Glock 43 slide jamming

[txblackout]

Love my glock 43, can shoot nice tight groups with it and it is now my CCW. I have about 800 rounds through mine, and have recently run into a problem that has me worried.

Using wolf WPA military classic (steel) ammo I experienced one failure to eject and a complete jam of the slide in 50 rounds.

The slide would not move at all and I could not eject the round. While at the range I looked up solutions and found out that I could brace the edge of the slide above the barrel and push on the frame. It took about half the force I could push with and the casing was ejected.

I ran another 50 rounds of fiocchi brass through just fine.

One of the causes that Im not sure about is that on the prior failure to eject I disassembled the gun to look down the barrel to make sure it was not a squib. When I put the recoil spring assembly back in, I may not have put it all the way in properly (there are two depths of bracing, one is tight and the other fits but the spring is not compressed).

Would that be enough to cause the completely locked slide? Or Did my forcing of the slide cause the recoil slide assembly to come off and the slide locked for other reasons?

 

[340PD]

Is there a coating on the steel case? I have seen numerous issues with lacquer coated steel cased ammo as the gun heats up the lacquer melts and and contributes to a variety of malfunctions.

 

[Coyote3855]

340 PD is probably on the right track. I've noted similar problems in other firearms with steel case/lacquered ammunition. Scrub the heck out the chamber and stick to brass ammo for defense.

I'm no expert on this particular pistol, but I doubt that dis-assembly would have caused your issues.

 

[txblackout]

340 PD is probably on the right track. I've noted similar problems in other firearms with steel case/lacquered ammunition. Scrub the heck out the chamber and stick to brass ammo for defense.

I'm no expert on this particular pistol, but I doubt that dis-assembly would have caused your issues.
__________________
"It is this infernal telegraph. We learn more than we need to know about things that do not concern us." Donald McCaig/Cannan

The reason why I was thinking this is that when I took the slide off, the recoil spring assembly was loose and not tight in the correct recess.

 

[Magnuumpwr]

Lacquer coated ammo is not the problem, it's the steel case ammo. But being you fired brass after with no ill effects, I think you are correct in blaming the reassembly. The problem with steel cases are that they do not seal the chamber when fired like brass. This allows unburnt powder and residue to build up between the case and chamber. Then when brass cased ammo is used right after, slide lock occurs or at the least difficult extraction.

 

[KevinB]

The reason why I was thinking this is that when I took the slide off, the recoil spring assembly was loose and not tight in the correct recess.

This is normal for Glock and would not be the reason for your malfunction. Placing the recoil spring into the half-moon recess is simply for reassembly. Once the gun is back together and the slide is actuated the spring moves from that point. This is possible because of the captive spring assembly.