Getting a lot of misfeeds

stev32k- I had feeding problems with a pistol years ago and tried all the fixes including ramp work and all it would every shot reliably was hardballs. I've had an interest in these types of malfunctions ever since. Good luck
 
Now it's getting interesting. I bought a box of Winchester, WinClean, 180 gr, fmj. The first full mag fired without a misfeed. The second shot of the second mag locked the gun up when the recoil spring guide rod came half way out. The guide rod was sticking out of the end of the gun and a live round was jammed against the feed ramp. Oh great, I like to never got that cleared.

The guide rod is plastic so I thought it must have melted or got hot enough to deform, but it showed no sign of either and it wasn't warm to the touch. I didn't think it was a good idea to shoot anymore so I packed up.

As I was leaving I told the owner of the gun shop & range what had happened and he said that was not the first time he had seen that. Some of his rental glocks had done that in the past. His recommendation was to replace the plastic guide rod with a metal rod.

When I got home I called S&W customer service and they are sending me a pre-paid shipping label to send it back for repair.
The guy I talked to didn't seem surprised when I told him what happened.
 
I decided to give it another try - hoping the guide rod does not come out again (it didn't). I shot 100 rounds of the winchester WinClean 165 gr. fmj without a single misfeed.

I then loaded two mags with the Federal 180 gr fmj and promptly got two misfeeds in the first mag and three in the second ***!

The Winchester bullet has more of a taper than the Federal which is almost bull nosed. That has to be the difference. It makes me think the feed ramp angle is off just a little. With just a little more down angle on the ramp I believe the federals would load as well as the Winchester rounds.

It will be going back to S&W for repair not only for the guide rod, but the gun should handle all .40 ammo especially a well known brand like Federal.
 
Here's a follow up. I got the gun back from S&W today. The report sheet that came with it said they had modified the barrel and replaced the extractor.

The barrel modifications are two very small champers on the leading edge of the feed ramp and another where the feed ramp intersects the chamber. It looks like they took one quick pass with a dremel grinding wheel in each location.

The report didn't say so, but I can tell they also replaced the recoil spring guide rod. The plastic end of the old one was scared and marked up - it's now unmarked and has no ridges or cuts like the old.

I'll go to the range tomorrow and see how it works.
 
That's good to hear. See if you could post pics of their work. Also, from personal experience, don't use anything other than a factory guide rod... found out the hard way.

Regards
 
I fired 150 rounds of the federal 180 gr fmj that was giving me problems before and didn't have a single incident. Guess they fixed the problem (I hope).

Here are a couple of shots to show the barrel work. The camera does not pick up the grinding marks that I can see with a 5X lens. The leading edge of the feed ramp is thinner in the middle than it was. The champer at the inlet to the chamber is more pronounced - looks like they removed more metal. Hope you can make out the work.
 

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Out of curiosity, what was the turn-around time with S&W from the time you sent it off to when you got it back? Glad they got it fixed up for ya!
 
Out of curiosity, what was the turn-around time with S&W from the time you sent it off to when you got it back? Glad they got it fixed up for ya!

It was two weeks. I sent it to them on Sept 25, they received it on the 27th. FedEx delivered it to me on Oct. 10.
 
I had FTF probs with mine like the bullets were to big and sent it in and they replaced the barrel id just send it in and let Smith fix it. Got it back in under 2 weeks and works like a champ.
 

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