Most guns are designed well enough, but quality control is sometimes suspect. Cheaper guns are usually cheap for a reason. I've shot several boxes through this "Jammer" with no problem now, but feel like the ejector was some sort of inferior metal, maybe even pot metal. I would love to have a replacement part made with stainless or something else, but who would try to make a living from spare parts from other guns? The old ejector would flex just pushing it with my fingers. It's now just a shooter at the range because I just can't trust it with my life even with a new ejector that is working now at 100%. Is the next round going to be the one I have to fire at multiple perps and it decides to fire once?
Perhaps you could get a machinist or a machnist with gun experience to make you a new part out of stainless. It’s a one time expense and would improve your gun’s capability. I had a gunsmith make a cocking handle out of aluminum to replace a plastic handle that broke on my nylon 66 22lr rifle.
“I had a Jam-O-matic once, ... found a bent ejector. ... feel like the ejector was some sort of inferior metal, maybe even pot metal. ...” [chuckles, post 31]
At the risk of sounding obsessive, I think now is a great time to remind the forum of safety risks incurred by installing non-standard parts, or parts made of non-standard materials, into firearms.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, when dealing with old and used guns, all bets are off. I spent over a dozen years in the employ of a small family-owned dealership, doing gun repair work. Encountered a number of old guns that contained improvised parts; some were serious hazards. A couple examples to illustrate:
A Winchester 61 did not ignite its cartridges reliably. We discovered that the original firing pin had been removed, and in its place was a pin filed into shape by hand, from a nail or some similar item, made of low-quality steel that was very soft. Under repeated blows from the rifle’s hammer, the improvised pin had mushroomed and upset at more than one point along its length. The increased diameter caused it to stick in the pin tunnel in the breechblock, intermittently - it could not always be driven forward to hit the cartridge rim. When we discovered the problem, indications were it was starting to stick in a fully forward position; if the slide was run forward with the pin stuck forward, it could have hit the cartridge rim with the block in an out-of-battery position, prematurely igniting the priming. Unsupported by the breechblock, the cartridge case would have ruptured; brass fragments and hot gases could have sprayed all over, injuring shooter and bystandesr. Might have caused more damage to the rifle too.
A Colt’s Model 1903 Pocket Hammer autoloading pistol in 38 ACP dating to the 1920s was found to have a firing pin overlength for the slide’s breechblock. It was determined that the pin was not a factory part, it was improvised (with a rather high degree of craftsmanship and attention to final finish) out of steel (originals were phosphor bronze), and relative dimensions were wrong (an original pin was shorter than the total length of the breechblock, just like the M1911 pistol). The result was that if the hammer were to be lowered fully onto the head of the firing pin (as recommended for safe carry in a ready condition), the striker tip of the improvised pin would have protruded from the breechface to touch the live primer. Originals had not been available for decades; we had to draw the temper of the improvised pin, recut it to proper original dimensions, and redo the temper. The owner was lucky no one had tried to carry it with hammer lowered.
Always be careful with older guns. Know what your gun is and can do. Know what parts it needs and how to install them (or find knowledgeable people who can do the job right). If something doesn’t seem quite right, it may very well be wrong. The potential for disaster and looming safety risks are right there. The damage to the reputation of the sport, the hobby, the trade, and gun owners generally, of thus causing injury by inattention, are not worth it.
Safe shooting always.