Model 41 FTF last round empty magazine

[pchappy451]

Hi everyone, I’m hoping that you knowledgeable folks from the US can shed some light on a peculiar issue my late 70’s Model 41 is having. I bought the 41 secondhand online from an interstate gun shop. Long story short, after discovering a filed down front sight and a massively widened rear sight I decided to keep the existing 5.5” barrel for later use with a red dot and I bought a new 7” barrel for open sight use.

Apart from the 7” barrel being significantly narrower than the slide, it seems to be accurate but does have one problem. Using CCI SVs it will more often than not fail to fire on the last round (ie; with an empty mag). I did a search on this forum and found another post regarding this issue but unlike the gun mentioned in that post, mine will still release the hammer and strike the case when the trigger is squeezed. If I cycle the slide and squeeze the trigger again (it won’t eject the unfired round btw) it still won’t fire. If I cycle the slide again and then put a fresh magazine in, it will fire and cycle perfectly?! This happens with all five magazines (four new and one old) nearly every time.

I’ve stripped and cleaned the gun with no improvement and found no evidence of any significant fouling or gunk anywhere.
I’m wondering if it could possibly have something to do with the magazine last shot hold open setup or possibly a weak main spring or hammer spring? I’m in an area of Australia where getting springs/parts to try or another gun to compare with is pretty much impossible.

I don’t have access to the 5.5” barrel as it’s away getting a red dot base fitted to the rear sight dovetail (making the base fit the barrel and not the other way round!) but from memory I don’t recall the original barrel having this issue so possibly something about this barrel/chamber is providing slightly more resistance?

This is the second 41 I’ve owned over the last 20 years and coincidentally the first one was about the same age. I’m very aware just how faultless and reliable they can be so just need to get this one sorted.

Thanks very much for your help!

 

[CrankyThunder]

Dear Pchappy:

I think that I know what is going on with your pistol. Next time you shoot it, when the last round gets chambered, take your thumb and push forward on the slide and see if it is completely in battery. Is there a good hit on the rim of the cartridge?

What probably is happening is that the empty magazine is pushing up on the slide and preventing it from traveling fully forward. It is going forward enough such that the hammer can fall but the hammer cannot hit the firing pin because the slide is not fully forward.

The easy way to check for this is when the last round chambers, do not pull the trigger, just push the slide forward (or try to).

There are a couple ways to fix this problem, slightly enlarging the slot on the magazine so that the magazine rides lower in the mag well, a stronger recoil spring, maybe even something as simple as a good cleaning, maybe a chamber ironing because the chamber is not allowing the bullet to fully enter the chamber, or even putting a drop of oil on the top round on each magazine. First step is to confirm that the slide is fully forward or not before you start fixing it.

Regards,
Crankster

 

[pchappy451]

Hello Crankster

Thanks for the reply. I’ll try your suggestions this weekend and see how it goes. I’ll post again afterwards.

Peter