Bersa Thunder Troubles

[Terminus]

I picked up a new Bersa Thunder .380 last week. I've not had a chance to get to a range and fire it yet, but it seems to be having trouble cycling the ammo that I picked up. It's getting jammed up both chambering and extracting.

The ammo is Winchester Winclean BEB from Wally World.

I know I need to get to the range and try it and other ammo before I freak out too much.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to look at in order to fix this?

 

[Black Snowman]

As long as the 1st round is chambering OK I wouldn't sweat feeding or ejecting and hand opporated speeds. Wait to you actually shoot the gun to determine if there's an issue.

My Delta Elite works just fine with my (now correct length) reloads but manually cycling rounds through basicly doesn't work at all.

 

[Terminus]

Actually, the first round is not consistently chambering. I'm hoping it's the flat-nosed ammo - but then again that doesn't bode well for JHP's.

 

[Spot77]

The WWB Winclean BEB is just about all I use in my Bersa....no problems ever.

So the first round won't load into the chamber? Are you sure the mag is seated ALL the way in? It will lock into place without falling out, but it still needs one more push to lock it all the way into place.

 

[alwims]

Make sure you're not trying to follow that round home. Set the slide and let it slam that round home. Don't baby it. It's not made for that. Same way with ejecting. But fire it a few times before worrying about these things.

 

[Waitone]

Don't bother freakin' out. I noticed the same thing until I ran a box of Wolf through it at high speed. Not a single boo-boo.

 

[Terminus]

Yep, I imagine that running a few boxes of ammo will shake some of the bugs out.

Right now, chambering a round from slidelock by hitting the slide release works smoothly about half the time. The rest have the "crunchy" feeling of the flat nose of the round hanging up on the ramp - not real smooth. Did I mention the case of slide bite I got by hitting the slide release with the safety lever down? Won't do that again.

I'll make sure I give the magazine a good pop in the bottom. This is my first pistol with a pinky rest on the mag. Does the fact that the pinky is applying some downward force to the mag make a difference in how it stays seated?

 

[horge]

Good advice from the others thus far.

Spot77 correctly advises that you make sure the magazine is seated ALL the way in. There's a preliminary click that can mislead.

Like Al said, you need to pull the slide back fully and let it go, don't "ride" the slide forward --not until you have a better idea of the speed and force required to strip a round from the mag and chamber it.

Ejecting an empty case is easier than ejecting a whole unfired cartridge, of course --and with hollowpoints, it's easy to rack-eject at the wrong speed, causing the nose of the bullet to catch on the ejection port lip.

Clean it and lube it, then take that piece and shoot it at the range with proper-load ammo.



You can visit the site linked-to below for more information

 

[Terminus]

Already got you bookmarked, Horge. Good site with lots of good info. Thanks.

 

[Waitone]

The rest have the "crunchy" feeling of the flat nose of the round hanging up on the ramp - not real smooth.

What kind of ammo are you using? Anything other than ball and // or hollowpoint is questionable.

 

[Terminus]

So far, the only ammo I've had a chance to use is Winny Winclean BEB's which have a truncated style bullet with an exposed lead "flat" nose. They weren't my first choice, but they were all Wal Mart had that day. When I get a chance to get out to the range, I'll grab some S&B of Fiocci FMJ ammo.