sig p238 jamming

[gsr814]

i bought a new sig p238 380. I've shot about 120 rounds threw it. It has had about 6 failure to ejects.The slide will come back to eject the empty case but it does not eject and another round tries to go into the chamber and jams making the magazine hard to remove.The ammo is remington white box from walmart.I have looked at the Extractor and seems fine i'ts not too tight.What could be causing this malfunction.And sorry for the crappy cell phone pics.

 

[Harvey]

It IS darn hard to tell from the pics, but obviously the extractor has not engaged. But more interesting, is that I can not see the ejector AT ALL in either photo. It could be flipped downward, which would surely cause a FTF.

Kindly see if you can provide a better pic, description of the malfunction and report back.

 

[Lonestar49]

A few more questions

...

Quick question for ya: were the spent, non-extracted, cartridges easy or hard to pull out.. ?

IF hard, may be the breach chamber is tight (requiring more break-in time or back to Sig for correcting - re-sizing) or, possibly, the less expensive ammo may be at fault vs some better, higher priced, ammo such as WWB, Federal, even PMC, less expensive than first 2 mentioned is good quality ammo..

If easy to pull out, back to the extractor as the likely cause..

OMMV,


Ls

 

[9mmepiphany]

just for clarification when you call Sig about your gun...what you have is a Failure to Extract, you aren't even getting the shell back to the ejector

 

[M2 Carbine]

My P238 worked good for 300 plus rounds but now it fails to extract the fired case in every couple magazines (5-6 different rounds tried for 100+ rounds)

I'm afraid this is a real common problem. I seem to be seeing it a lot on the internet.
I'm going to call SIG but I don't hold out much hope for a fix. Too many P238 appear to have the same problem.


The extractor is grabbing the case so hard that it tore a hunk out of a case rim a couple days ago and leaves extractor marks on all the fired cases.
What's strange is the fired case is so loose it will usually just drop out of the chamber.

I've gone back to pocket carrying the Micro Desert Eagle until/if the Sig is fixed.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

Something has to be going on with that extractor. (Failure to extract is not the same as, and should not be confused with, failure to eject. Extraction and ejection are actually two separately occurring operations.) The pictures (blurriness notwithstanding) clearly show a "double feed" stoppage. The case of the fired cartridge is not being pulled out of the chamber as the slide travels rearward. When the slide returns forward it tries to strip off the top round in the magazine and causes it to butt up against the case in the chamber.

 

[1SOW]

Will those rounds "DROP" into the chamber and seat with the barrel removed?

Will they fall out when you turn the chamber down?

It looks like the extractor is either letting go of the case (bullet really tight in the chamber) or not engaging properly.

 

[Jed Carter]

The recoil spring may be worn or damaged not allowing the slide to return to battery with enough force to engage the extractor fully. This recoil spring problem has been reported here at THR, call SIG and have a new recoil spring sent before you send in the pistol for repair. It's worth a try and may save you a lot of time and agravation, then again I may be wrong (would not be the last time).

 

[mec]

small pistols frequently don't work very well. At least this one has the good grace not to be made out of plastic.

 

[HOWARD J]

I had this problem on mine--I polished the ramp & the inside of the chamber with a dremel tool with a felt polishing wheel # 414--cut down to fit inside the chamber -
I ran the wheel on sandpaper until it fit inside the chamber---used Flitz polish & ran tool
on med speed---
It required very little polishing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Works fine now.................
You can polish the inside of the lips on the mag--this helps

 

[tackstrp]

sorry to hear about your problems. I have shot a couple of p238 that belonged to people i know. They had to find an ammo the gun liked. or so they said. I think the tuning others mentioned above is a good first step. Something I do by default on all my guns. Semi autos have to be very clean to work

 

[Dr_B]

My 238 SAS is giving me problems. I bought it used from the guy who owns the local gun shop. He said it had about 150 rounds through it and I trust him on that. I've put another 150 through it now.

Before today, I had only one problem and that was a stovepipe. But today the slide started locking back after almost every round. I put 50 rounds of PMC hardball through it and had the problem occur with both factory P238 mags I have.

Any ideas? Recoil spring perhaps? I also noticed it seemed to sluggishly go into battery when I racked the first round into the chamber from a full magazine. The slide got it in there, but not nice and snappy like my 226 does.

 

[richardKatts]

It's been my experience and reading that if yours doesn't have the flat-wound recoil spring you will have FTF problems.
Call Sig and complain and they will most likely send you and new one either way.

 

[Jed Carter]

Dr B, if your pistol has the wire spring and not the flat spring, make sure the tapered end of the spring is on the guide rod. If the open end is on the guide rod then it can wind around the rear of the rod binding up the action and damaging the spring. Call SIG they are good to deal with, they should send a new spring right out.

 

[Dr_B]

I called Sig Sauer customer service today. They readily agreed to send me a flat-wound spring. The original spring is installed correctly, but I think it's just worn out or maybe was weak to begin with. It certainly seems like a less-durable spring than I've had in other .380 pistols.

 

[Bob72]

Same issue

p238 new, 200rnds fired. started failing to eject which also causes ftf. I have tried four brands of ammo and they all work..sometimes. The ejector is up, I can hand eject a shell five, six feet .......sometimes.other times it just drops through the magazine area. Shells are not tight in the barrel. I can turn the weapon upside down and it will drop out. I have the flat recoil spring. I will call Sig tomorrow but am not to confident that they can help. This problem obviously dates back quite a ways. Should be corrected by now. Does anyone have new info about this? Am new to the boards..Glad to see this one.

 

[Dr_B]

The flat recoil spring Sig sent me seems to have fixed my problem. I noticed the two new P238's in my local store came with flat springs, not like mine which came with the little lightweight spring last year.

All of the problems you described are ones I was having. I am surprised the flat spring isn't helping yours.

I also have problems with the slide locking back before the magazine is empty, but that's due to my beefy thumbs being in the way of the slide stop. It's my thumbs and not the gun that cause that particular issue.

 

[Bob72]

Called Sig. They want to look at it. sent me a mailer. I will let you know what happens when they return it.

 

[derrelw]

I bet it's the recoil spring. They say you need to change every 500 rounds but I had one and had this problem at 250 rounds. I changed the spring and it fixed the problem. I sold the pistol because I don't trust .380 as a self defense round.

 

[HisSoldier]

6 failure to ejects.

As mentioned it appears to be failure to extract, but why?

The recoil spring may be worn or damaged not allowing the slide to return to battery with enough force to engage the extractor fully.

The force of the slide returning has little to do with engagement of the extractor, as the cartridge is stripped out of the mag and slides up the face of the breech the rim is supposed to slide under the extractor hook, the hook should not ever be forced to snap over the rim.
Could the hook be damaged or malformed so it hasn't proper engagement on the rim? Is the extractor tight enough to just barely hold onto the case with the slide off and the case pushed up into the extractor hook?

M2 carbine;

The extractor is grabbing the case so hard that it tore a hunk out of a case rim a couple days ago and leaves extractor marks on all the fired cases.
What's strange is the fired case is so loose it will usually just drop out of the chamber.

Wow, I wonder what's going on there. Is the chamber correct on that gun? You know, the Seecamp has a groove deliberately machined into the chamber to retard extraction, but they work well even with the force required to squeeze the case to extract, sounds like your gun has a real stuck case problem, and that sounds like warranty work.

 

[9mmepiphany]

The force of the slide returning has little to do with engagement of the extractor, as the cartridge is stripped out of the mag and slides up the face of the breech the rim is supposed to slide under the extractor hook, the hook should not ever be forced to snap over the rim.

That isn't the problem when the recoil spring of the 238 is no longer within it's optimal operating window.

That is happening is the the weakened spring allows too much slide speed in recoil and dwell time at the end of it's travel...which interferes with the action timing