[coy1369]

Just got my new fnp 45 and haven't fired a shot and I broke the ejector. Here's the deal and I'd like other 45 owners to check it out to see if yours is doing the same thing mine was.

The ejector on the 45 has a "v shaped bend" in it. I hadn't had time to go to the range and I was running some A-Zoom snap caps through it and noticed that the rims of the snap caps were getting gouged. upon closer examination, the ejector was "hooking" the rim of the case as the slide pushed it out of the mag and towards the chamber. thinking that this would be an easy fix, I took a pair of small needle nose pliers and proceeded to bend the tip of the ejector up a little to clear the rim of the cartrige. not knowing the ejector was "heat treated" , it snapped right off. Bob was on vacation last week and I spoke w/ tim pearce "rifle guy". he wouldn't sell me a new ejector but offered a free fix if I sent the gun back. So, that's what I did and she's been gone for a week. How long do you guys think it will be gone, and , are any other 45's doing this?

 

[B52U]

First I've heard of it. Hope you get it back soon. I would imagine they designed that extractor to be totally reliable without worrying about the condition of your casings. It is a combat pistol afterall. I would be interested to know if any other 45 owners experience the same gouging effect on their casings. Might affect the quality of reloads.

 

[imschur]

Does the fact that those snap caps are aluminum make them more prone to getting chewed up then the brass of actual ammo?

 

[JustRick]

Does the fact that those snap caps are aluminum make them more prone to getting chewed up then the brass of actual ammo?

Sure. Brass is harder than aluminum. When I was reading reviews of the FNP9 a few of the reviewers commented on the stout ejector. I'm thinking this is a Good Thing for most of us, but maybe not so good for reloaders.

 

[Mercaptan]

Snap-caps are supposed to have a definite life cycle. They aren't supposed to last more than a few hundred (if even reaching some thousand) cycles. They are disposable items, and yes they do get marred apart by extractors. You can't accurately assess a weapon's reliability by throwing aluminum surrogates into your gun and cycling it a few times.

I can't say I understand why you decided to take pliers to a part that you haven't tried with real ammo - it likely wouldn't have scraped the brass (or deformed it). It is a heavy duty extractor.

Oh well, chalk this up to lesson learned.

For what it's worth, my FNP-45 doesn't ding brash, but the extractor on that weapon would likely shred a snap-cap. There's a reason why the least popular ones these days are plastic, they get broken apart within 10 or 20 cycles.

 

[coy1369]

the reason i tried to adjust it is because I'm a reloader and a gouged rim on a case would make it tough to get into a shell holder, and, I have adjusted a lot of ejectors (not extractors) by bending them slightly or changing the grind angle on the contact surface, this is the first "hardened" ejector i've run across. I did cycle some live ammo through it and it was hooking the rim of the case enough to cause the rear end of the round to shift to the right as it fed from the mag. the chamber on the 45 I have is very generous on the demension too. so much that the round is partially "unsupported" where the feed ramp is. somewhat like a glock. You can see the "unsupported" effect if you remove the barrel and examine it under a good light with a round of ammo dropped into the barrel. At the 6:00 o'clock position where the ammo feeds up the feed ramp into the barrel from the magazine, the sharp edge on the barrel has been "broken" or smoothed off. this is done to enhance feeding of the ammo and avoid a sharp edge that could snag the round and jam the gun. There is a small crescent shaped area where the barrel does not fully contact the case of the ammo. This concerns many people, who think the case could rupture or "kaboom" at that spot.