FTF with LCP

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m2steven

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I had my first FTF with my LCP today at the range. I was shooting #4 of 6 in the clip when I just had a click when I pulled the trigger. Another pull and click. I checked the chamber and the bullet appeared to be at the top of the magazine. It had an arrow shaped impression I think in the case (may have been the slug, I don't remember now). I removed the magazine from the gun and just looked at it. I put it back into the gun and racked it and fired #4 thru 6 with no problems. It's as if the bullet was either not high enough in the clip to get cycled, or it was way too tight in the magazine (not apparent though).
I have no idea why it 'caught' and fed when I reinserted the magazine. The ammo was the usually reliable, yet cheap, copper coated Remmington hardball. The green label stuff.

Any thoughts? I had previously run a couple of hundred rounds thru the gun and cleaned it. I've never had a failure to feed where the bullet didn't look out of shape or lodged funny, etc. It just didn't load. First failure of any type for this gun.
 
Raises a lot of questions:
1 - Was the gun clean? Ejector clear of debris?
2 - Was there evidence of a strike on the primer (indentation)
3 - What did the brass of the previous round look like? Bent?

A lot of things to think about. The LCP is a little finicky. A friend who owns one has had to return it to Ruger for FTF and FTE.
 
I never touched the bullet in the magazine because it looked to be in place. It had an arrow shaped mark on it. I assumed it was from the feed mechanism. The bullet did not look otherwise deformed.

I saw a video on Youtube about failure to feed regarding Fiocchi ammo. The Fiocchi was a bit longer than normal and it was just getting stuck in
the magazine.

After I cleaned the gun last night I cycled the clip of ammo through the gun by hand and it seemed a bit 'tight'. Perhaps It just needs to be fired a bit more. I may have cleaned too much of the original oil off the gun when I purchased it. It was dripping pretty good so I dried it up a bit.

As I said, when I put the clip back in the gun, the bullet fed and fired perfectly. The bullet didn't jam in the classic sense, it just never got fed.
 
How did you pull the trigger and get a click and then pull the trigger again and get another click? The LCP does not have second strike capability. Mine has been flawless for the first couple hundred rounds.
 
I pulled the trigger a second time. It's possible that I racked it open to check to see if I was out of ammo. To be honest, it was 95f, humid, and I was hot and bothered by sweat dripping sunscreen into my eyes. I don't remember checking the gun, but I could have. I did try to fire it twice. I then released the magazine, looked at it and put it back into the pistol and fired the 3 remaining bullets with no problems.
 
To be fair, I was wearing ear protection so I don't know if the gun actually made a clicking sound, but it felt as if it were a normal trigger pull and without ear protection, you can hear some parts working when the trigger is pulled. It felt like a normal dry fire.
 
LCP does not have second strike capabilities. If the hammer fell on the first round, the only way to make it fire again is to rack the slide.

Don't know about the P3AT

Could you have had a light primer strike...racked the slide...ejected the bad round...then shot the rest?
 
[redacted]

Regarding ejecting the shell with the bullet in it, I did bring the slide back and the shell with the bullet in it just sat there. When I pulled the magazine out, the lead implants with their bases seemed to be aligned properly.
 
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I was going to ask the same question about the multiple clicks.

If the hammer fell you would have to rack the slide again. If the trigger pull followed by the hammer falling is not met with a live round capable of cycling the pistol, any subsequent trigger pull has no resistance or mechanical reaction.
 
Only 1 person has taken the "high road" in this attempt to resolve a serious problem. Is there anyone here who knows anything about pistols and can read?:confused:
 
Many people have had issues with the LCP specifically on round three failing to eject properly, which causes the forth round not to load correctly. It does not sound like you had a failure to eject.

Anyway you may want to fill up a magazine with snap caps and manually cycle the weapon to see what happens, and or if the same round continues not to eject/ load properly. If so it is most likely related to the magazine, or the magazine catch improperly interacting with the follower.

The magazine catch could come into contact with the follower between round 3 and 4 causing the magazine to drop slightly without actually falling out, or cause the follower to hang up. Usually it happens to people with large hands. If you have large hands and use a magazine extension you may be wiggling the magazine around at precisely the wrong time, or exerting pressure in a direction that causes this sort of friction.

Some people have had their mag catch replaced by Ruger with a metal part. IIRC most of the pistols shipped with a plastic mag catch. If your mag catch was worn this could cause yur magazine to "slip" downward a bit which would also cause the next round to chamber.

It is hard to say really, but I would go to www.elsiepeaforum.com and ask you questions. There are a lot of LCP nuts over there. Personally I have not had a single issue with mine; however, when manually cycling my LCP with live rounds I have a magazine that would not eject the third round. Never happened in live fire though.

I have way over a thousand rounds through mine, and it works great. Not a single hiccup to speak of. Learning to shoot it accurately with consistency is a whole other tribulation.
 
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Forgot to add one tidbit.....

The LCP is obviously small, and if you are not cognizant of where all your little fingers are while firing it is highly likely that you may have inadvertently depressed the magazine release.

On a newer LCP or on one that just happens to be a little tight you could have pushed the magazine release in just far enough that the magazine slid down a little causing the next round not to load, but not far enough to drop the magazine fully out of the pistol. If you were not aware that this had actually happened your grip could also prevent the magazine from falling free..... You squeeze the trigger.... click..... squeeze again, nothing.... drop the mag... properly reinsert.... bang bang... wrapped in bacon. Plausible & Probable.

This is a very easy mistake to make, especially if you are not paying really close attention to your grip. Once again if you have larger hands, this is likely the root of your problem, especially if the problem cannot be duplicated every time you expend an entire mag. Obviously if it is a reoccurring theme my solution would be sell it for a profit. LCPs are fetching outrageous auction prices on www.budsgunshop.com. Ruger fixes everything for free and pays the shipping so most people will buy problem LCPs without any worry. It might be moral to give a disclaimer. That is what I would do :)
 
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That was MOST useful. Much appreciated. Interesting, entertaining, and insightful.

I'll pick up some snapcaps tomorrow and see what happens. I love the little LCP. Got the laser sight for it today and look forward to hitting some paper plates with it. It's the first pistol or revolver I've carried that I forget I have on me.
 
I have large but not huge hands. I had read about the problem with the inadvertant magazine drop. It could have easily happened. Of all the guns I was shooting that day, the LCP was the smallest, most recoil, and my hand wraps on top of the release button. It's quite an odd sensation to shoot with the gun being so light and thin.

However, I'll not be selling the pistol unless I have a financial emergency. I find the trigger pull combined with sighting the target pretty challenging. It's quite accurate when I've had what little sight it has on target when it fired.

Based upon my personal experience with Ruger, I expect the lcp to be very reliable.
 
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