P95: FTF's, FTE's and light strikes all at once.

[Jim NE]

The 300 rounds or so I put through it up until today were perfect. First time I've shot it in a few months, though.

I bought it new. Possible limp wristing in some cases, since my KelTec p11 also jammed once for he first time ever. But I'm using a new after market mag in it. Tried several more rounds through the KelTec with no problem. Ammo in KelTec was ball MFS.

In three 15 round mags I put through the P95 today, I had about two or three failure to feeds, about 4 failure to ejects, and two light strikes, I think. Ammo in P95 was ball Sellier and Bellot, mostly (or all, I think.) But I've used this ammo before in this gun with absolutely no prob. Gun was cleaned before shooting.


I actually thought two of the FTE's in the P95 were light strikes at first, as I pulled the trigger and nothing happened. When I ejected the round, however, I could see it was spent - it had never been ejected from the chamber after being fired. (I checked the bore with a cleaning rod to make sure a bullet wasn't lodged in the barrel.)

Any ideas of what to check? Is it possible I reassembled something wrong when I cleaned it several months ago? Haven't taken it apart yet, as I just got back from the range.

All three issues happening all the sudden all at once seems suspicious.
Bummer. It's like my Sigma all over again.

 

[BemidjiDweller]

Everything but the light strikes sounds like a limp wristing problem. A P95 was my first handgun ever and when I first started out, I was limp wristing pretty bad. Had the same FTF and FTE problems you are having. Apparently, this model is sensitive to it. Did anything look out of place when you leaned it afterwords? Detail strip?

 

[Jim NE]

Did anything look out of place when you cleaned it afterwords? Detail strip?

Haven't cleaned it yet. Was wanting to get ideas of something to look for when cleaning so I could decipher or isolate some possible causes of the problem.

Thing is, I shot the gun for several hundred rounds before today with the same ammo, but had no problems. I've also put many more hundreds of rounds through other 9mm's without any notable limp wristing problems. Something was different today.

I should mention, I've never disassembled the slide or cleaned out the channel.

 

[[email protected]]

When you last cleaned it did you remove if any build up of carbon from the breech face at the extractor claw? my p95 will get a build up at that location and I will start having feeding issues. I have also found that mine likes to be clean and lubed. I have had my p95 for a little over ten years and countless rounds through it. I never noticed limp wristing causing a problem in mine. On one range trip the gun just didnt want to function. It had been in the safe for a little over a year with the mags fully loaded. I took it to the range without inspecting it and had a world of trouble trying to get factory wwb and cheapo federal ammo to feed in it. When I broke it down I remembered that I had not cleaned it in quite a while and there was a build up at the extractor claw. I was pressed for time so I put it back in the safe. I ended up replacing the recoil spring, mag spring, and gave it a good cleaning before I shot it again so I dont know what was the exact problem.
The gun is straight forward to field strip and put back together and assuming that you didnt detail strip it, I cannot see how it could be put together wrong. What did the indentation look like on the primer on the rounds that had the light strikes and did they fire on the second try.

 

[mgmorden]

As suggested - I'd check for build-up around the extractor. For me that's been a common location for build-up that caused feeding issues (not just on the P95, but for many guns in general). That said, I doubt it would get serious enough to cause issues with only 300 prior rounds through the gun. I had some build-up there cause problems on my M&P but it had closer to 1000 rounds through it at that point.

Before I got too carried away though, I'd clean it and then try it with a different box (and brand) of ammo. I've never been much of a believer in the "limp wrist" theory but bad ammo certainly can cause issues.

Usually though, if a gun is going to be that problematic, it'll do so out of the box. Such problems don't often develop on their own. As such, look at things that have either changed recently, or are not inherently part of the gun itself as to the culprit.

 

[Al Thompson]

But I'm using a new after market mag in it.

That may be an issue as (IME) I've seen very, very few aftermarket magazines work well.

S&B is good ammo, but reputed to have hard primers. You may have gotten your hands on a lot with harder than normal primers, so I think switching ammo may tell you something. In fact, I'd take a tooth brush and clean only behind the extractor, switch ammo and see what happens.

Also, watch your magazines. Track your problems by magazine and see if they are working correctly.

 

[Jim NE]

I only put 45 rounds through the gun yesterday (didn't have time to try more), so the gun isn't very dirty. There's NO grime in extractor claw. Gun was clean before use.

FORGOT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE!
The slide did NOT lock open after the last round I fired in the last magazine. Weird, huh? Too many odd things happening at once. Possible another user error.

Gonna clean of feed ramp ONLY, and try again today. I want to isolate changes I make and the results of each change. Gonna try better ammo today.

 

[mgmorden]

FORGOT TO TELL YOU SOMETHING ELSE!
The slide did NOT lock open after the last round I fired in the last magazine. Weird, huh? Too many odd things happening at once. Possible another user error.

That can often be a sign of underpowered ammo, which will wreak all sorts of havoc. GL in the troubleshooting.

 

[Tcruse]

The extractor (L shaped bar that you push down to remove slide) can get bent. It should be exactly horizontal when in upright position. Also,I have seen it bent to the right as viewed from above and rubs on the slide slowing the slide. If you can not easily fix, send it back to Ruger. The P95 should not have these issues.

 

[Carp]

I have several pistols that devour all sorts of ammo, including S&B. However, my Ruger LC9 HATES S&B! and has many of the problems you describe with that ammo. Try another brand and see what happens. Just a guess.

Carp

 

[BemidjiDweller]

I didn't catch the after market mag part the first time I read the OP. Try using factory mags, if the problem continues, then it's not the magazine. If it stops, I suggest replacing the follower in the after market mag with a new Ruger factory follower. I did that with some junky pro mags and they function perfectly now. You can find followers at Midway for $2.69.

 

[Jim NE]

I didn't catch the after market mag part....

Afraid I may have confused the issue with too much info. The after market mag was in reference to my KelTec, as I was trying to figure why it also jammed once...wondering if I limpwristed the KT, I may have limpwristed the P95 as well.

In fact, I just got back from shooting again today, and I thought limpwristing was the problem and solution after changing my stance. (I'd recently tried a different posture.) But alas, on my last mag through the P95, I got more jams. AND the slide wouldn't lock open after the last round on several mags.

I'll look at the extractor, Tcruse. Thanks. But I think I'm just going to send it back to Ruger. I must've done something wrong when I reassembled it after cleaning it the last time I shot it, but that was half a year ago, and I don't recall what it might've been.

The GOOD news, is I think I'm getting clued in on the light strike situation: it seems to be ammo. Not all the light strike problems on my Sigma were ammo related, but it was a contributing factor. I put 200 rounds (total) of NON-eastern European ammo through the Sigma and P95 today and didn't have any light strike issues. The ammo I used today was Remington.

We'll see. Starting to like my old S&W revolvers more an more

 

[Caliper_Mi]

Were you shooting indoors or out? I have found that shooting outside in cold weather, my P95 will get sensitive to what lube is being used, and not locking the slide open is a big symptom of that (too much drag on the slide).

Since I have started reloading, I have discovered that my P95 is more sensitive to light loads than either my PF9 or SR9c. The P95 needs a load generally two steps higher on my Lee auto disc powder drop to function. I haven't tried yet, but given the mass of the P95's slide, it will may like 124 or 147 grain bullets better than the standard 115's.