DW Specialist range update

[American1776]

Took the new Specialist Commander back the the range. I tightened the extractor the first time out, and had 4 FTRTB issues.

Since then, I took some tension off the extractor. 2nd time out I went through 220 rounds of S&B, Remington, and WW factory 230 grain ball. Gun ran like a sewing machine. Ejection was uniform and at 3 and 4 o’clock. Fired two rounds without mag in to test extractor tension, and it ejected the rounds perfectly without mag in.

Had one magazine related failure: last round in the mag, the round skipped ahead of the extractor and stopped the slide. This was on an older WC mag, without the dimpled follower. The factory Dan Wesson mags that came with the pistol have dimpled followers, and all fed the last rounds just fine.

I’m confident in the pistol now. It’s a nice piece. I like it so much I might get a full sized Specialist.

[Ivan the Butcher]

While the "Dimpled" follower works, there is some other issue with your Wilson Combat mag. I have a dozen of their mags and not one has that problem or a dimple. I also have 8 Chip McCormick "Shooting Star" 8 round mags, none of them have the dimple either, and all work fine!

I would suspect the mag spring is either weak or short!

Ivan

[stansdds]

There is a reason for the dimple/pimple/tit/bump on the follower and now you know the reason. Do all magazines really need this feature? No, some designs work fine without it, but it does seem to help in controlling the last round in the magazine. Personally, I stick with 7 round mags in stock length, for 8 round mags I think mags that are slightly extended to give the spring more space and reduces coil compression are a better idea. I've had standard length mags with 8 round followers and matching springs, the springs did not last nearly as long as those in my 7 round mags.

I'm glad that your Dan Wesson Specialist is running well.

[American1776]

Originally Posted by stansdds

There is a reason for the dimple/pimple/tit/bump on the follower and now you know the reason. Do all magazines really need this feature? No, some designs work fine without it, but it does seem to help in controlling the last round in the magazine. Personally, I stick with 7 round mags in stock length, for 8 round mags I think mags that are slightly extended to give the spring more space and reduces coil compression are a better idea. I've had standard length mags with 8 round followers and matching springs, the springs did not last nearly as long as those in my 7 round mags.

I'm glad that your Dan Wesson Specialist is running well.

This is what I've come to learn from doing some reading about a 'last round jumping ahead of the extractor' situation. The spring isn't quite strong enough to keep enough upward tension on the last round, and so the last round is 'freer' to slide too fast off the follower, uncontrolled, and ahead of the extractor.

I'll stick with the dimpled mags for carry, and I'll look into some 7 rounders with a bumper plate on the bottom since this pistol has a huge mag well.

Thanks for the feedback.