Re: premature slide stop lock on CW380

[erichard]

Hi all, 1st day out with the CW-380. So far, like the gun very much. I shot a 50 round box of WW whitebox Winchester 380 flat nose today after prepping the gun yesterday as per forum recommendations. 1st couple magazines fired without issue. I did thereafter notice a few instances of the slide locking back after the 1st round (on 2nd or 3rd or 4th round) a few times. I definitely don't have my thumb anywhere near that slide release button, so that's not the issue. So I rechecked the bullet clearance vs the slide stop with the slide off as recommended here.

The top bullet, when the magazine is slowly inserted into the gun, does clear the slide stop tab just barely, without moving the slide stop release mechanism. However, if the bullet isn't all the way back in the magazine, it will barely rub that same tab at the end of the slide release part.

So what I noticed is that after the gun cycles a round, it tends to pull the bullet at the top of the magazine forward maybe an eight of an inch, pretty regularly (found this out by removing the magazine after each discharge). If that top bullet is pushed back to the rear by me at that point, I get no premature slide locks when firing the next round. Of course, no one does that after every shot, so my questions are, is it typical for the top bullet in the magazine to pull forward an 1/8th of an inch as the bullet before it is chambered? And secondly, if so, is it then worthwhile to sand down that tab just enough that it doesn't hit the bullet in that forward position? I don't want to do anything I will regret later.

If it's not typical for the bullet to pull forward an 1/8th of an inch, then what do I need to do to fix that?

Hope that is clear.

[DavidR]

I'm not sure if it's typical for the bullet to move forward but I had the same issue. I sanded the tab down and the problem went away.

[erichard]

Thanks David, I noticed forward bullet when I made the gun 6 +1 in the chamber. When I load that seventh round, the top bullet of the remaining five in the magazine is pulled forward a bit. Otherwise, I wouldn't have noticed it. Then I checked to see if the same thing happened when the gun cycled due to firing (vs hand racking it), and it was the same. I may give it a little more time and ammo to see where it pans out in the end. I plan to use Hydra-Shocks as my defensive ammo, so I need to test that as well.

I shot two more magazines after I posted earlier, and no premature slide stops happened. I did clean the gun a little, but I doubt that did anything regarding this issue.

I'm not sure if it's typical for the bullet to move forward but I had the same issue. I sanded the tab down and the problem went away.

[DavidR]

You may want to try Hornady Critical Defense. Because of the conical-shaped round it ran perfectly in my CW380 with no premature slide lock before I sanded the tab. Hydra Shok was locking prematurely but now that the tab is sanded they shoot fine.

[erichard]

I'm coming from owning a Seecamp 380 which required Hydra Shocks, so I have a lot of that ammo to go through, which will take a long while since it's mainly for carry purposes, not practice.

Went out today and shot about 35 rounds without premature slide lock. Maybe it's a break in issue like most issues. Who knows, but I haven't tried the Hydra Shocks yet (waiting to full 200 rd count).

You may want to try Hornady Critical Defense. Because of the conical-shaped round it ran perfectly in my CW380 with no premature slide lock before I sanded the tab. Hydra Shok was locking prematurely but now that the tab is sanded they shoot fine.