provatocj
08-29-2010, 01:36 PM
Hey guys. Wanted to share my experience with my new P380. All in all a well made pistol which I'm now loving and is 100% reliable...though two initial challenges. First, as you all probably have noticed, when fully loaded, the design of the magazine causes the 1st and 2nd round to not sit flat against each other. The top round sits flush against the mag lips, but the second round is tilted down about 5-10 degrees. This causes the rim of the top round to sit in the second rounds extractor groove. It's only an issue on the first round of a fully loaded magazine when the pressure upwards is strongest. I found that this was a problem when fully loaded with PMC Starfire rounds (or any other round with similar brass). the shape of the bullet was irrelevant. The brass on these PMC rounds had a much more angled transition from the extractor groove to the neck of the brass. When the slide came forward to peel off the 1st round, the rim of the 1st round brass couldn't easily slide out of the 2nd round's extractor groove. This was causing the first round to get hung up and pivot downwards causing it to nose dive into the feed ramp and jam. Switching to ammo with a more gradually angle out of the extractor groove to the neck immediately solved the issue. Pretty much every other ammo I looked at besides the PMC Starfire was good to go. Second issue was related to premature locking back of the slide when rounds still existed in the mag. This is a common problem I've had with many of my 1911's. The next round rubs the slide stop as the round comes up the magazine and locks it open. It's an easy fix of simply filing off a tiny amount of material. Do the tiniest bit at a time. Take off only as much as necessary. Too much and your slide won't lock back on a empty mag.