Strange failure mode...PM45

[CJB]

Hey folks, for the life of me, I cant figure this one out... its pretty strange.

The PM45 was shooting GREAT, WWB's, 200gFMJ (which were a little short, and the 1911's had a problem with), 230LRN's... everything good.

I had about 60 WWB's left, so decided to shoot one handed, both strong and weak sides, practice slide releases while shooting with the weak hand.

ONLY when shooting lefty - weak side - I had simultanious slide release holding the slide open _and_ 3 point jams, and only on the 2nd or 3rd shot.

Strong side never did it, and it ran like a sewin' machine from the strong side.

There is NO way my hand hit the slide release when shooting weak side, so I ruled that out. I can shoot my Springfield and Officer's (older ones, not tried the new one yet), weak side, no limpy wristing there. I tend to have a solid locked arm when shooting - Bullseye style with my strong side hand in my front pocket. I tried it "point shooting" on two magazines, same thing.

Weirding me out a little.

[PattayaPistol]

I'll ask the obvious question here, but due to the small grip and shooting one handed weak hand, are you sure that you weren't limp wristing?

Cheers
PP

[CJB]

Yah absolutely not limpin' it. No feather in my hat, but I've shot all manner of 45's one handed quite a lot, on purpose, with few problems. That was the first thing I considered, and tightened up even more, to no avail. And rounds 4,5,6 always worked. Sometimes 3,4,5,6 worked. I'm going to explore it more.

I've got 1000 rounds of Aguilla ammo inbound, 230FMJ's. I've got 500rds of Federal 230FMJ and another 300 rounds or so of full power 230FMJ reloads. I'm gonna play with it a little, see what happens.

Maybe ammo related. And... whack - smacko! Right in the forehead on about one shot per magazine when shooting lefty. This reiterates something a fellow said here once, about lefty shooting doing that. It did that very consistently.

[PattayaPistol]

Getting hit in the forehead for me usually means I am slacking on my grip. It happens to me towards the end of training sessions when I get tired.

Cheers
PP

[CJB]

Well, we'll see how it goes next week then.

Other than that.. its had no failures. I can see, thinking on it, how the errant round may be tapping the slide stop up into its notch. The gun has only...what... 1/16 inch or so of "overtravel" past the point where it needs to strip a new round, and to get to the slide stop notch, the slide had to be all the way back, as there is precious little overtravel from that notch.

I'm open to further suggestion - aka - trying weak hand first.

Something else to keep in mind, I'm left handed, my "strong hand" is the left one, but I'm also shift around. Bat righty, throw lefty. Unfortunately I also catch with my left hand, so baseball was never my strong suit! Shoot righty, always have. Right eye dominant too. However, I can write upside down just fine with my right hand - making corrections for employees while they sat in front of me. Weird, I know. So is this problem, but my left hand and arm are up to the task. I'll try lefty first tho.

[CJB]

Took the PM45 down to clean things, gave it a full inspection. Disassembled the top end just so I could really see what was in there - rather than just blow it clean.

Top end, some soot, thats all. No primer shavings. My primers barely show any smearing, cases barely show any deformation.

Rest - just a lot of soot, nothing abnormal. Magazine was disassembled, it looked ok, follower insert was intact and ok.

So, next Saturday, or maybe Friday afternoon, I'll go see whats up with different ammo. Was able to snag 7 boxes of PMC at Wally's, so I'll try those and the Federal, just to see whats up.

[billpocz]

CJB,

How many total rounds do you have thru the 45? I just acquired a PM45 from a member here, and man is it TIGHT! I have had a few times when trying to close the slide, the round would jam going into battery. I then actually read the manual (what a concept), and have used the slide lock without problem.

You talk about sooting in the firearm, but you did not mention if the empty casings have alot of soot... My empties have alot more soot than my other .45's have (one SIg and a 1911).

I love the PM45, not quite sure why they made the grip soooo knobby, but I am really enjoying it. But I also really like hearing the experiences that others have!!

Please let us know the progress of your investigation!

Bill

[CJB]

I could have told you if you asked me a week ago. I think 350ish on the first range session, and about 75 (box and a half more or less) on the 2nd session.

I racked mine least 500 times before even taking it to the range, cleaned before racking sessions started, and cleaned again before I went to shoot it. Dunno if I'll get there this weekend or not - been busy

[CJB]

Update -

Fired about 100 rounds, left handed, in the beginning and end of a 250 round range session. Generally... ok, with one unexpected slide lock back that I still cannot figure out. This was on the 2nd shot, out of the first magazine full of Remington 230 FMJ's. I shot two boxes of those, had zero lockbacks other than that one.

More range report stuff, in another thread....