I was attending a defensive handgun class with my new E series (it had about 100 rounds through it prior) and had a very odd double feed.

I tried to eject the mag...no go.
I tried ripping the mag out...no go.
Another student held the gun an I tried to pull the mag out, grabbing the small plastic base...no go. Base broke off (not much holding it on actually).
Next step was to pull the slide back to relieve pressure...unable, as slide was already back all the way.

Several of us, took it off to the side, and, while pointing down range, pushed down on one of the bullets with a multi tool plier nose, to separate things enough for the cartridges to come out and the magazine to free up.

Checked and seemed like it was Ok, mags worked ok (other than the broken one I set aside), ejected fine, and no obvious damage. Able to fire and it worked for the rest of the class. No other double feeds.

There were a few times where the slide did not go fully forward. This out of 300+ rounds shot on a gun that hadn't been full broken in. With the class, I didn't have time to identify the mags that the failure occurred (I had 2 factory, 2 Wilson combat, 2 Wilson combat elite magazines). This was with Sig 230 gr RN ammo.

The next week, I was at the range, and I had two occasions of the last round in the mag not fully chambering, and I had to push the slide forward (maybe 1/2" or so). This time I paid attention, and of 5 mags, it did this on one of the Wilson combat mags I had. On the next set, it failed on another Wilson magazine.

I went back the next week to check one more time with the problem of last round chambering. This time, I used the five magazines, and there were no problems with feeding. I retried with the two Wilson combat mags, and still no issue.

Unfortunately, this time, I had different ammo. The week before I had Magtech 230 gr. This week, I (unfortunately) had brought Remington 230 gr ammo.

I'm not sure if it was the ammo (Sig and Magtech), Wilson combat mags, combination of the two, possible problems from the double feed issue, or something else.

So, I called S&W. They wanted me to send it in, so off it went last week.

Hopefully they'll be able to help me sort out what happened with the double feed, and what is going on with the FTF. If not, I'll retest with the Wilson and Magtech ammo.

I really love shooting this gun, my first 1911. Very disconcerting though, to have a double feed that could not be dealt with quickly (especially for defensive shooting purposes).