Baby Eagle II Jamomatic

[Hobart]

Purchased a Baby Eagle II .45 from Davidsons last spring. It wouldn't feed 50 rounds without jamming. Sent it back and they replaced it with another one. I now have 600 rounds through the second pistol and it's also jamming on a regular basis. I don't have this problem with my Colt Commander or my 9mm Beretta. If a .45 won't even feed ball ammo, it's pretty useless. This one will sit on the shelf from now on. I wouldn't trust it as far as I can throw it. Wish I'd never bought it.

[CJB]

Nice classic first post there Hobart. Welcome to the Festivus pole.

I'll give you $50 for it, if you have the box and all included accessories and papers.

[Hobart]

Sorry, man. It's the best pistol I ever owned. 100% reliable. Wish I had ten more like it. Feel better now?

[DavidR]

Doesn't Davidson's have a lifetime warranty?


Dave

[CJB]

Sorry, man. It's the best pistol I ever owned. 100% reliable. Wish I had ten more like it. Feel better now?

Sorry, the Marquess of Queensbury _and_ Bartertown Rules apply. You cannot try to sweet talk me into a better offer, but as a consolation, I'll split the shipping with you.

So, Hobart.... do you actually have a question to ask, some sort of help you're seeking, or did you just come here for the Airing of Grievances?

I think you'll find this community long on help, short on sympathy.

[Hobart]

Sorry, the Marquess of Queensbury _and_ Bartertown Rules apply. You cannot try to sweet talk me into a better offer, but as a consolation, I'll split the shipping with you.

So, Hobart.... do you actually have a question to ask, some sort of help you're seeking, or did you just come here for the Airing of Grievances?

I think you'll find this community long on help, short on sympathy.

*Guess I was just airing a grievance. Mostly frustration. I want to like this pistol, but it's been a pain from the start. I've tried Winchcester White Box, Magtech, Fiocchi, Remington UMC. All with the same results. Two types of jams. Either the round fails to fully chamber, in which case I can push the slide closed, or the round appears to jam against the upper part of the chamber in such a vertical position that it just locks up the gun and the only way to clear it is to drop the magazine and let the round drop out of the receiver. It's not limp wristing. I've let someone else shoot it with the same results.
To answer another question, yes Davidson's does have a lifetime guarantee, but I hesitate to send a gun back twice. There has to be a solution to the problem that I'm just not seeing.
Any ideas?

[CJB]

When rounds don't fully chamber.... it sort of like the basics of troubleshooting for a vacuum cleaner.

1. Is the vacuum cleaner plugged in?
2. Is there power at the wall outlet?
3. Has the on/off swtich been depressed?

So....

Things to check would be the chamber cleanliness, which can be a problem with a ledged chamber like the .45 ACP has. Get that puppy clean. Could be a tight spec chamber... Kahr pistols are known for running chambers on the tight end of spec. Do the drop in test. Take the the barrel out of the pistol, and gently drop a round into the chamber. It should go all the way in, not protrude beyond the end of the barrel hood. Do that with all the ammo you plan to test shoot with. Each round! Most chambers are made such that the ammo will be just a tad shy of the barrel hood. If they are absolutely flush, or protrude (check with a straight edge against a light source), then you need to find out why. Could be chamber, ammo? Other thing, is the lead-in (taper at the throat) of the rifling. That will keep certain bullet shapes from seating because the nose hits the untapered section of the rifling (where there ought to be taper!).

Next thing.... extractor and the tension thereof. This is a huge area of problem on Colt .45 autos like your Commander, btw. Remove the slide. Clean the breech face really well. Now insert a cartridge by sliding it up under the extractor. It should slide in there easily. There should be no pressure from the extractor on the cartridge. If the extractor deflects under spring pressure, it needs correction. Ideally there should be a very minute clearance between the inner part of the extractor hook and the rim (to allow for just a tiny bit of dirt). Minute being... something like two C-hairs taken across the flats, or about .006 inches (think barrel-cylinder gap width if you've never measured a C-hair). There also should be enough forward-aft play such that the hook allows the rim to move free of the breech face by a small amount... same C-hair reference. If there's resistance in either, you'll have chambering troubles.

I'm tending to think you've problems with the latter, not the former, but ... both are worth a check.

The Baby Eagle series is really no more than a CZ-75 built from Tangfolio parts, with enough final work in Israel to be called an Israeli firearm. The CZ-75 is noted for excellent reliability. If the chamber it too tight, and you can find a smithy with the right reamer, its an easy hand ream to correct, no lathe work needed really... if the extractor is the fault, a smithy can correct that too... with his nice little Grobet warding file. Check out Grobet files btw, and you'll see one ONE little file cost's $35 or so. They cut like no tomorrow... which makes your cuts precise. Crappy files make for crappy filing, imho.

[Hobart]

Thanks. I'll check all that out and see if it helps. Tolerances on these gun must be really tight. My Colt actually feels a sloppy compared to the Baby Eagle. Really hope I can get this thing working.

[CJB]

The Colt .45 auto chamber, made by Colt, is a sloppier than a BJ on Avenue E, just sayin!