Need help with a broken Sig.

[Radagast]

G'day all.
I'm holding a friends Sig P229 that has been broken for the last year. Problem is as follows: He was dry firing with a dummy round, when he went to eject it he was unable to rack the slide more than 5 milimetres or so.The gun will go into battery, the hammer can be cocked, the trigger pulled and the hammer dropped, but the slide cannot be cycled more than 5mm or so. The gun is in a similar situation to Oleg's .380.
The extractor can be depressed and appears to be functional, looking down the mag well the ejector appears to be in it's normal position, and what appears to be the firing pin safety (opposite side of slide, in line with ejector on the under side of slide) can be depressed with a probe so it dosn't appear to be broken.
I don't know if the decocker works, as this has been dismantled while trying to get the gun apart.
The guide rod dosn't appear to be broken.
Any thoughts on what could be broken and more importantly, how to get the slide off?

There aren't any Sig Armourers in Australia that I know of, so gunsmithing advice over the internet will have to do.

Radagast

 

[Chris Orndorff]

I don't know how "hard" you've tried to pull the slide back. When using empty brass to induce malfunctions in training, it is sometimes a real bear to pull the slide back and eject the empty.

 

[Shawn3879]

Chris is correct. On one occasion I got empty brass stuck in my 228 and I couldn't get it to move!!! After freaking out for a couple of minutes (thinking I had messed up a pretty expensive pistol), I was able to clear the round but it was EXTREMELY stuck!!! Took some serious tugging, pulling and cussing. But it will come out and shouldn't be harmed.

If you aren't comfortable trying to clear the round, go to your local armor or if your gun range is like mine there are 5-10 helpful people at all times that can maybe help you out. I doubt if your friend's pistol is actually broken though. Goodluck!

 

[hitnthexring]

I did the same thing with my new Sig P226 40 S&W. I chambered a "dummy" round, then couldn't open the slide. I realized exactly what caused the problem. I made my own dummy round by seating a bullet into a fired case. The reason the slide wouldn't open was because I DIDN'T RESIZE THE CASE before seating the bullet, so it was too big to fit easily into the chamber, then when I chambered the round, the slide FORCED it in, but it was almost impossible to eject because it was wedged in. After putting a lot of Break Free around the slide & waiting 1hr, I was able to open the slide but it wasn't easy. Never use a dummy round with a fired primer in it; that probably means it has not been resized. Better yet, buy some dummy rounds from A-Zoom.

 

[Destructo6]

I'd try a brass, aluminium, or wood rod down the barrel and give it a light tap or two.

 

[James K]

Before doing anything drastic, see if you can insert a small tool and pull the extractor out of the extractor groove in the case. If the reason the slide won't retract is the stuck case, that should free it.

If that won't work, grip the gun in the weak hand, with the fingers over the slide and the thumb at the top rear of the grip. Then, insert a wooden dowel into the front of the barrel and use the strong hand to tap it with a hammer while pulling rearward on the slide.* (Sometimes this is better with two people, but I am describing the way one person does it.) Don't be too gentle; sometimes stuck cases can be stubborn.

BTW, this will work with a stuck live round, but the best way to deal with a stuck live round is to shoot it.

*Better to do it this way, as the weak hand may not be able to direct the hammer as well and you don't want to beat on the gun or your other hand.

Jim

 

[Radagast]

G'day again all.

Shawn, I am the helpfull guy at the range. That's why I'm trying to fix it.

chris, hitnthexring, you are correct, it is a fired case rather than a snap cap.
Jim I tried prying the extractor claw out, still couldn't rack the slide. The slide will go back around 5 mm so that the chamber starts to drop, but no further. Moving it back that distance requires force, as does pushing it back into battery. There is a metal on metal sound when doing this, more of a grind than a click.
I tried pounding the front top edge of the slide against my desk, it didn't budge, just locked it up tighter in the chamber unlocked position. I also tried tapping the case with a screwdriver inserted through the muzzle, no go. Unless anyone else has a suggestion I'll try to get some wooden dowel or a 9mm steel rod and bash it with that. I'm just worried about breaking the internals when I do this. I checked with the owner, the gun was originally locked up solid, the slight amount of movement it has now is a result of hammering a dowel into the barrel. He left off for fear that he was making the situation worse.

Any further suggestions before I apply Tamara's School of the Bigger Hammer gunsmithing techniques?

Radagast