quick sigma help please !

[libom]

i picked up a sigma 9ve. problem is i just went and shot it, on about the 20th rd its jammed. by jammed i meen i cant do anything with it. i can barely see there is one in the chamber. problem is i cannot rack the slide to eject it. my thinking is that if it is kinda jammed in there i dont want to pull the trigger to see if it would fire. help please, what to do ?
thanks !

 

[libom]

i picked up a sigma 9ve. problem is i just went and shot it, on about the 20th rd its jammed. by jammed i meen i cant do anything with it. i can barely see there is one in the chamber. problem is i cannot rack the slide to eject it. my thinking is that if it is kinda jammed in there i dont want to pull the trigger to see if it would fire. help please, what to do ?
thanks !

 

[SouthpawShootr]

OK, do you know for sure that the last round before the jam fired and the bullet exited the barrel? IOW, is it possible there is a previous bullet lodged in the barrel? Is the slide fully in battery?

Is this factory or reloaded ammo?

I had this same thing happen with an XD and turned out the OAL of the (commercially - not Georgia Arms, BTW) reloaded ammo was just a tad too long for the rather tight chamber of this particular gun. So, the round chambered and the slide was just enough out of battery to prevent firing, but the bullet had engaged the grooved in the rifling and was preventing me from ejecting the live round.

I ended up paying a local gunsmith $25 to insert a wooden dowel from the muzzle end and then free it up with a few judicious blowns from a wooden mallet. This is an exceedingly dangerous thing to do and once you attempt it, it will cause sufficient bullet setback that you absolutely cannot clear the chamber by firing it (the overpressure would likely destroy the gun - and maybe part of you too). There is a very real chance the round will fire as a result of this procedure.

I'm not recomending you do this yourself. Largely b/c I haven't seen your gun and don't know for sure this will help. The guy who did this for me was an experienced gunsmith and locked the frame in a padded vise to effect the removal. To me it was worth the little bit of cash I paid to get this done. Took all of 5 minutes.

 

[libom]

yea thats the problem, i dont know if it is fired or not. if i knew for sure it was i wouldnt be worried about it but i dont. not brave enough to look down the barrel either. the slide is all the way up and nothing looks abnormal at all. like i said i cannot rack the slide which was weird. trust me i wont be putting anything in the barrel and beating on it that thought is just scary. maybe i just need to find me a smith.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Get a flashlight, point the gun at a mirror and angle the flashlight to shine the reflected light down the barrel. If you see copper, then you know (I'm assuming you were using jacketed ammo - lead is a little more difficult to distinguish from simply looking down at a fired case). Oh, and forgive me, make sure the mag is removed and nobody is on the other side of the wall the mirror is on.

 

[libom]

good idea !! thanks !!

 

[Bekeart]

Another method to check for "obstruction" in the barrel.

Get a drinking straw and some masking tape.

Wrap making tape around end of straw to make a handle.

Be SAFE! Remove Magazine. Barrel pointed in safe direction.
Do NOT put any part of your body in front of the muzzel.

Slide straw into the barrel until it stops.

Mark muzzle location on the straw with a marker.

Remove straw and hold it beside the barrel with mark at end of barrel.

Now you know how far the "obstruction is from the muzzle.
It could be a loaded cartridge, an empty fired case, or the bullet from a squib round.

Bekeart

 

[Bugs100]

If you can't do it by hand, take the gun with your finger off the trigger and press the slide only against a piece of wood. Some thing like the bench at the range should do.

That should force the slide back enough to eject the bullet.

 

[f150guy]

my brother in law did this to my sigma 9ve when he slammed the mag into the well, insisting that the slide will automatically rack itself. I told him not to, but he did anyways, because he knows everything about everything, and if he doesn't know about it, they haven't invented it yet. anyways, I had to force the mag out of the well, while pointing the muzzle in a safe direction. Turns out, he double fed it. after the mag was removed, I was able to clear the jam. He hasn't touched it since.

That has been the ONLY issue i have had with mine in over 3k rounds

 

[libom]

yea i was kinda not sure about how good a gun it would be for the price but i said what the hey. lotta people i read on here said it wasnt to bad a gun. it is not to bad of a feeling or shooting gun and im glad i bought it and i love s&w also.

PS. i did get a chance to work with it today and got it cleared. couldnt really tell what the prob was but im gonna clean it up and go at it again.(different ammo this time.)

 

[mcholak]

I've had my Sigma .40VE for about 8 years now, never had any problem like that. Many people on here can echo that sentiment. I understand being concerned, but don't give up on yours just yet. I'd say put some more rounds through it or send it back to S&W if you're really concerned. It is a good gun for it's intended purpose.

 

[OKFC05]

Have helped to clear similar jams in several quality guns - the last was an XD- where the cartridge case seemed to stick in the chamber.
It has been the same brand foreign ammo every time for me....?? Other guns shoot it fine.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

Originally posted by libom:
yea i was kinda not sure about how good a gun it would be for the price but i said what the hey. lotta people i read on here said it wasnt to bad a gun. it is not to bad of a feeling or shooting gun and im glad i bought it and i love s&w also.

PS. i did get a chance to work with it today and got it cleared. couldnt really tell what the prob was but im gonna clean it up and go at it again.(different ammo this time.)

So, what were you using in it?

Was it a live round or just a stuck case?

 

[Mickstix]

Yea, give us all the juicy details!

Glad ya get her fixed up!!

 

[libom]

it was some of my grandfather in laws hand load ammo. it is usually pretty good we shoot alot of it.
it was a live round thats why i was concerned. it was jammed pretty good. it wrinkled the case pretty good. it took 20 to 25 good licks to get it slid back far enough for the round to pop out.

 

[SouthpawShootr]

It was pretty much the same with my problem with my XD and the handloads it hated. I bought a case gauge before using any more of the ammo and found the OAL to be just a tad (didn't measure it, but probably a couple millimeters) too long. I sorted out the 500 or so rounds I had left and roughly 75% of them were just a little too long. I shot no more of this in my XD, but I had shot a few hundred rounds through both a Glock 17 and S&W 5906 without a hitch. I shot the out of spec ammo from the 5906, without a problem. The XD I later sold. No the gun's fault, I just couldn't "bond" with it.

From the physical description of the case damage, it sounds like you had the same problem. Glad you were able to solve the problem.

I'd say try a couple of things. First, run a box or two of factory stuff (Winchester white box, UMC, S&B, whatever) and see if the gun gives you any grief. There is a possibility your chamber is too tight. Frankly, I haven't heard of this happening with Sigmas. Some match grade 1911 barrels, yes; Sigmas, no. It's probably at least 99% certain that the ammo was the culprit here. Second, a case gauge wouldn't hurt if you plan to keep shooting reloads. They're not expensive, but a bit hard to find in local shops.

 

[LikesToShoot]

I'm happy to read things worked out OK.

If you field stripped your gun you could use your own barrels chanber as a "case gauge" to see want rounds chamber correctly. (Flush)

 

[deanodog]

I have never had a hiccup with my sigma on my reloads but on my two m&ps they have had some. Not their fault though. It was my reloads.