Anyone Get an ejected shell casing in the head.

[wellze]

I have the PT-809, and I have taken a few ejected rounds off the head. This is not all the time, maybe 1 or 2 out of a couple of magazines. It will get you're attention pretty quick. I have even had some hit me in the glasses. I talked to my gun shop dealer about it and he had no clue. He also said he has never had an ejected round come close to his head. Since this does not happen all the time maybe 5 times out of a 150 rounds is there anything to worry about with this. Has anyone else had this happen. Other than this issue the PT-809 had been a great shooter. I thought I would try a different brand ammo and see if it changes. I have been running Federals 115 grain and they shoot just fine with no issues. Any thoughts would be great.

[andreew]

I have a PT809 too. With use, it gets more infrequent.

[dbeardslee]

I just went around and around with my PT145 over this same issue, and I finally tracked it down to an improperly tensioned extractor. Since the 800 series uses the identical extractor, the first thing I would do is check your extractor tension. When I first checked mine it had absolutely zero tension on it, and that will cause very erratic ejection. You can check it the same way as you do for a 1911 (or just about any other semi auto, for that matter), and this short video will show you how...



If the tension looks good, the other thing that effects the ejection pattern is the ejector itself. That part is totally different than on the milpros and appears to be an integral part of the 800's so I'd leave that for Taurus to mess with.

And the last thing I can think of that will sometimes get you beaned with brass is limp wristing. Use a very firm grip, and lock your wrists. I've noticed ammo seems to have an impact on the 'beaning effect', and my experience suggests that lower powered rounds (like WWB and Federal Champion) are the worst for the occasional cartridge case getting you right between the eyes. The hotter rounds don't seem to be as prone to the phenomenon.

Is it dangerous? Depends. If you normally wear glasses I'd say there's very little danger from it even though it's annoying. If you don't, and you wind up having to use the weapon for it's intended purpose, a piece of brass in your eye could spell disaster. The amount of damage it would likely do to an eyeball might require a trip to the emergency room if it hit you just right, but if your eyesight goes away when you really need it - that's the larger danger in my way of thinking.

And if you'd like to see a long list of boring videos that show how changes in the extractor and ejector affect the pattern, here's the process I went through - Milpro beaning you with brass?

[andreew]

Thanks dbeardslee. My extractor tension seems fine, and it happens with a firm grip. I notice that the ejected cartridge rebounds on the barrel hood, and that with faster powders (W-231 & Unique), it almost never happens compared to commercial WWB and slower AA 7.

[dallascj]

Thanks dbeardslee for the very useful info. I have had this happen a couple of times, but usually attribute it to hitting the partition walls and bouncing back at my indoor range. I had a casing land right above my collar bone Thursday, and it burned the crap out of me. I haven't watched the video yet, but is the tension adjustable? The only one of my Tauruses that I tore the slide down on was my PT709 and I didn't see any method of adjustment.

[dbeardslee]

Thanks dbeardslee for the very useful info. I have had this happen a couple of times, but usually attribute it to hitting the partition walls and bouncing back at my indoor range. I had a casing land right above my collar bone Thursday, and it burned the crap out of me. I haven't watched the video yet, but is the tension adjustable? The only one of my Tauruses that I tore the slide down on was my PT709 and I didn't see any method of adjustment.

The amount of tension is determined by the extractor spring, but for it to work the extractor stop has to be set correctly. Once the extractor stop is down to a level that allows the claw to make contact with the case recess, it's all spring tension. If it doesn't grip the case recess (and the rounds just fall out), then you need to take the stop down in tiny increments until it will hold. Too much tension and you'll get feed issues, and too little and your ejection will be erratic. I figure you want the strongest spring in there that will allow consistent feeding.

I recently got a new extractor spring from Taurus, and it is stiffer than the stocker. I wound up sticking with the stocker as the stiffer spring was causing hangups. I hate to say it, but it's kind of a trial and error process as far as the spring is concerned. But if it holds the rounds in place like the Wilson Combat video shows, I wouldn't spend a lot of time on the extractor. I'd only monkey with it if it isn't holding the rounds. If it is holding them, then you probably want to look to the ejector for the fix.

One thing I've noticed about milpros in general (and the PT145 and 800's are very similar in regard to their 'ejection geometry') is that they seem to want to throw the brass pretty flat. I had mine flattened out so much that it was hitting the bottom of the ejection port and was actually ejecting to the left. It looked like it was ejecting too high, but video revealed that it was actually way low. I found that by putting a 5-10 degree angle on the ejector I could get enough lift on the round to pretty much solve the problem - and that's pretty much what you want to go for - lift.

The ejector on the milpros passes through a channel in the slide, and it can be bent to the left or right. I found that the closer it was to the right hand side of the channel, the higher the ejection pattern. Moving it to the left would flatten the pattern pretty dramatically. And the ejector works the best when it's longer on the bottom than the top (that 5-10 degree angle), and straight - no points on Taurus ejectors. But again, the ejectors on the milpros and the 800's are different, and I don't know if the same adjustment is possible on the 800's. If someone's got a real clear pic of an 800 ejector I might be able to render an opinion.

If you do have to adjust your extractor tension, you're probably going to have to adjust the claw too. It's an easy adjustment, but you only want to take the minimum of metal off to allow rounds to feed reliably. One way you can tell that you need to work on the bottom of the claw is when you experience rounds that look like they're hanging up on the top of the chamber.

And one last thing that is extremely important. If you remove and install your extractor to get it tuned, make sure you order a couple new extractor pins first. They're knurled on one end, and that's what holds them in. Repeatedly removing and installing that pin (which you pretty much have to do to fix the tension if it isn't right) will wear the knurling down, and it will eventually get to the point that it won't want to stay in. Then your pistol might just decided to disassemble itself on the firing line. DAMHIK A new pin costs about $.75 (and $4 shipping ), so I'd order a few to have them around. They're kind of a consumable item.

Taurus made a boo boo on an order I place with them a couple weeks ago, and to make a long story short, I've got a brand new unaltered extractor in my possession. I'm thinking seriously about doing a little video, and actually tuning the extractor on the video. It's easy stuff to do, but it's easy stuff to screw up too. I figure a video might fill the gap between the written word and getting your hands dirty. Anyway, I should have it ready in the next couple weeks - the good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

[wellze]

Thanks for the info I will check the extractor out and see how it is. I did purchase today a 124 grain rounds to see if as you said a hotter round may correct the issue.I would be interested in the video if you put one together on tuning the 800 series extractors. If it's turns out to be easy enough to do myself, I'm for that rather than sending it out for a long trip to Florida.

[dbeardslee]

Thanks for the info I will check the extractor out and see how it is. I did purchase today a 124 grain rounds to see if as you said a hotter round may correct the issue.I would be interested in the video if you put one together on tuning the 800 series extractors. If it's turns out to be easy enough to do myself, I'm for that rather than sending it out for a long trip to Florida.

For something like this I doubt whether it would be in Miami very long. But you never know. And in the first year of ownership Taurus will pay the shipping both ways - which is cool. I like to tinker, and I'm always fascinated by the way firearms work, so I prefer to do the work myself. But again - do the extractor test first, and if it holds rounds securely I wouldn't mess with it. Won't do you any good to tune it if it isn't causing the problem. If, on the other hand, it doesn't hold rounds securely, it may well be the 'bean maker.'

[ozzy]

[bigdlou]

Tuning the ejector in the 800 series is not something that is easy to do. If you file it too much you will need to change the whole hammer support! It's a 1 piece design, so if you make a mistake you need to order the whole support.


The only way to tune the tension of the extractor is to change the extractor spring. Unless you can make you own spring this might hard to source.

Also I noticed that the casing of the last round always flies up and hit my head instead of flying to the right. This was caused by sloppy mag spring.