More extraction problems and a theory

Like a lot of Steyr owners I'm experiencing extraction problems on my M9. Namely, the spent shell is still in the chamber with the next round butting up against it. This happens mainly when the gun is warm and occurs with WWB and Blazer ammo.

Thinking about it, four possible causes come to mind:

1. Bad extractor. I polished the hell out of it and it doesn't make a difference. Why does it fail to extract only sometimes? When ejectors are bad they usually fail all or most of the time, not just sometimes. OTOH, a weak extractor with a hot barrel that has contracted may do it.

2. Overly tight chamber. When the barrel gets hot it contracts enough to keep the shell from ejecting. But, when a drop a bullet into the barrel there seems to be enough room. It feels only slightly tighter than my Glock barrel.

3. A bad mag. The round may be feeding prematurely and getting in the way of the spent casing being ejected. The problem is that it does it with both mags.

4. Improper recoil spring. I'm leaning in this direction since I can't understand why the 9mm uses the same recoil spring as the .40. Looking at the power factor of factory ammo, the 9mm has about a 130 pf whle the .40 has a 170. That a 30% difference which would lend itself to using different recoil springs. If the Steyr is anything like the Glock, a 13lb recoil spring would be perfect for relatively low power cheap factory ammo. I doubt the M9 has a 13lb recoil spring.

I've compared the Glock recoil rod and springs to the Steyr. The Steyr recoil rod has a wider head (.491 versus .416 for the Glock) and a thicker shaft. So a Glock recoil spring won't fit the Steyr rod. But, the narrow Glock recoil rod will fit the Steyr and the spring may hold in the slide even with its smaller diameter. I plan on testing the Glock rod and spring in the Steyr later this week.

The barrel on the M9 is 4", the same as the Glock 19, which means the recoil spring should be the same length. While the Steyr uses a flat wire spring like the Glock, Wolff also makes a round wire spring for the Glock. So, any 13-15 lb recoil spring for a 4" barrel should work if the inside diameter of the spring fits onto the Steyr rod. Since Wolff makes recoil springs for dozens of guns, I can't imagine there isn't one that'll work with a Steyr.

If the theory about recoil springs is correct, it might explain why some Steyr's extract fine while others don't. Specifically, recoil springs are notorious for being above or below the advertised poundage, which is why many top competitive shooters check the poundage of the springs themselves. It may also be that Steyr had a bad crop of recoil springs that found their way onto some guns but not others. Anyway, it's just a theory.