides for a mustang that I could pull out the extractor. Problem is they are used and who knows if they are any better than what I already have.

I sent it off to A.W. Cogan, he said he would look at it for me and tell me if I should fix it or if it need to go to the Great Dumping Ground at the Gun Show. He said that he used to be a Colt service center and that the Mustag was very sensitive to limp grip. He also said he would not use these as a primary gun - not reliable enough.

Too bad, I was having a ball (while it was working properly) of pulling if from my pocket and letting her rip of a mag from my hip into a silioutte target. Got some nice hits with it. Would make a nice deep conceal backup.

I'll report back in a couple of days with what he finds.

Extractor tuning tips by Bill Wilson