SIG p228 - Help, My Gun Is Stuck

[silverlance]

Well, I'm pretty embarassed right about now.
Yesterday I went shooting with some friends at a nearby range where a lot of police and SWAT do their training.

We were having a ball, me sighting in my SU16 and everyone blowing up playing cards at the 100 yard berm.

Then one of my friends decided that it would be funny if he slipped a simunitions 9mm paint round that he had found unfired on the ground into one of my p228 magazines.

well to make a long story short I pulled the trigger on a simunitions round (at least I'm pretty sure it is), the gun went PBFFT, and then got locked solid.

Here are the pics below, along with another one of those rounds we found after the incident. The round is headstamped 9MM IVI 04 , with an A on the primer.

The general consensus around here is that I should put a brass cleaning rod down the barrel with an otis 30 cal obstruction remover tip and then just smack it loose with a good whack from a hammer.

As you can tell the barrel seems to also be lifted up. I pushed the barrel down and tapped it a few times that with the aforementioned method lightly and it doesn't seem to want to budge.

Seems to me that I've got two options - either try to pop it back out, or disassemble the gun by punching out the slide's bolt assembly retaining pin. I figure that if I can get the slide cover off I'd be able to take the rest of the gun apart.

The second option is to put it in a vise and give it a good whack.

Unsurprisingly I am not a happy camper at all this Thanksgiving and feel more like a Turkey.

 

[Ala Dan]

Man-O-Man what a pity, firing a paint round in a world-class SIG P228.
Really, I cant say here what is on my mind; for fear of being banned
for life~! But, lets just say that you need too look for a better class
of friends.

 

[RustyFN]

I'm confused. Are you embarrassed that the gun is locked up or that you are admitting to having friends that stupid. The only advice I can give would be to rest the front of the gun on the top a work bench or something you don't mind getting a dent in. Pointing the gun toward the ground so that when the slide moves the barrel will clear the edge of the bench. Grab the grip and push. I had a squib load where the bullet stuck in the barrel and the case wouldn't eject. Once I freed the slide and the case ejected the rest was easy. Good luck.
Rusty

 

[silverlance]

=(

Well, I'm embarassed for not noticing that somebody had messed with my stuff. I'm also embarassed for having to bring such a tragic mess up.

I'm afraid to try to hard eject the round because the ejector might just rip a chunk out of the casing. Then again I suppose that still might work since once the slide is freed I'd be able to disassemble and just work out the round with the barrel isolated.

I'm going to wait till tonight to get some ideas, then i'm going to use the one that most people concur with.

 

[Tom Servo]

+1 on Rusty's advice. You may need to use a rubber mallet behind the grips. Unless you're really pounding on it, you won't damage anything.

The fun part is getting a real, live round out of a gun when that happens

Oh, and a good cleaning of the barrel and breech will probably be needed to get all the paint out. And smack your friend; some things are funny, but this is just asinine.

 

[El Tejon]

Gun to a smith, the bill to your "friend."

 

[Cromlech]

The second option is to put it in a vise and give it a good whack.

CORRECTION

The second option is to put my friends head in a vice and give it a good whack.

 

[silverlance]

=( continued

thank you so much for your ideas. I can't make the friend pay for it, it's one of those things in the family where you just kind of have to bonk them on the head and deal with it.

i myself can't afford a gunsmith, especially since here in CA I'd hav eto send it back to sig and shipping alone is $70.

I sure hope I can just pop it out. I've been studying my other p228 and just yanking the slide back hard shouldn't damage anything as long as the barrel clears the ejection port lips on the slide.

The decocker, trigger, etc all work fine so at least the mess is limited to the slide.

i've tried to put the edge of front slide right under the front sight on a ledge and push down but it doesn't seem to budge. perhaps i need to use more force.

I hadn't thought about using the rear sight, but i'd like to save that for last as I don't know how much force that rear sight can take before it pops out.

 

[Hypnogator]

What El Tejon said.

Except, bill to your ex-friend!

 

[10-Ring]

Geez! Agreed, gun goes to smith & bill goes to 'buddy'

 

[Frandy]

What your friend did could have been very dangerous. Who knows what else he might stick in someone's magazine or chamber. Don't know how old your friend is or his level of intelligence, but right now, he shouldn't be around firearms and ammunition until he has a few light bulbs turn on.

So, if the 228 needs a repair, you wouldn't ask your friend to pay for this damage? It's a family thing? Hey, I'm a middle-aged NY Italian and let me tell you. Our "family thing" would be him paying for it, then buying everyone a round of drinks, and finally him being the butt of a lot of jokes by the rest of the family. Then, we'd all hug him and welcome him back into the fold. Know what? He wouldn't do it again.

I sure hope there's no damage to your Sig.

 

[Beetle Bailey]

On the bright side, this unfortunate incident can serve as a reminder that practical jokes/horseplay/etc. have no place in the firearms world.

IMHO, you shouldn't have to ask your friend to pay for a gunsmith to fix it. He should have already taken responsibility for his own actions and insisted that he pays for your gun to be professionally "unstuck." He's willing to play this joke on you but not willing to make it right? Being an adult means taking responsibility for your actions.

I don't understand why you think you have to ship it to SIG just because you live in California . There are professional gunsmiths that live here in SoCal.

 

[sarge48]

Grab your sig by the slide only with your support hand. Then very rapidly drive your strong hand as if gripping the grip, forward very hard! You have to be petty strong but the inertia should clear your sig. The same thing happened to one of our dept. glocks when some DS wanted to see what would happen if. I just jammed my strong hand into the grip while tightly gripping the slide at the charging serrations. It will work. Put something soft on the floor like a folded blanket in case your sig slips out of your hand. (that's how hard you've gotta punch it!)

A couple of taps with a non marring rod will work too. The sim round is a quarter plastic near the projectile. The plastic has expanded and wedged in your sigs chamber.

Good Luck

 

[Dr.Rob]

drop the magazine.

beat your friend with it until the slide pops open.

(that's what I'd be thinking)

 

[45R]

If that was my pistol, I would do a hard eject. Grab the cocking serrations on one hand and give the butt of the gun a few good smacks with your hand. I've had to help clear a few jams like this. Good luck!

 

[MPanova]

I have to agree with Dr. Rob

 

[bluto]

silverlance -

I feel for ya'. My P228 is one of my favorite pistols. Your "friend" has some serious issues. He doesn't know beans about gun safety. What mindset gives him the right to touch another's firearm without permission? Then he loads unknown ammunition he "found" in that firearm because he thinks it would be funny? Hey, why not bleed the brake lines dry on your car without telling you? That'd be funny too.

Then, when your beautiful, expensive, no-longer-available in the U.S. P228 jams tight he just moves on? This guy is dangerous and irresponsible. If he were my friend he'd not only pay to have my 228 shipped back to Sigarms but he be paying for a new barrel if I felt that, in any way, the gun's performance was compromised by his antics. And that's getting off easy.

Good luck. Hope you clear that jam without incident.

 

[pete f]

Can you CAREFULLY shine a light down the barrel and see what is in the chamber? take a using a bright light and a mirror, take a peak from a safe angle and see what is there. IF you see a bullet an inch or two down the barrel, you probably have a bulged barrel and that is locking up the slide. IF you can see a primer sitting there and the bottom of the case and the barrel looks ok, then you might just have a jammed case. Then you have a better chance of being able to force the slide back.

I have had this happen, I placed a well fitting block of wood in the mag cavity, removed the grips, and place the grips and frame in the vice between two wooden cushions or plastic jaw guards. With the vise firmly holding the frame, and the slide having room to move, take a block of wood, set it on the slide between the barrel and the front sight, then give it a firm rap with a mallet. hopefully breaking the slide loose. I would also DOUSE the whole gun with lube, Lots of it. and letting it sit before you give it that wack.

 

[torpid]

You have only 2 options, and you must choose one.

You can either ditch your "friend" and keep him far away from your Sig, or you can keep your goofball pal and relinquish your Sig to me, as I have no idiot buddies who would do that to it.

Think of the Sig, man.
Think of the Sig.

(PM me for the shipping info.)

 

[Eightball]

I would opt for the cleaning-rod-down-the-barrel option; that would theoretically put all of your force against the offending case, and get it out of the chamber.

That being said, it isn't my SIG, and Dr. Rob's "prescription" would be followed to the letter if it was me.

 

[Skywarp]

Or get a pvc pipe that will just fit around an extended barrel but not interfere with a guide rod. place the gun pointed into the pvc pipe. Take a rubber mallet and whack it at the beaver tail without hitting the hammer. hit it solid and it will work the action free.

 

[BullfrogKen]

Wow, we fire copper jacketed lead bullets down the barrels of guns, and some are concerned about a downloaded plastic-projectile sims paint round screwing it up. . . .


Yank or pound that slide open and get it open, then get it out. From those pictures, the protectile is free and not an obstruction. What left in there isn't much different from a shotgun wad.

 

[atblis]

It's a stinking pistol

It's a massed produced combat pistol. Quit babying it!

Ken has got it right. Yank/Pound/Beat that sucker open. You won't hurt it, just don't use anything that that's tougher harder than the slide. Block of wood, block of hard plastic...

You're being too nice.

 

[Rinspeed]

I agree with Ken that you are not going to hurt it by using a little force to get it open. I would start by using a wooded dowel down the barrel first. Good luck.

 

[Walkalong]

If that was my pistol, I would do a hard eject. Grab the cocking serrations on one hand and give the butt of the gun a few good smacks with your hand. I've had to help clear a few jams like this. Good luck!

This should work. Has worked for me when a live "to fat" round got stuck this way. :banghead:
If your slide will go back enough to get room between breech face and barrel you can get tremendous leverage with a screwdriver in thier. Just carefully leverage it open. CAREFULLY! Not a great thought but you have to get it open and sometimes mistakes bite us in the A** and we have to do something we would prefer not to.
Or take it to a smith and pay for your mistake!