This weekend I took out a recent aquisition (another Sistema) and noticed a very strange failure to eject...

It always happened on the last round and it only happened with the MecGar mags I had with me (didn't happen to the USGI mags, nor to the one Colt Commercial or Wilson 47d mag I had with me)...

As I was shooting in a lane indoors I couldn't keep track of what the ejection path normally was. However, on the last round of a MecGar mag, the empty case wouldn't eject. It would apparently extract and somewhere along the way...the rear-end of the case would get jammed almost back in the magazine, between the feed lips, making the magazine to wide to eject manually. The case itself would be lined up straight with the bore; i.e. like it was just popped out of the barrel backwards. I couldn't disengage the slide stop to let the slide go forward, either. The only way to get the casing out would be to insert a key or other thin thing in there and pry the case out of the magazine.

It did not happen consistently, but when it did happen, it only happened with the MecGars. (That also could be because most of my mags are MecGars, so statistically...if it were gonna happen..)

Now, I have a pretty good inkling that it's an extractor issue. Either the tension is off, or there's a problem with the radius, or...?

However, on removing it for cleaning, it was pretty tough to get out, and it's tension/bend looked right to my eyeball.

Tonight I'm going to be testing it further (take the slide off, see if I can slip a live round under the extractor, see if it holds it, etc)...but, out of idle curiosity, I was wondering if anyone else had run into something similar, and if that was indeed the problem...I was considering ordering a new extractor on general principals anyway. Any recommendations?  The Aftec extractor in Brownell's looks interesting, but I have an inherent fear of overly-complicated parts...instead of one extractor to go bad, with that thing, you have two springs, the connector, and the two halves that could go bad...

Checking extractor tension is a good idea, in general. However, if your failures are limited to Mec-Gar mags, I'd call this a clue. Most failures in 1911s that I have wittnessed are related to operator error, kitchen table gunsmithing, and magazines.

Let us know what you find.

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I have a 1911 with IMI slide barrel etc. for upper workings and it was doing that, only it started doing it every damn round.   I ripped it apart and found th eextractor to be worn completely out, I bought a new one slapped it in, and it did not owrk either (looks like it needs to be fitted and bent to correct radius)  well hell that sucked. I only had one other extractor kicking around, it was from a 9mm 1911 (this one actually, I converted it abck to .45 which is why the IMI upper parts) I sat down filing the extractor to make it fit over the rim and take it, file it some, run dummy rounds through.... repeat.   It fixed it so far, I am goign to run some hot laods through it tomorrow to see if it has fixed for those as well  (the first jamming was only with hot rounds, figured the extractor was jumping the rim.........

I think it only failed like that because the mag lips are different...it never failed on anything except the last round on an empty mag.  The MecGars also run like a top in the other 1911's I have (A USGI WWII Colt, another Sistema, and a Ballister Molina...yah, I guess the Ballister doesn't really count...)

It literally looked like the extractor let it go too early, and it just jammed the case into the lips. It probably ejected just fine on mags with rounds in it, because the round would skip over the upcoming cartridge until it smacked into the ejector...at least, that's my theory.

I'll take it apart and inspect it tonight, and see what I can see.

I would think it is obious don't use the metgar mags in it!!!

It's not your extractor ,its the angle that the metgars project the bullets into the bore!

The slide doesnot like the metgar mags!!!

Sell them !!!

The same problem exists with many .22lr pistols(with them its the mag spring needs to be streched)!

If it works with Colt mags(guess what the sistema is a colt manufactored firearm)!


One might want to use colt mags!!!


Or such     Bob

Quoted: I would think it is obious don't use the metgar mags in it!!! It's not your extractor ,its the angle that the metgars project the bullets into the bore! The slide doesnot like the metgar mags!!! Sell them !!! The same problem exists with many .22lr pistols(with them its the mag spring needs to be streched)! If it works with Colt mags(guess what the sistema is a colt manufactored firearm)! One might want to use colt mags!!! Or such     Bob

Er...no?

I checked it last night. The extractor has almost no tension whatsoever. Hand-cycling a round from a magazine into the chamber, and then ejecting the mag...and then slowly pulling the slide back to eject the round...the round slips out under the extractor and literally just drops out onto the feed ramp.

Removing the slide and checking to see if it'll just hold a cartridge fails miserably, too...

So, mystery solved. New extractor is on order, and I'm considering picking up a tensioning tool just to dork around with...

I wouldn't bother with the tensioning tool.  Chances are very good that you can get your current extractor functioning again.  Just bend it slightly until it will hold a loaded round securely when the slide is inverted.  Much tighter than that, and it can cause problems.

Though a new extractor's a good idea, you will most likely have to adjust it too.   Might as well get some practice while you're waiting on the mailman.

Quoted: So, mystery solved. New extractor is on order, and I'm considering picking up a tensioning tool just to dork around with...

 Yup, new extractor should do the trick......