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Poor accuracy in 9mm Range Officer

71K views 110 replies 44 participants last post by  404marsh 
#1 ·
I recently purchased a lightly used RO in 9mm and getting very poor groups with it. I'm talking about four inch groups at 10 yds. Groups at 25 yds. are all over the place. All shooting was from a rest. I have an RO in .45 that is very accurate and wanted a 9mm that shot the same. The bore looks good. The front and rear barrel fit up are equal to my .45 RO.
All ammo was 115 grain factory and reloads that shoot great in my Glock and Beretta. The gun fires and functions reliably.
Has anybody had a problem like this? Did SA have a bad batch of barrels?

Thanks
 
#97 · (Edited)
Well this is going to be the final report on how lousy my SS 9mm RO has been, been struggling with this gun for almost a year. Been trying to figure it out for almost a year now and it seems that I now finally have it sorted. Took it to the range this past Tuesday and again it had lots of ftf’s and jams for the first 50-100rds and then settled and ran right with occasional ftf’s and not fully closing the slide. I noticed that this seemed to happen predominantly with the same 2 magazines, but quite frankly i’d had my fill and was going trade it in on something not Springfield. But thanks to a low ball offer and a smartazz clerk I was reinvigorated and determined to figure out what was wrong with this damn gun.

So anyway it boiled down to 3 things being wrong, I bought 3 new chip McCormack 10rd mags that load and feed much better than the oe Springfield piece’s, much, much better.

The barrel bushing from the Springfield custom shop I had replaced with a briley spherical bushing piece that I had fit to only .0005in clearance over the barrel and was .001in smaller than the Springfield piece, was too tight! The reason I replaced it was as returned from the Custom Shop the oe bushing wouldn’t allow the barrel to fully seat in the lugs (springing) but I ended up clearancing the Springfield bushing to allow full lockup and now it will let the slide move free’r and go fully into battery now.

The final issue was that the extractor that Springfield replaced when I first bought this gun and would not pull any rounds out, so anyway I realized that the replacement extractor would follow the round into the chamber behind the shell and the hook was too close to the breech face so even if it did hook the shell it would pinch it on the breech face and feed it crooked into the chamber causing it to jam. So a new Wilson Combat bulletproof extractor and firing pin stop tightened it all up and a little judicious tensioning got things to load right. I ended up with a tension of 22oz but started at 28-29oz but that was also to tight and also caused the round to bind up going into the chamber.

All in all I shot 300 perfect rounds today w/o a single issue, the gun now works just like it’s supposed to. I will add that I did order a set of go/no-go gages and the chamber may be a bit tight yet but it seems to be working and i’ll check it once I get the gages. Dropping a round in the chamber does show the back of the cartridge to be just a little below the barrel hood, it looks about right around .010in but I haven’t measured it, but will when I check it with the gages and measure it all out.

Anyway that’s my 9mm RO story, it has pretty much sucked for the last year but now that it cycles right and with the custom shop work done to it, it is very accurate. Halalueya, amen ! I think I might learn to like this gun a lot.
 
#98 ·
Anyway that’s my 9mm RO story, it has pretty much sucked for the last year but now that it cycles right and with the custom shop work done to it, it is very accurate. Halalueya, amen ! I think I might learn to like this gun a lot.




You put a smile o n my face . After all that you have been through with that
pistol , you finally got it working the way you want it to . Great to hear . :)
 
#99 ·
Thanks Bill, now we just need to get together someplace and exercise it. I’m on a mission to see if I can wear it out, it’s gotta be close to 3000rds through it now so it ain’t a break-in thing. Always had a thing for an all stainless 1911 and now I have 2, the RO and my Ed Brown executive (pure artwork) which convinced me that a 9mm full size can and should work well, now I have 2 that do,,,,amen, thankyou Jesus !
 
#100 ·
I have had absolutely no issues at all with my RO Elite 9mm.
I did replace a few inners with Wilson Combat parts though, nothing that would improve accuracy.
I cannot say the same about my (not anymore) STI Trojan 9mm. That went back to STI 3 times, and a LGS once to get it to put a whole mag through without a failure to go into battery.
 
#102 ·
Not just good but great

I bought one in May. It stuttered on the first magzazine and has not failed since. In load developement I have not found a load that won't shoot into 2" or less at 25 yards all 124 to 148 cast (Mo. Bullet Co.) a toal of 1.130" w/ Bullseye and WW231.
The slide to frame and barrel fit is equal to any custom gun I've ever seen.
I have no idea why all the bad ones but mine has been a treat.
 
#104 ·
Hopefully they'll check the barrel/bushing fit for you. I only have two Springfields in 9mm (loaded target 9mms) and both are extremely accurate. I almost wondered why they offer fitting of a N.M. barrel in the custom shop...

A friend of mine has a stainless R.O. 9mm target and he sent his back as it was shooting high, all over the place and they got it shooting a million times better for him.
 
#105 ·
Bought a used RO on GB and pretty sure it went back to SA for the bushing job.
It's fit extremely tight along with the bbl lock up being very well done.
The bushing requires a wrench to remove and the bbl being used to bump it out of the slide.
Gun shoots 11/2-3" groups at 25 while bagged. I'm very happy with my Very good priced RO and its accuracy. again it may have been back for the bushing bbl lock up.
 
#106 ·
With everyone staying home, I've had a bit more time at the reloading bench lately. I measured the maximum combined overall length of a reloaded cartridge using the Hornady 125g HAP bullet and was surprised by the results. The projectile touches the lands in the barrel of my Springfield Armory Range Officer at a length of 1.222". Recommended C.O.L. for the HAP is 1.060", which would give me a bullet jump of 0.162", WOW! Match shooters tend to load the HAP at 1.140" C.O.L., which would still give me 0.082" of bullet jump.

I measured the maximum combined overall length of the HAP in my Rock Island Armory 1911 and the projectile touches the lands in the barrel at a length of 1.138", which is 0.084" shorter than the measurement on my Springfield Armory R.O. That might be one of the reasons the RIA is much more accurate than the R.O.

I loaded up some HAP reloads with a C.O.L. of 1.130" for the RIA and I am going to try them in my Springfield R.O. At that C.O.L., the bullet jump in the R.O. should be 0.092" or 0.070" closer to the lands in the barrel.

When the temperature rises and the wind lays down, it's off to the range for testing.
 
#107 · (Edited)
I realize that this is a fairly old thread but after a range session earlier this week just wanted to comment on the performance of my 9mm ss range Officer after all the Shiite that went on with it for the first 1 1/2 years I owned it.

well I am probably pushing 15k + rounds through it now and it just runs but still rarely has a stove pipe occasionally. The very first round i shot out of it this past Thursday stovepiped and then just another 249 perfectly trouble free rounds. The accuracy is just incredible it’s just a shame that the shooter can’t do it proper justice but still it just puts rounds where you point it.

So it’s fairly well documented in this thread on how we got here but a couple of things stand out in making it accurate & reliable. The trip back to Springfield Custom Shop is basically what made it accurate, but a few things should’ve been addressed for the $430 it cost me. Lockup was good and a bit tight but a MIM slide stop was used that had a very large parting line on the pin that would cause a hard bump in the slide upon closing that sometimes would stall the slide closing. Not good !

polishing that parting line out so the slide stop pin was actually round gave me a very smooth closing and tight pin/link/feet fitment that’s very good, and a big part of why this gun is so accurate I believe. Also changed the oe 9lb return spring to an 11lb piece, much better cycling.

Also as returned from SACS the extractor would pinch the rim of the cartridge and not allow it to smoothly slide up the breech face and most times would kick it ahead of the extractor. Adjusting & fitting the extractor so that it would allow the round to easily and smoothly grab the rim of the shell and allow it to easily & smoothly slide up the breech face when loading into the chamber. Fixing this one thing is probably the biggest thing that made my gun work properly for many thousands of rounds now.

one additional thing I’ll Add is that early on in my ownership of this gun I had the glued in ejector of my EMP4 come loose and I realized that the top round(s) in the magazine made hard contact with the bottom inside edge of the ejector and imho is what caused the glued in ejector to come loose In my EMP4, after clearancing both the EMP4 & my Range Officer I believe this has kept both glued in ejectors solid for many thousands of rounds for the last few years. I would add that my 9mm springers are the only 9mm 1911’s that I have found with this issue. I believe that this hard contact is why the glued ejectors are why they come loose. My .02

Past all that, my 9mm RO is now one of my favorites, it just runs w/o any issues since these problems have been corrected, just a damn fun & accurate piece. I hope all of you that seemed to have prolems & lousy accuracy have found the solutions for yours as well !
 
#108 ·
For the record, my recent purchase of a new Range Officer Target in 9mm in two range sessions has only had initially two failures to lock back but in the second session, no failures of any kind.
I use Chip McCormick 10 rnd mags and Speer Lawman 124 gr.
I paid $850 +Ship and FFL on GunBroker.
Best value out there for me.
-Richard
 
#110 ·
I bought a Springfield RO Champion years ago that couldn't hold a 6" group at 15 yards off of the bench. I shot my Beretta PX4 back to back with the same ammo, at the same distance, at the same target, using the same rest and it made one large hole. The RO Champion went back to Springfield, who said they replaced the barrel. Funny thing is...I'd polished the feedramp on my original barrel (it is just machined from the factory) and the "new" barrel also had a polished feedramp. When I took it to the range, it shot exactly the same. It was sold ASAP. I replaced it with a DW Valkyrie Commander that shot similar to the PX4. I do not keep inaccurate pistols.
 
#111 ·
RO Target in 9mm I believe is now discontinued? I was able to pick up a new one on GB, not sure if this was new old stock or if the seller was able to get a shipment recently from SA. The seller stated they had 3 and the paperwork showing how to care for the gun was dated 2020. I had looked for this gun for months and could not find one, I was about to buy used and the day I was going to "pull the trigger" on the buy I came across the ad for the new RO. I wonder if SA stoped production to address the issues? I wonder if they are now making the RO in 9mm again? I will shoot the gun after Christmas, hopefully I will not have any of the listed issues. I do love a SA 1911, this is my third 1911 from them.
 
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