Misfire issue in new gun that locked up slide

[LorrieRob]

I am a novice with firearms. Started with an old 64-3 38SPL revolver several years ago. Recently purchased an M & P EZ Rack 9MM. I had an event at the range yesterday in which the the pistol wouldn’t fire and and the slide locked up after shooting 3 rounds of Fiocchi FMJ 124 gr. I called for assistance after I couldn’t rack it to clear the jam. 2 of the range employees tried to pull the slide back but couldn’t do it and called for someone with more experience. The third person was able to get the slide unlocked and pry out the cartridge which had a very light mark on the primer. I asked him what caused this but didn’t understand what he said. He just showed me the bullet and said this happens sometimes. He suggested that I not use the bullet again. I didn’t really see how he was able to get the slide to pull back. He had some type of tool that he used to extract the bullet. It must have been his technique not strength since the other two men couldn’t do it. I fired the rest of the magazine afterwards with no problem. This is a very new gun. I have probably shot less than 200 rounds through it. I would like to understand better how to handle this type of situation myself if it were to occur again. What should I Know?

 

[Sevens]

What you're describing seems to be extremely hard to diagnose without having the failed pistol in hand. I have an idea of how the 3rd guy was possibly able to succeed after the first two failed, but that doesn't tell us WHY this event happened.

How I believe the 3rd guy was able to clear this pistol might be like this:

We've got a loaded round absolutely STUCK in the chamber, it didn't go BANG and now it will not go bang and worse, it refuses to come out. Because it's forcibly stuck in the chamber, the slide will not draw rearward because the extractor is hooked on to the rim of the case, just as it's designed to be.

I believe guy #3 used a tool to unhook the extractor so that he was able to draw the slide back and then quite possibly he used the same tool to impart leverage on the badly stuck loaded round and eventually free it from the chamber.

This may very well be how he was able to clear your pistol but it doesn't tell us the initial cause of the problem.

 

[Sevens]

Now I will try for the jackpot! I will make one guess at what happened based on my experience. Until/unless it happens again, and possibly even then, I doubt we can ever be sure.

If the ammo was poorly manufactured and the offending round of ammo had poor case mouth tension, it is possible that the naturally violent feed cycle of a semiautomatic pistol pushed the round to feed and the bullet (which is SUPPOSED to stay exactly where it belongs!) wasn't held in place well and got pushed deeper in to the cartridge case.

If it got pushed deeply enough it would BULGE the cartridge case and the result would now be a loaded round that does NOT fit in the chamber.

In this state, the faulty round would not allow the slide to come forward 100% and now the pistol is functionally incapable of firing because the disconnector will not allow it to happen. This is the correct and proper function of the disconnector, this makes the pistol incapable of firing "out of battery" which can be extremely dangerous and destructive.

I suggest this scenario simply because I've seen it and if I get one good guess, that's what I'm guessing.

If this is indeed what happened, I would not worry about the pistol at all and I would also not blame the pistol even a little bit. In fact, the pistol acted exactly as it was designed -- and to your benefit.

 

[LorrieRob]

Thank you! This seems to be a very plausible explanation. I am having a private lesson this Saturday and plan to review this event.

 

[Sevens]

Nothing is for sure but... we should reasonably expect high quality production from expensive defense ammo, so going forward the hope is that your carry/defense ammo never exhibits this kind of problem which would be more prevalent with high production/lower cost FMJ range and practice ammo.

 

[Old cop]

I’m no expert at diagnosing these things but were it me I wouldn’t carry or shoot that gun until you completely understand how to handle it. You might consider formal training by asking members here for recommendations. Good luck . . . .

 

[Ameshawki]

I too am leaning toward an ammo issue. Fiocchi is good stuff but all of the manufacturers have been working flat out for several years now. Bad rounds slip through.

 

[STORMINORMAN]

A picture of the offending round might help...

You did keep it, did you not?

 

[0849]

I too am leaning toward an ammo issue. Fiocchi is good stuff but all of the manufacturers have been working flat out for several years now. Bad rounds slip through.

I will be very interested to hear how this develops, if pistol or ammo at cause of the malfunction. I have had excellent experience with Fiocchi ammunition, but can not help but wonder about the point Ameshawki makes since all the ammo manufactures seem to be at full production for the last couple of years trying to keep up with demand.

I had been a strong fan of Winchester ammo for decades, always had great luck with their various products up until their last recall last year and took months and months to get reimbursed, the company they contracted out to handle the recall was disappointing. Now my favorite preferred 9mm ammo has been Hornady 135 gr Flexlock Critical Duty and also their Critical Degfense line, have not had any issues at all, and one thing I like about the Hornady ammo is that it seems to have a very flat trajectory, it hits the same point of aim at 3 yards, 15 yards and 25 yards.

 

[GypsmJim]

I had the same problem last winter with a Glock. Turned out it was a defective round. Although it fit in the chambers of my other 4 Nines, it wouldn't go in the Glock.

I tore the round down and resized it and it still wouldn't fit. I checked every single round n my 9 mm inventory and it was the only bad one.

Now I plunk test every 9 that is going into that Glock, with its assumed tight chamber.

 

[LorrieRob]

I have (hopefully) uploaded a photo of the bottom of the cartridge which seems to show a very slight indentation in the center. However, in looking at other cartridges from boxes I have it is so subtle hard to say as others seem to have small scratches. But this is the cartridge/bullet that locked the slide up. Of interest, my gun has the feature that shows a round is chambered…there is a slight bulge on top of the slide…it did not show this bulge on the top of the slide but there obviously was a round in the chamber…really appreciate this forum…I will report back any info I get when I have my private lesson back at the range on Sat. I have been comfortable with my revolver because of concerns over the various things that can happen with a semi-automatic pistol…but wanted to have a backup firearm, something a little better for carry if I ever needed to carry and increase my knowledge. So thanks everyone for your input…all very interesting!

 

[0849]

Good to Inspect New Ammo

I had an interesting problem a couple of years ago that might be of interest. I bought a box of what was represented to be brand new ammo from what I thought was a reputable local retailer. However, in looking at the ammo when I went to fill up a couple of mags, it was obvious to me that they were in fact reloads, and apparently not the best quality reloads. It seems like one possible answer might have been that someone in the shop took the new ammo and replaced them with their poor quality reloaded ammo. Ever since then I always open the box and take a close look at new ammo when I buy.

 

[Old cop]

I won’t run reloads through any of my guns. It’s worth paying extra for the peace of mind.

 

[stansdds]

From what little I can see in the picture, the round looks fine. You said the loaded chamber indicator did not activate when that round was in the chamber. That leads me to think there may be a problem with your M&P Shield EZ.

 

[Brooks]

New gun? Did you clean and lube it before going to the range?

 

[LorrieRob]

Relatively new from June. Have shot 100 rounds+ with no problem. Did clean and lube it right before this range session but didn’t seem too dirty and I was a little uncertain about what to clean. It fired fine for at least 2 full 8 rd mags before the failure and after clearance fired the last 3 rounds with out event. I am wondering if the fact that the tactile loaded chamber indicator was flat means the bullet/cartridge got pushed past the chamber but because not ejected another cartridge was not chambered. I bought the gun at the range I am going back to for instruction on Sat. So will see what they think.

 

[LorrieRob]

Also wondering if something in my personal inexperienced technique could have caused this issue…I have been reading about “limp wristing”…don’t know that I was doing that but would like to account for what happened to avoid this in the future.