Steyr Help please. (Failure to fire)

[RatFink]

I went out and shot my S40 today, I put 100 rounds of WWB and 1 mag each of Speer 180 gr. Gold Dots and Corbon 135 gr. (Those where just to check feeding) Every thing I shot had no problem, but a weird thing happened when I let my brother shoot it. Out of the 50 rounds of WWB he shot, four failed to fire, looking at the primer it was obvious it had been struck by the firing pin, but much lighter than than the strike mark on all the other primers. At the end of the session I loaded those 4 rounds and fired them all without a problem.

Could this have been caused by something my brother did? or is it a problem with the pistol, out of the 400 rounds I've shot, mostly WWB, I've never had this happen.

 

[Flashpoint]

He probably wasn't pulling the trigger hard enough

 

[Hrtatac]

make sure when loading the clip that he pushes the rounds as far back as they will go

 

[Flashpoint]

OK seriousley, I have had rounds from WWB that I have had to strike twice to get them to fire. I think it just a matter of coincidence that he had all the problems.

*Edited cause I can't spell my way out of a paper bag

 

[RatFink]

I can't think of anything that he could have done to keep the firing pin from fully striking, so I have to believe it was just a coincidence, but it does seem weird.

I should have saved the brass, it wasn't a matter of a full strike not firing the round, they were all light hits.

 

[arinvolvo]

either light hits, or really hard primers.

Set that box of WWB aside, pick up another box, and see if you can recreate the malfunction.

 

[sturmruger]

That sucks

I have shot allot of WWB in my S40 and never had any issues. I tried some Wolf in it last week and it didn't like that at all!! It is odd that you put back in and it fired just fine. I think another range trip is in order just to figure out if it is ammo, or gun related. If you are buying ammo at Walmart maybe switch to the UMC or another brand to see if you can recreate the problem. Good luck

 

[RatFink]

So you guys are saying that I need to go shoot my pistol? Isn't that a little extreme?

 

[sturmruger]

It's is a dirty job but someone had to do it.


If you ever give up hope I would be willing to take that piece of junk off you hands. I am sure it worth around $150 and I would be happy to send you the funds.

 

[RatFink]

You kidding me, I'm in love with this pistol and see myself ordering an M40 real soon to use for IDPA, that way I won't be torturing my carry piece, but I'll be using the same pistol (just a little bigger) for training.

I've never had a misfire, I think my brother is just cursed.

 

[crt360]

Were the light pin strikes in the center of the primer? If the slide gets nudged back slightly or doesn't slam all the way home on a round the M40 may leave a light off-center mark. The weak recoil spring, tight chamber and rear sprung chamber-loaded indicator combine to make this condition relatively easy to achieve.

 

[RatFink]

Strikes were fairly close to center I believe, at least they weren't obviously on the edge.