PM 40 range visit

[fildugn]

I went back to the range today. One of the pistols I took was my PM40. This is my second trip to the range with it. I put 80 rounds through it today which brings the total to just over 160. I continue to have problems when feeding by releasing the slide stop. The ammo will always slingshot in fine, but about every other mag, the ammo seems to hang on the bottom of the barrel ramp, when I release the slide stop. I also shot 10 rounds of JHP at the end of the session. If anything, the pistol seemed to run better with the JHP.

Also, I am concerned about the finish of the frame. On the top of the frame, where the slide operates, the finish is very poor there are little bits of frame material all over. It's like they didn't finish the frame. Is this normal?

[TucsonMTB]

A picture would be helpful. Both of my PM40's work well and seem to have nicely finished frames, but each had a little flash on the molded plastic guide rails. These rails don't actually support the slide. The metal rails in the front and rear of the slide are the only load bearing parts of the frame that come in contact with the slide.

In any event, being a tidy kind of a guy, I just knocked off the little bits of plastic and didn't look back.

The nose dives by the first round are more troubling. It might be worthwhile to disassemble the magazines for cleaning and as light a lubrication as possible. I use silicon spray and then wipe it all off. The important thing is that the magazine parts move smoothly.

Also, when you reassemble check the way the spring is installed. Make sure the top loop of the spring is positioned with the highest point at the front of the follower to help hold the nose of the rounds up. The top loop should also fit inside the follower neatly. It is does not, it may be upside down.

Admittedly, if it sling shots well, you could just do that . . . unless your reloading routine includes dropping the slide with the slide stop for faster reloads. In that case, careful magazine preparation is in order, including making certain that the magazine catch is not interfering with the follower. A little sanding on the plastic follower can cure that.

I'm guessing you referenced the lube diagram in the tech section or you would not be able to sling shot so readily. There is also a thread on poly gun issues that describes sanding the follower, with pictures, if you would like a better description of the process of eliminating potential interference by the magazine catch.

Best of luck and please let us know how it goes.

[jocko]

I went back to the range today. One of the pistols I took was my PM40. This is my second trip to the range with it. I put 80 rounds through it today which brings the total to just over 160. I continue to have problems when feeding by releasing the slide stop. The ammo will always slingshot in fine, but about every other mag, the ammo seems to hang on the bottom of the barrel ramp, when I release the slide stop. I also shot 10 rounds of JHP at the end of the session. If anything, the pistol seemed to run better with the JHP.

Also, I am concerned about the finish of the frame. On the top of the frame, where the slide operates, the finish is very poor there are little bits of frame material all over. It's like they didn't finish the frame. Is this normal?

assuming your refering to the polymer frame,. I think what your seeing is the top polymer slide rails. Some do seem to come alittle ragged. Shooting the gun will smooth this out real fast but you can help that even somewhat wit some 600+ grit paper and just smooth those two polymer rails out. Those rails only help guide the slide on the gun, once on the gun, the slide should never touch those rails, If the slide makes contact with those polymer rails, after a few hundred rounds the slide itself will smooth out those high spots on the polymer rails. So what I am saying is, it's OK.

The first round think by using the slide stop lever to load is kinda odd, as normaly sling shootting it produces the issues until one gets the hang of it. What you can do is. polish the feed ramp, it might look super but give it a good polish job, if you have a dremel and a cotton swab u can do it in 5 minutes. if not some 600+ grip paper will do the same thing, also hit inside of the chamber as well. This could help alot and certainly will not hurt anything. I feel your gun is OK and it is just aybe gonna take a few more rounds down ragne to smooth out. I can assure you that from round 1 to round 200, there will be a felt different in the operation of the slide etc, It will be smoother. Propper lube helps alot to. u might want to give your magazines a good checking over, alittle smoothing/polishing under the magazine feed lips with 600+ grip pape4r never hurts anything either. One just never knows where that little burr is at in a gun that needs some TLC.

Be paitent, I think you PM40 is doing fine.

[wyntrout]

This is probably not your problem, but check the "stripper" and see if it is rounded a bit or beveled. That's the lower leading edge of the breechface of the slide that pushes the top round into the chamber. If it's not beveled, it can hang up on the cartridge rim and ride over the top round, or cause the bullet to dive... or drag the cartridge forward but not completely chamber it.
Lots of stuff here collected and posted here by gb6491, Greg... check post #4 on this thread:
http://kahrtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1612

Wynn:)