A Funny Thing Happened to Me ...

[RevRay]

Actually, it happened to a kid I took shooting yesterday. After giving him a chance to shoot a couple of .380's, I gave him my MK9 to shoot. The first couple of rounds went fine, but on the third round ... nothing! At first I thought it might be a light strike or something, so I had him squeeze the trigger again ... nothing! Then I took the gun and tried it ... nothing! I then figured it must be a dud, so I took out the mag and went to eject the shell and there was no round in the chamber! That threw me for a loop! I've had rounds fail to seat properly or get jammed sometimes, but I've never had a round not come out of a mag. Any thoughts or comments?

[CJB]

What my sig line mentions down there someplace....

On an autoloader, should you EVER pull an empty case from the chamber, PLEASE check the bore for obstructions!!!!

Its impossible to eject a casing if there was insufficient recoiling forces - which would be the case with a squib (stuck in bore).

I've seen it happen where a case has gone topsy turvy and re-entered the chamber. You see this occasionally on 45 bullseye guns, with 45 bullseye (very light) loads. Never seen that on any factory load, or any other than .45ACP.

I wanna hear the REST of this story!

[Bawanna]

Sounds like it didn't quite cycle enough to pick up a round out of the mag. Maybe a weak round before, or I'd check for the bevel on the front of the pick up rail.

Remember the crunch tick thing. Lock the slide open and put a loaded mag in and see if the round is in front of that rail. I don't recall any issues with them in the MK's. I'm more inclined to go with the short cycle theory.

[Alfonse]

Could his grip have been too light?

[yqtszhj]

Could his grip have been too light?

That is what i think too. Too much muzzle flip. Enough inertia to eject the empty but not enough to go all the way back to pick up another round.

[Cokeman]

How old was the kid? Was the gun hard for him to hold onto?

[RRP]

Ray,

As suggested above, it's the cycling slide which strips the next round from the top of the magazine and pushes it into the chamber. During your stoppage this did not happen. That could be caused by two things.

The first has already been mentioned; the slide did not move far enough to the rear to engage the round at the top of the magazine. As suggested, this could be induced by limp-wristing, and is quite likely the cause of this stoppage.

A second cause of the stoppage could be related to the magazine. If the mag spring and/or follower got jammed somehow, and did not seat the next available round tightly into the feed lips, the slide may have swept over the mag and not grabbed a round. We've seen a few springs and followers drag on the magazine catch. This could have contributed to the problem. I would verify the spring is installed correctly, then with the slide off the gun, insert the magazine. Now, slowly depress and release the follower, using a Popsicle stick, or similar. If the follower does not move up and down smoothly, look for the obstruction.

Please let us know what you find. Your diagnosis may help others.

[muggsy]

+1 Way to go, RRP. You covered all of the bases.

[RRP]

+1 Way to go, RRP. You covered all of the bases.

You mean I was right?!! Please tell my wife. This doesn't happen very often.

[Firewire]

Could his grip have been too light?

++1

I have it happen every time I take a new shooter. I have zero issues, but a new OR young shooter gets a failure.

[TheTman]

I've had a semi with a hang fire, I pulled the trigger and nothing. But I kept it pointed downrange as I went to cycle a round and all of a sudden bang, about 20 seconds later.
I blame that on the cheap Russian ammo I was using.

[RevRay]

I've been thinking about it a little more and one other thought came to mind ... it may be that the magazine wasn't fully seated. We were working on several things and I had the two kids loading their own mags at this point ... as well as putting the mag in the gun and racking the slide. So, if it wasn't a limp wrist, then it may have been that the mag wasn't fully seated. By the way, we were very careful to make sure the gun was always pointed down-range throughout the whole process.

[RRP]

Well there you go, Ray. A third possible cause. I would have expected the mag to drop if it wasn't latched--especially after firing two rounds and transferring the gun from the kid to you--but who knows.

Tell your wife a few more range trips will be necessary to verify the reliability of the gun. Then shoot it like you.......umm......shoot it like someone donated it to the church!

[mr.ed]

Ray,

As suggested above, it's the cycling slide which strips the next round from the top of the magazine and pushes it into the chamber. During your stoppage this did not happen. That could be caused by two things.

The first has already been mentioned; the slide did not move far enough to the rear to engage the round at the top of the magazine. As suggested, this could be induced by limp-wristing, and is quite likely the cause of this stoppage.

A second cause of the stoppage could be related to the magazine. If the mag spring and/or follower got jammed somehow, and did not seat the next available round tightly into the feed lips, the slide may have swept over the mag and not grabbed a round. We've seen a few springs and followers drag on the magazine catch. This could have contributed to the problem. I would verify the spring is installed correctly, then with the slide off the gun, insert the magazine. Now, slowly depress and release the follower, using a Popsicle stick, or similar. If the follower does not move up and down smoothly, look for the obstruction.

Please let us know what you find. Your diagnosis may help others.

RRP - solid answer to what could be a dangerous situation. Well done.