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Troubleshooting stoppages

3K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  MGMike 
#1 ·
This has been shamelessly lifted from previous posts because --as is daily demonstrated-- nobody reads the stickies.

To cure stoppages in a P5 --or any semi-auto pistol-- FIRST try the following, one remedy at a time, in this order:

1) Try other ammunition. Use standard U.S.-made FMJ of known quality and performance.

2) Scrub out the chamber with a bronze brush until it's squeaky clean when inspected in sunlight.

3) Clean the magazine. You MUST take it apart to clean it properly. If it's an aftermarket mag, don't bother; find an original.

4) Check the extractor. Articulate it with your finger and see that it’s not clogged with grit and oil. The spring may be stiff, but the extractor should move smoothly. If not, remove it and clean it.

Then, and only then, if the problem persists, look elsewhere. New springs are way down on the list, and copious oiling seldom cures anything.

If you want to learn something from the experience, try only one remedy at a time. Otherwise you won't know which one was the cure.

This is not an exhaustive list of everything that MIGHT be wrong. Rather it is a sort of "immediate action" checklist of the simple, easy and cheap things one should try FIRST, before going off on a wild goose chase of diagnostic speculation buying new parts, changing springs, dremeling feed ramps, changing lubricants, fluffing & buffing, and hundreds of rounds of "breaking-in".

Points 1, 2 and 4 are equally applicable as "immediate action remedies" for chronic failures to EJECT in which the fired case stovepipes in the ejection port or is jammed above the top cartridge in the magazine.

Points 2 and 4 are the first things to try when one experiences failures to EXTRACT in which the fired case is found wholly or partly still in the chamber. Bear in mind, however, that in some cases it is really a failure to eject rather than to extract: the slide doesn't recoil far enough for the extracted case to strike the ejector, and the empty is simply rechambered. In that case, Point No. 1 also applies.

In failures to FEED where the cartridge is jammed nose-up against the barrel chamber mouth with the face of the slide ahead of the case rim, it’s usually a sign that the slide did not recoil far enough to the rear to get squarely behind the cartridge. Confirm by switching ammo.

The chamber cannot be adequately inspected just by looking through the bore. Inspect the chamber walls obliquely, with sunlight shining in over your shoulder. Scrub the chamber by twirling a bronze brush in a rotary motion that will get into the sharp corner at the front of the chamber where it meets the rifling.

A good technique to diagnose chamber and/or ammunition troubles is remove the barrel (or the slide if the barrel is fixed) and hold the barrel vertically with the muzzle down. A cartridge should drop smartly all the way into the chamber, and should fall out by gravity alone when inverted. If it doesn't, either you haven't scrubbed the chamber well enough or the ammo is not correctly dimensioned. (It would be very rare to find the chamber undersized, but quite common to find anomalous cartridges).

This technique must be tried with samples of each of the brands or types of ammo that you intend to use. Cartridge cases are not created equal; some will be larger or longer than others, or have other dimensional differences. And bullets are all over the place in size, weight and contour. With ammunition don’t take anything for granted; test them all.

Copious oiling and/or fastidious lubrication rarely has any significant effect on a clean gun that is chronically malfunctioning; look for some other cause.

And supposedly "weak" recoil springs, in my judgment, are almost never the cause of failures to feed, extract or eject.

M
 
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