I am not sure if this is the right section, but since its called the Foldable pistol carbine, and this seems like the most active place here I figured I would post here, if it wrong please move/delete and I will post in another subforum.


That being, took the FPC out to the range today for the first time. Only had time to shoot 50 rounds, but 5 of those 50 failed to eject properly..

(See Pic attached)



I am using Federal American Eagle 115gr ammo.

Do you think it just needs time to break in a bit and loosen up or is it something I am doing wrong, (not shouldering it hard enough?)

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The first and most obvious question is did you clean and oil it before use?

When I get a new gun, the first thing i do is dis-assemble it according to the owners manual and clean/lubricate it (moving parts and inner body) with Rem oil or CLP (my go to oils) including the magazines (found a number of them that had burrs on the followers, lube and wipe out the mag bodies and reassemble everything.
Be sure to oil the ejector also.
There has been comments that some guns are tight and need a couple of boxes of ammo run through them to loosen them up.
With what little information you have provided, i would start with the above suggestions and go from there.
It's a great gun. Hope everything works out for you!
Please let us know what happens.

For breaking in I would also bump up to 124gr ammo. Seems like most 115gr stuff these days has been loaded lighter than in the past. Clean and lube as mentioned by others. Once it is broken in, I would expect it to function just fine with almost all weights of ammo.

Appreciate the responses. Yes I did disassemble and clean and lube. Used Hoppes #9. If you zoom in on the pic you can see excess oil. Maybe I over oiled it? Is that a thing? Hoping it just needs broken in.

Maybe I wil junp to 124gr for this gun. I did feel the blow back weak but I’ve never shot a gun like this before and maybe it just has little recoil.

I disassembled it again after the range and cleaned it and relubed again. Hoping next week range trip treats me better.

I will update.

@kevinmcc2 - sorry to hear you got problems, really stinks when a new gun does that.

Hope it just needs some break in.

I spray the buffer tube with Hornady Gun Cleaner & Lube and lightly oil the bolt. A little bit of oil where the charging handle rides. I've got right about a thousand rounds through mine with no issues.

Are you saying you used Hoppes #9 as lube or did I just read it wrong?

I use Breakfree CLP for everything. I cleaned and lubed mine. I have 251 rounds thru mine, on two separate trips. All 115gr ammo. Nary a problem.

I used WWB and Federal 115gr. And, 115gr Critical Defense.

Try one more session. If you still have issues, contact S&W. This is unusual. They are very reliable.

Yea, I have always used Hoppes Gun Lube. I did go to the Sportsmans Warehouse yesterday to pick up some other lube, gonna be using Lucas Gun Oil now.

Buy Lubricating Oil and More | Hoppes

They make gun lube under the Hoppes #9 name also.

Hoppes lube. Gotcha. I was hoping you weren’t using the solvent as lube. I seen people do it.

Are you holding the gun firmly? It is recoil operated so like a pistol, it is subject to "limp wristing".

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Captain Dave Funk

Almost sure to be underpowered 115gr ammo. The plinking ammo seems to be weaker than in past years.

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Release the Kraken

I've probably put at least 300 rounds of 115 grain ammo through mine. Mostly PMC Bronze but also a little bit of 124 gain Fiocchi and some 125 grain Cor-Bon. I haven't fed mine any Federal yet.
My FPC spits out 115 grain ammo pretty vigorously. It's a lil popular at the range so I've had plenty of opportunities to watch it operate as others fire it.

Over 1,00 rounds through my FPC. The only issue I've had was with 115 grain aluminum cased ammo. I have shot S&B and Blazer 115 grain with no issues.

Well THAT's Bravo Sierra on the ammo makers. One would think that there would be a standard for cryin' out loud. And one would think Smith would have taken that into consideration.
That's the whole purpose of this gun is to be able to shoot low cost 9mm. Save the "XP One Thousand" rounds for the "serious" or "social" work as the operators refer to it.
Me, I've always been of the "use cheap ball and shoot till it stops moving" school of thought.

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Forum consigliere

I blame the speed steel market. They just have to make a noise but don’t have to knock it down. Some ammo makers have definitely gone that way. You also have YouTube gurus saying that 115 gr moving at 1100 fps is “The standard for 9 mm”. That’s hip deep nonsense for me. Check out the GBGuns channel on YouTube for some recent tests of plinking ammo. I doubt it will cycle some of European sprung guns.

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Release the Kraken

Little update.. know its been a little bit...

Went to the range today again, shot 100 rounds down range. This time only 2 Failed to Eject..

The 2 that failed were when the FPC was in a sled for sighting in my red dot...can a sled have an effect on cycling of rounds?


Still used the same ammo (have a little stock pile of the Federal still)..


Happy that it only FTE 2 times this time out of bigger size of shots but still not sure what to think.. Keep breaking it in, call up Smith and see what the say?


LASTLY. I inspected the extracter, and it seemed to either be chipped or it is made like that. My phone cant really zoom in good enough but i attached a pic. Not sure if its normal or not. I wil try to get better pics


My next range session I wil be switching up brands, gonna see what the local place has for ammo.

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