Help decipher and resolve a jam: Steyr M9A1 Pistol

[Pizzapinochle]

I have a Steyr M9A1 pistol, so far has been pretty reliable. I am not real experienced with semi-autos, my first semi-auto is a Beretta Neos which is a VERY different design, so while I am able to strip and clean the Steyr, I am still working on the intricacies.

Took it to the range the other day and on my 6th shot, I pulled the trigger and just got a click. At the end of this story I was able to retrieve the bullet and there was a strike on the primer, but no bang.

Once I got the click, I checked and the slide was not locked all the way forward.

I tried to cycle the slide to eject the cartridge. No luck, wouldn't budge. Pushed the slide all the way forward, locked into place, tried to move it again, no luck.

Pulled out my handy breakdown tool and removed the slide/barrel with the live round still in the chamber. The barrel was stuck in the slide, couldn't get it to move. Not sure what was holding it in place, but it shifted slightly under my thumbs when I pushed side to side.

Got home, sprayed a bunch of oil on it. Got a little more movement.

Finally tonight I pushed in the right way I guess and the barrel popped free with the round in it. This was accomplished by pushing DOWN on the rear of the barrel visible in the ejection port.

A few questions:

1. What might have caused the misfire? It seems the slide was not locked all the way forward, so I am assuming that caused the light strike. What might have caused that? (I have a theory, but don't want to bias the answers in advance)

2. Once I removed the slide/barrel with the round in it, I treated it like a still loaded gun. Obviously this is just a good idea regardless, but what is the risk of a slide/barrel assembly shooting off a round disconnected from the frame/hammer? I assumed it was pretty high and was careful in how I handled it, just curious.

3. Once the gun misfired, why was I not able to cycle it to eject the round and why was the barrel so hard to get out? I didn't use a great deal of force, prefer to move slow and careful before going for the "get a bigger hammer" technique. I may have just not been pushing hard enough to shove the round past the ejector.

Any thoughts on all of this would be greatly appreciated, just trying to learn all the ins and outs of these suckers.

 

[Pizzapinochle]

I suppose this does fit better in the "Autoloader" section. Thanks for the move.

 

[Pizzapinochle]

Alright, so my theory on what caused the jam:

I am currently recovering from shoulder surgery on my strong (right) shoulder. As such, I was shooting left handed.

Could a weak grip/limp wrist cause the jam I described?

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Sounds like the rounds were not chambering properly and it may have fired out of battery. But that's just a guess based on my interpretation. Would be better to first the at the problem at hand firs IMO and start working towards the cause after insuring condition of the pistol is still undamaged.

My approach would be to look for damage such as bends, cracks, breaks, dents or dings to the locking block, breach face, slide rails, barrel including chamber, recoil spring and guide rod, extractor and ejector.

If you find no cracks, dings, alignment issues with the rails locking block on the frame , check the Guide rod and barrel/chamber. Then move on and check the slide. Look closely at the breach face and forward internals of the slide for the same.

If there are no visible problems I would move on to checking the chamber and the bullets your using. With the barrel out do a plunk test with the bullet into the chamber to insure the round spins easily, falls out with just the tilt of the barrel etc. It should all be smooth. Plunking (in essence using the barrel as a gauge) to check either the ammo or the chamber to insure no issues with chambering and seating depth.

If all checks to this point I would lube the locking block and slide rails and reassemble. Use a few snap caps to test feeding and extraction/ejection.

IF at any point you find any damage no matter how minute or any issue with the plunk test/chambering as well as assembly report back and pictures would really help.

 

[Wreck-n-Crew]

Delete.

 

[Pizzapinochle]

Thans Wreck, i'll check all of that omorrow.

 

[5-SHOTS]

The barrel was hard to get out because the extractor hook was still grabbing the case rim. You had to slide the barrel down which is correct. One question: was then the cartridge hard to remove from the chamber? If so I think IMHO it was just an out-of-spec round: the pistol didn't fully chambered it (probably because the case was too "fat" near the rim); even if slightly out-of-battery the pistol released the striker (which went click instead of bang). IMHO you was not able to clear the pistol because the out-of-spec ruond was stuck in the chamber and sometimes it is very hard to rack the slide when this happens; a trick is to grab the slide serrations with your weak hand's palm and hit the backstrap with your strong hand's palm multiple times trying to "unlock" the slide.
What you were shooting: reloads or factory rounds?

 

[Pizzapinochle]

Hmmmm... The cartridge was not hard to remove, but yuour theory may still be correct, especially if it was the rim thickness at the extractor that was out of spec.

I was shooting factory Herters Select 9mm.

Because of my shoulder injury, I have very little strength in my right hand/arm right now and I have to be cautious of the amount of stress I put on that arm. It maybe that this jam was not very major and a full strength pull of the slide would have sufficed. Your trick of grabbing with weak hand and smacking with strong might have worked... But I can't really smack anything with my strong hand at the moment OR hold something with enough strength to deal with a strong smack from my weak hand.