1911 SA Micro...my lil pain

Sololucky - Your having the casings flying to different places may sorta narrow the problem down (assuming that the chamber is pretty clean when all this happens). If you hare having failures to extract AND the spent casings are not landing in about the same place, there's a good chance that the problem is the extractor. Take a look at its little tooth close up and see if maybe it's rounded off or broken. If you can't see anything obviously rounded off, then it is likely that the extractor's tension or length isn't right. I'd take it back where I bought it, explain to them that you know these are distinct possibilities based on (1) FTEs and (2) brass landing all over the place, and see what they'll do to make it right.

Sorry you're having trouble with your Micro. I flat LOVED mine - out of the box it was slick and accurate - not a single bobble with any of the ammo I tried. The only boo boo I noticed about mine was that the factory lettering on the side got really shallow in places. Sold it to a friend who needed it more than I. Otherwise I'd still have - and still be carrying - it.

Oh, and one more thing. This'll sound weird, but I'll try to explain - when you try the pistol again, grit your teeth, and get pissed off. Sounds funny, I know, but I remember when I have had guns that I wasn't too sure about, I'd try getting dirty dog mean, and try to "dominate" the pistol. Hold the sonofa)@$#)(* hard with a crush grip! (That'll be what you'll have on it anyway if you need it for defensive purposes, and it won't affect accuracy much at practical ranges.) Doing that may get you past not only possible limp-wristing (which you may or may not be doing) but also may make you discover some things about where your concentration is during firing that may be adding to what's throwing things off. Really run the gun hard for a few hundred rounds. The break-in might also help it function better.

Best,
Jon

I think the Polishing deal will clear up your troubles. Most people feel that if they're spending a large amount of money on a weapon, it should work flawlessly out of the box. Nope, nada, they all need a little tweaking to make em work 100%.. Point in mind, a friend of mine bouught a beretta Tomcat 32 brand new a couple weeks ago. After trying differnt brands of ammo, he found several that worked, and some that didn't.
I then took the gun, with him watching me, and polished the heck out of the feed ramp, etc, and slicked the gun up. NOW, he reports that the ammo that "didn't work" in his gun, feeds flawlessly. AND the gun is his constant companion now.
Work that S A a little on the feed ramp, polish the heck out of it, try several brands of ammo and stick with the one or two brands that work 100%

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they all need a little tweaking to make em work 100%..

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What 1911s and what has to be tweaked? I've had a small boat load of 'em in 30 years and just have not found this to be true. This isn't intended to be confrontational Bob, merely curiosity.

Hi OD, I was just passing my personal view on the problem, as I've had about 40 of them, in various manufacturers. I could put 5 Colts together, and they might not function the same way. I know you're just curious, and am not taking anything as confrontational. :biggrin: My defender eats everything, but as it gets dirty, from powder residue, it tends to get caught in the middle of a feeding. I then polished the ramp, cleaned up some of the areas that may catch residue and now, it funtions without a hitch. I've seen the same SA Micro come back into the store, with the same problems, (FTF mostly) The guy who bought the gun thought it would shoot 100% reliably right out of the box (BTW it REALLY should) I'm just saying that no weapon is 100% reliable. :biggrin:

Thank s Bob, I appreciate your perspective.

Thanks OD for pointing things out. It's a good thing we've got going here... being objective and receptive to what we see posted by fellow Forumites. :biggrin:
After being on the Retail end of the Gun Business for many years, ya see things come in that make you say "why doesn't that work" and others that you KNOW may not work well, (either due to ammo or manufatureing processes) that work like a dream. :biggrin:
Just like the Auto Makers, ya might get one that was "made on a Monday or a Friday" :biggrin:

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Retail end of the Gun Business for many years

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Yes, you would see a lot :wink:

I have been on the other side of the counter myself, still am on occasion. One of my favorite customers was a fella who brought in a couple of Series 70 Colt's complaining the junk Colt put out wouldn't work. I jumped at the chance to buy them cheap, for having dealt with him in the past, I knew he didn't have clue one about the big auto pistol. As I figured, they turned out to be two of the sweetest 70's I had owned. Made a considerable profit when the Series 70s started jumping in price. :biggrin:

well "my lil pain" got its polishing.
cleaned up real well. did the ramp, chamber, slide areas, hammer face. etc...
went to the range with it friday and results were improved feeding right off. it fed the rem jhp's better than ever. wolf's too. still not 100% but much better. so i know something had been improved. much less FTE's. FTE's were the main problem.

then went saturday but reinstalled the stock grip's (slabs).
i did a hot-rodders 'no-no'. don't change 2 things at once. well i changed the grips from stock to a polished, fancy, pretty, wrap-around grip and i shot wolf ammo for the first time.
so with teh grippier checkering and smaller diameter i almost eliminated the wolf being a problem. still doesn't like remington JHP's. but i'm onto something. :rolleyes:

so thanks for teh advice.
i really like this place

I forget...did you check the extractor for the FTE problems? 99% of those problems, especially in Springfield Armory's....it's the extractor. A massive after market, tensioned extractor, properly tuned will solve that stuff. My problem was, when I had my "micro" it wasn't worth it to me to try all that stuff to get it up to snuff. My carry gun has to be 100% all the time right from the get go, or I refuse to trust my life or the lives of my family to it. My "micro" had FTEs and FTFs and double feeds....geeeeze. Forget it.

I had my IDPA match yesterday and the SWAT Lieutenant that is the Master level shooter in my club and has BTDT for real said what my buddies in SpecOps had said previously: For a GTW (Go To WAR) gun that is going to be 100% reliable and stand up to Hell itself....got to go with the H&K USP and the LEM trigger. So that's what I'm doing. Sure, it's a big gun, but it's got a plastic frame and I have found in the past in concealing a Glock M21 45, that the right holster and clothing is the key.

Well "my lil pain" is enroute to S.A. as i type.
hope they can werk out its issues.
I have heard good things about there cust. service but would like to get 'real' feedback on how long i should expect them to have it. days...weeks?

i know i'm barking up a real tall tree to get a 3" 1911 reliable (from what most people have said) but to be honest, for $500, i expect nothing less and with a lifetime warranty they may see a lot of this gun if its not right.
maybe they'll nail it...maybe they won't.
the kick in the head is when i took it back to the shop to let them return it to S.A. i saw a full sized stainless for the same price i paid for my Micro. now without my research i prolly woulda got the Micro, but knowing what i know now i woulda jumped on that stainless fullsize with both feet!
oh well...

well, how about yer take on S.A.'s cust service dept. and there smiths abilities to get it right.

thanks

Good luck , update us on what ya find out and how SA treated ya.

Well my "lil pain" is on its way back from S.A. as i type. should be delivered to the shop today.:bald:
It took 14 days. I consider that "not too bad" froi customer service. IMHO.

will post its 'real' outcome when i can shoot it. hopefully this weekend if i can get to the shop today and pick'er up today.
saturday will be booked splitting firewood.

I am hoping for the best.

Did ya ask what they did to it? 14 days isn't bad at all, mine took 17, SA customer service is top notch.

I have a ParaOrd P12.45 that initially gave me fits. Lots of FTF's, cartridges getting hung up and only partially feeding, double feeds, etc. I polished the feed ramp - a bit at a time - you have to be careful to not do too much with those feed ramps, I changed the recoil spring with a new one from Wolff - same rating, BTW, and finally - I upgraded the mag springs to Wolff +10%. And now it shoots great and takes 230 gr HP's and RN just fine - I've even used it in some classes with 500+ rounds or more in a day's time and it has been flawless. And for a little pistol it is incredibly accurate.

Good luck!

Well i got my "lil pain" back today.
after some delivery issues from friday its in my hands finally.

S.A. had it for 12 days. was gone from me for a total of 17 days.
i consider that good for customer service.
they replaced the ejector, tuned the ejector, polished/modified the breech face (not sure what that does).
and fired winchester 230 FMJ's and federal JHP's. so i guess it'll eat JHP's now...yaaahhh!!

will take it out tonight or probably wednesday and fire it and see how it goes. i expect good results.
a general question..woudl a armorer or a gunsmith had werked on it? adn what is the difference?