My new Phantom was kicking spent brass softly on top of my shooting hat (this was at an open area, not from brass bouncing off a partition). Most would think that the ejection was too vertical. However, if brass is ejected directly vertical, it usually will come back hard and fast. These shells were coming back softly. Another tell tale clue were brass markings on the right lower inside of the ejection port. This was telling me that the empty shells were in fact being ejected too laterally to the right, hitting the bottom right side of the ejection port, and ricocheting back at me, indirectly. It appeared that I could solve this with an ejector tune.
Field stripping the gun I could see that the tip of the ejector (the part that hits the rear of the casing, not the extractor) had a compound angle. Seen from the side it slopes down and forward towards the mag release button. I did not alter this angle, as I wanted the cases to be hit low. When seen from above there is also an angle that slopes back towards the right tip of the decocker post. I felt that this left sided ejector "point" was hitting too far on the left edge of the casings and making the shells eject too laterally to the right.
After covering the frame and small parts to prevent marring and shavings. I gently hand filed down this angle so that when seen from above, there was neutral slope. I did not alter the angle when seen from the side. I reblued the ejector tip with Super Blue.
The lower right inside of the ejection port was showing a spot of bare metal from casing hits, so I cleaned and refinished using a Birchwood Casey Super Black pen. The spot is not easily seen on an assembled gun and did not bother me, but I did want to make sure casings were not still impacting this area.
Test firing proved that the empty casings were now being tossed cleanly and uniformly to the right, well clear. None came back at me. Also, the newly refinished lower ejection port edge was unmarked. Problem solved.
