New gun misfires/jams

[TripleF]

UPDATE - A called the gun shop a few minutes ago and they immediately said "Please bring it back to us. We'll make it right!"

Thank goodness for a good, lically owned shop! I'm feeling much, much better!!

[nothinghead]

No weapon should need a break in period. Would this be acceptable if it was a car?

It would be. When you buy a brand new car, it requires a break in period too. All machinery does. Even my little N scale train says to break it in carefully.

[hunter63]

Never heard of this brand, sucks to have problems with a new gun...now no matter what you do, you will waiting for it to fail....
I'd take it back and trade it in...for something that works....life is too short to put up with this crap.

Will you trust your life to this in the future?

[Scott Allen]

+1 on the type of ammo. Try something with a little more punch. It sounds like the slide is not going far enough back which can be caused by under powered ammo.

Scott

[TripleF]

I took the gun back and the shop apologized and felt very bad. They agreed this was a significant problem . . . especially considering the lack of a firing pin mark on the two failed-to-fire rounds.

They took the gun back, returned my money which I then gave right back to them on another gun! What a pleasure to deal with a top quality shop like Mackey's. MAYBE you pay a tad more . . . but in my mind that is money well spent.

Thanks so much for all the help and suggestions! It's great to know their are a bunch of thoughtful people I can go to for quality advice!

[hunter63]

Sounds like a deal to me....Congrats.
Good people.

[NoMoreOp4]

I'd take the gun down, clean the pin as best you can, get some oil in there, etc. I would try other ammo if you can just to eliminate the variable as others have said, but the fact that you aren't even seeing a mark being left by the firing pin leads me to believe its probably not the ammo.

Only other things that comes to mind is
1) how the rounds are seating in the chamber, which could mean there are problems with the magazine feeding correctly. Have you tried other mags...
and 2) how you are holding the gun. As another said, get a good grip on it. You don't need to strangle the bullets out, but be firm. That could be it, but again the pin not even striking the primer leads me to think something mechanical is wrong.

[PMSteve]

Another issue is you may be gripping the gun too loose or too tight. How hard you grip the gun sometimes affects an semi-auto pistol's ability to cycle (depends on the gun), so experiment with your grip.

Do you have much experience with small auto pistols ?

I have seen two occasions where the shooter was "limp wristing" just enough that the slide failed to seat fully home on a new round at times, giving a similar situation.

This is one of those little quirks of an auto pistol. Unlike a revolver, an auto pistol requires a firm grip in order to operate reliably. It's a matter of physics - action and reaction.

Now that you have a replacement (if it's an auto) this is something to keep in mind. There's a reason that a lot of us old-timers are partial to revolvers - one less thing to have to remember.

[santaman2000]

I picked up a Sig P238 a couple of weeks ago... put 150 rounds or so though it and had no issues. I used the cheapest ammo I could find too.

Ski

Edit: Sellier & Bellot was the ammo...

Sellier & Bellot is good ammo. They also often manufacture ammo (under contract) for US ammo companies that in turn sell it under their own name.

The only complaint I have with them is they don't offer the same large variety of bullt selection as the US manufacturers.

[nothinghead]

I took the gun back and the shop apologized and felt very bad. They agreed this was a significant problem . . . especially considering the lack of a firing pin mark on the two failed-to-fire rounds.

They took the gun back, returned my money which I then gave right back to them on another gun! What a pleasure to deal with a top quality shop like Mackey's. MAYBE you pay a tad more . . . but in my mind that is money well spent.

Thanks so much for all the help and suggestions! It's great to know their are a bunch of thoughtful people I can go to for quality advice!

What is the new gun you got? Let's see pictures!