My Ed Brown BobTail has a failure to feed. Its rare and I have only experienced with one type ammo. But I shoot this ammo most commonly so its hard to say if its the ammo. I buy from a hand-loader, but I have never had a FTF or any other problems with his ammo. Excellent quality IMHO. Especially for the price for range ammo. $75 for 250.
The cartridge is half in the chamber half out, a tap seats it every time. My question, What would be the probable culprit.
My other thought about BobTails: I have read several times how the Ed Brown Bobtail shoots like a full sized 1911. IMHO, just not the case. Much more flip / muzzle jump and I am really not impressed. Which may be part of my FTF issue. I need to be more conscious on my firm grip??
My only other issue with EB 1911’s. Don’t get me wrong, I really like their 1911’s and think they are very nice. But they make their Trigger guard slightly larger which effects holster fit dramatically. If you gunna make a 1911, make it like John made it.
If you have isolated the FTF problem to one particular type of ammo and they are purchased reloads I say you have found your problem. With a case gauge and a caliper you could check the external dimensions of the ammo for uniformity.
Regarding the Bobtail, are you comparing apples to apples? You haven’t provided enough details. It sounds like you are comparing a full size 1911 to a Commander size Bobtail. Or do you have a Bobtail full size?
A consistent firm grip no matter the handgun will best serve you.
I have not noted any trigger guard dimensional differences between my EB and other 1911s. They all fit equally well into my Comp-Tac kydex holster.
Most hand-loads are reloads, obviously not all since new brass can be used. You may find that a different weight recoil spring may provide better function for the ammo in question. Or perhaps it is time to replace your recoil spring. How many rounds through the gun? The faster slide speed on the commander length guns requires more frequent spring replacements.
Just for the heck of it I would feel the case bullet interface area. Run your thumb and forefinger from the bullet down onto the case. You should not feel any bell at the case mouth. Are they all consistent?
What are you using for magazines? Could they possibly figure in as a factor? Magazines are notorious for causing issues in 1911s, especially feed issues.
My Ed Brown is a early 2010 acquisition. I have had it in multiple holsters, two of my own, Kydex and leather and holsters owned by friends and never found a fit problem.
Usually when a round won’t quite go into battery completely like that it is because of a faulty or improperly beveled extractor.
Could also be that the occasional round is too long and that messes with the feeding cycle.
Or that the round has a less than tight crimp which allows for setback when the round is stripped off the mag and contacts the feedramp- when the projectile sets back it absorbs some of the “oomph” of the slide coming forward and this can be enough to cause a FTF. There’s a long post about this over at the 10-8 forums where this happens to an otherwise 100% reliable Springfield Pro like clockwork with only one kind of specific .45 ball ammo.
The referenced 10-8 discussion was interesting. If I recall correctly, the tester could resolve the issue (at least in part) by loading just several rounds into a magazine and cycling the top round from slide lock. The additional tension provided by a full magazine seemed to cause the top rounds to take an even harsher feed angle and the specific ammo in question would allow the bullet set back. I would ditch the problematic ammo, but you might want to try throwing just a few rounds into the magazine and cycling to see what happens.
I’m curious as to how many rounds have been through this weapon and what type of rounds? Were they lead semi-wadcutters, plated wadcutters, truncated nose, HP or what? I had a brand new Springfield compensated Defender in 45 ACP that was so tight out of the box (even after an initial cleaning) that it would fail to fully chamber 200 gr. lead semi-wadcutters about one every 5 times. I shot a box of 230 gr. Remingtons in it and it worked fine after that. Yes, I checked each of the Bullseye loaded 45’s in a case gage and they were fine.
I also had a new XD40 that choked on WWB 180 gr. flat nose so I went through two boxes of Remington 180 gr. without a hitch. I went back to the WWB and no problem. Break in for both pistols?
Oh, and to add I have several Brown pistols. and I sure like the bobtail for carrying! It fits snug against the body. The printing is less under a tee shirt also.
Shooting regular ball ammo. 230grain. Gun has over 1,500 rounds through it. I had two guns that needed a break-in, HK P30L and XD40 Tactical. At about 500 rounds, no more feeding problems with either.