.380 EZ Feeding Problem Poll

[boondocker47]

Been out of town, and now trying to catch up to this "EZ" .380 "stovepiping" problem, regarding whether or not S&W has resolved this problem!


I have two of these guns, both well broke in with 500/200 rds respectively, and both have the above stovepiping problem.


These guns are not street safe to use in this conditon. In practice my wife cannot remember to perform a tactical reload on round 5 which eliminates "stovepiping". Which IMO is the only way to use this model for CC.


So, based on your comments I will be communicating with S&W asking for "the fix" to be performed or money credit given back to me for purchase of other more reliable S&W models of which I will sell off and that will be the end of my association with S&W. Screw me once, their fault, screw me twice my fault.


Thank you!

 

[boondocker47]

Thanks to forum members (not S&W) I finally fixed the stovepipe problem that I was having on the two .380 EZ handgun's I own.


I have attached an image to show what modifications I made to all of the .380 magazines.


I disassembled the magazines (4) and inserted a fired .380 casing in the very bottom of each magazine. This fixed the problem in both guns. Since the fix was applied each gun has been fired over 150 rds w/o any stovepiping. The fix may not last for the life of the gun but works perfectly now. There is one downside to this fix, the magazines will only hold seven rounds after the modification, instead of eight.

 

[rsmith6120]

Bought the wife a Performance Center 380 EZ for Christmas. We shot it for the first time about 2 weeks ago now. It stovepipes last live round sporadically our of both mags that came with the gun. S&W sent me plunger that just arrived today. Mags updated and probably going to the range this week to verify if it works. Hope it does and quick as 380 is not only hard to come by these days but expensive to shoot. Something tells me it's not a fix.

 

[rsmith6120]

Thanks to forum members (not S&W) I finally fixed the stovepipe problem that I was having on the two .380 EZ handgun's I own.


I have attached an image to show what modifications I made to all of the .380 magazines.


I disassembled the magazines (4) and inserted a fired .380 casing in the very bottom of each magazine. This fixed the problem in both guns. Since the fix was applied each gun has been fired over 150 rds w/o any stovepiping. The fix may not last for the life of the gun but works perfectly now. There is one downside to this fix, the magazines will only hold seven rounds after the modification, instead of eight.

Shouldn't have to do that. Are you keeping S&W on the hook for a fix?

 

[rsmith6120]

My wife got her pc380ez back in may of this year. It has been flawless since right out of the box and she loves it so far although it has less than 500 rounds through it. Ammo used with clean gun was blazer from cci and federal. My 9ez works the same way, clean gun and ammo used is pmc and blazers plus my own reloads from said brass.

I just got the wife a PC 380ez. How long did it take for them to fix the weapon and return it? You have any idea what they did?

 

[D.L.Quick]

6120, What is a plunger that was sent to you???

 

[rsmith6120]

6120, What is a plunger that was sent to you???

The plunger(aka follower) is the part of the magazine that the round sits on that sits on the spring. Looks like a stock plunger with no real change. I thought about getting the calipers out and taking some measurements. Eyeballing it they are exactly the same.

 

[christak]

Unless Smith has increased the friction on the face of the follower that makes contact with the round casing, the "new plunger" will do no good. Scuff the follower to increase friction to better hold the casing/round and your last-round stovepipe issue will disappear.

 

[D Brown]

Mine shipped from the factory on 9/19/2018 and has never failed to shoot to slide lock on the last round. No mis-feeds of any kind. Several age ten or there about (little skinny kids) children have emptied magazine after magazine, and even they have never caused my 380EZ to choke.

No argument here. Just stating my personal experience.

 

[rsmith6120]

Tested the new follower (aka plunger) moments ago with no success. I called Smith & Wesson and they sent me information to ship the weapon in for their gunsmith to take a look.

 

[D.L.Quick]

6120, Thank you for the explanation. Never heard follower called "plunger". I have made followers and installed them in my mags. I had no problems after a couple hundred rds. The price of 380 ammo precludes any more extensive testing. It's a shame that S&W has not come out with a real fix. Nice to hear Christak is still on board.

 

[rsmith6120]

6120, Thank you for the explanation. Never heard follower called "plunger". I have made followers and installed them in my mags. I had no problems after a couple hundred rds. The price of 380 ammo precludes any more extensive testing. It's a shame that S&W has not come out with a real fix. Nice to hear Christak is still on board.

I actually call it a follower also but the customer service person called it a plunger so it stuck.. LOL!

 

[christak]

Tested the new follower (aka plunger) moments ago with no success. I called Smith & Wesson and they sent me information to ship the weapon in for their gunsmith to take a look.

Been there, done that...waste of time. They will find nothing wrong and possibly give you another magazine which will not solve your problem either. Add friction to the follower if you want resolve the stovepipe issue. It's absolutely amazing that Smith hasn't redesigned the follower to fix this issue...

 

[rsmith6120]

Been there, done that...waste of time. They will find nothing wrong and possibly give you another magazine which will not solve your problem either. Add friction to the follower if you want resolve the stovepipe issue. It's absolutely amazing that Smith hasn't redesigned the follower to fix this issue...

Wishful thinking that they would throw in an extra mag for the troubles..

 

[gc70]

I suspect others have had feeding problems and also found they needed to impede the movement of the last round in a magazine.

 

[christak]

Wishful thinking that they would throw in an extra mag for the troubles..

They did for me, but after literally months of trying to work the stovepipe issue with them, I gave up... Another forum member here suggested adding sandpaper to the follower and had some success. I came up with the scuff the follower approach. That worked as well. For the record, I fired over 4000 rounds trying to sort out the issue. I finally decided to sell the gun even though the scuffing fixed the issue...I was just fed up with the gun and the lack of support from Smith. The EZ is a good gun, but the magazines should have been fixed long ago... Good luck.

 

[rsmith6120]

I just posted this in another thread.

Just back the wife's gun back from S&W. Work order said they polished the barrel and chamber. I put 250+ rounds through it yesterday without a single issue. Something tells me they probably changed out the follower and springs in the mags as well but that isn't listed. The follower is as smooth as glass and doesn't look to be scuffed.

 

[rsmith6120]

They did for me, but after literally months of trying to work the stovepipe issue with them, I gave up... Another forum member here suggested adding sandpaper to the follower and had some success. I came up with the scuff the follower approach. That worked as well. For the record, I fired over 4000 rounds trying to sort out the issue. I finally decided to sell the gun even though the scuffing fixed the issue...I was just fed up with the gun and the lack of support from Smith. The EZ is a good gun, but the magazines should have been fixed long ago... Good luck.

They didn't throw in a mag for my troubles... That figures as my luck...