Switch Mags FIRST!!! - A gentle reminder

[marb4]

I picked up a new stainless Ruger LCP yesterday and fully expected it to be as 100% reliable as the other two I've owned in the past. After a detailed cleaning I headed off to the range (aka - backyard) to give it a run. To my horror and dismay I was having a failure to feed about once every 10-15 rounds. I did a light polish on the feed ramp as well as removal and thorough cleaning of the extractor. Various types of ammo and no improvement. 200 rounds of not so cheap 380 ammo "wasted". With my head hung low in sorrow, I was on my way in to call Ruger when the light bulb turned on. "Hey dumb a**, why not try a different magazine?!" I grabbed two older LCP mags I still had and guess what, 170 flawless rounds.

The morale of my story is this: If your autoloader is giving you grief try a different magazine FIRST, not after burning over $100 worth of ammo thinking you're smart enough to figure the problem out...

 

[moxie]

QED!

 

[Walt Sherrill]

I think I would have done as you did, and tried to "round up the usual suspects" before looking at the magazine.

You didn't really describe what you meant by "failure to feed" and that may help me understand what's was going on a bit better. How did the failure show itself? Was the mag full, partially full, or nearly empty?

I could see a problem with a new mag, if the springs are just very stout and cause the round to DRAG as its being fed -- particularly if the problem occurs most often when the mag is full or nearly full. A rough feed lip might affect things, too. I can also understand failures to feed on older mags with weak springs -- they just don't get the round UP high enough. (Those weak springs can also allow the round being fed to nose dive and not even make it out of the mag, as it should.) And I can understand failures to feed on last rounds... but it's less common with NEW mags.

 

[moxie]

With autos, most likely cause of feeding/extracting/slide hold back problems is the mag. True for pistols and rifles.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Yeah, but when it's a mag problem, the problems often tend to be more consistent/frequent rather than just once every 10-15 rounds: with each round or once per mag, etc. If the springs are too weak the problems tend to happen toward the bottom of the ammo column (or near the top, when the rounds nose dive); if they're too strong the top most rounds can't always cleanly clear the feed lips; with rough feed lips, it's a bit more unpredictable, but often when the springs are pressing up strongly. Once every 10-15 rounds, if you've got two mags, might suggest one of the mags could be bad.

What I interpreted as the intermittent nature of the problem would have caused me to think the cause might be elsewhere, and if I had only one mag. The OP didn't really describe the nature of the problem, or how often he saw it (i.e., at least once per mag, etc.) And he was using only ONE MAG.

And if there's more than one mag, you mark the mags and start paying attention to whether just one might be causing the problem.

 

[marb4]

Essentially the nose of the round would feed too high so that the bullet sort of lodged itself in the top of the chamber while the back of the case was lodged against the bottom of the breech face on the slide. The entire round was stuck at a nose up angle.

This occurred typically early on in the magazine when spring tension would have been strongest. It occurred roughly once every other mag and only occurred with the one particular magazine.

I now have over 200 problem free rounds through the pistol using two slightly older mags I had remaining from previous LCP's.

I guess my whole point in sharing this experience was just as a reminder that when malfunctions occur check for the simplest solutions first. With an autoloader, feed problems are often mag related, which appears to be the case here.

 

[Walt Sherrill]

Chances are that if you leave the mag fully loaded for a week or two, the springs will take a set or weaken slightly, and it'll be functional in the future. (Or you can call Ruger, send it back, and get one that might work right away.)

(Second thought: if the round is tipping up, it may also be that the feed lips are a little out of spec. You might compare the problem mag to the good ones, to see if you can notice or measure a difference.)

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