Is Your 3rd Gen FTE'ing? Check your mags....

[Fastbolt]

His analysis is that the extractor is the culprit- but the surprise is that is too tight.No physical problems with the extractor were mentioned, so the pin & spring are the primary actors in this drama.

Well, if the extractor has somehow become too "tight" and can't remain pivoted inward enough to maintain a sufficient grip on the case, then you'd start to see extraction failures at times. (Conversely, if it were to become stuck too tightly in the inward position you'd be seeing failures-to-feed happening.)

Hopefully whoever tried to "repair" the gun at that earlier time didn't damage the pin holes in the top or bottom of the slide. (A new pin can be used if just the pin were damaged, and a new extractor can be fitted - although that requires a bar gauge to check for GO/NO-GO dimensions when filing the adjustment pad.)

The supporting cast is in the form of a botched effort by a previous gunsmith. Apparently at some point in the distant past a Gomer Pyle gunsmith peened out the ejector lever by hammering it flat in one spot to cover up the ejection issues.

In so doing the ejector lever is weakened so had I continued to shoot the 5906 in its current condition the ejector would have failed spectacularly.

!?!?!?

Okay, if someone has gotten inside and screwed around with an ejector, there's no telling what might have happened with the extractor at some point.

FWIW, the ejectors have been revised over time in the 3rd gen pistols. The early 3rd gen ejectors had shorter tips and a sharply angled corner back under the tip, where it widened out to the main body. It was at this point where a stress riser could sometimes develop, sometimes causing the tip to break off. The revised part had a longer tip (for faster ejection, especially with some of the hotter loads some LE were using), and the corner was eliminated,helping reduce the potential for a stress riser.

Here's an old & new ejector (in plain stainless; they also come in black finish). The old one is on the bottom:

I'm almost a little curious where someone would think to try and "peen" an ejector.

It's weird "repairs" like this that illustrate why it's a good idea to find a gunsmith familiar with the S&W pistols in the first place, or, lacking that, having a 3rd gen (or earlier) pistol checked out & repaired by either the factory or one of the authorized warranty service centers. Glad you found a gunsmith.

The ejector/mag depressor is only a $3.69 part (retail), although the extractor runs just over $20.

The older 3rd gen 59XX guns can sometimes require a different extractor spring tension that that provided by the current standard spring. They used to offer a pair of nested springs (and I used a number of those sets to repair some of our older 5903's over time), but that spring configuration was replaced by a set of 2 optional springs that could be tried individually.

The recommended factory tension range varied a bit, depending on the breech face design (angled cut above case incorporating curved shoulders, versus the newer straight cut breech face design), although sometimes a particular gun (like a very early 59XX) might require a bit of variation. Getting the tension "right" involves balancing feeding & extraction issues, and too much or little tension can each create their own problems. While there's a recommended range of tension which can be checked with the force dial gauge, the ultimate test is how well any particular gun might function on the firing line, using the ammunition intended for use in the gun.

Then, when it comes to failures-to-extract (double feeds), there's also the potential influence that can be introduced by a really weakened or damaged recoil spring.

Hard to really "fix" what isn't properly diagnosed in the first place.