Sig P238 bites casing but doesn't jam??

[Marlin009]

Picked up a new P238 yesterday. Shot 100 rounds through it. Twice, on the last round in the mag, the casing did not eject completely, but the slide locked open. I found two of these on the bench. I don't know if these were the two that did not eject cleanly. Seems unlikely. I don't know how it could have done this without out jamming, but it did.

Other than this, it performed fine. Very accurate and easy to shoot. Any ideas?

 

[B.N.Real]

That is very strange.

Like the round is'nt clearing the chamber before the slide closes on a new round.

You might want to see if your extractor pin is broken or simply not put in right.

 

[greyeyezz]

How can the case not eject completely yet be on the bench? I'm not understanding something?

 

[Peter M. Eick]

Mine does that occasionally. I believe it is the extractor is too weak and the casing is falling off the hook.

Call SIG and see what they will do.

 

[AK103K]

Mine did that constantly, and about 5-10% of the brass fired through it was not reloadable.

This is the cause, and I suspect sooner or later youre going to start seeing these stoppages. Mine did it on a regular basis.

 

[golfnutrlv]

My P238 does give the brass a good hard kick every once in a while. It has never caused a stoppage though. Mine has been very reliable.

Do you have the new magazine followers? they look very similar to the standard 1911 flat magazine follower. Run another hundred rounds through it, and if you are still having an issue, call Sig customer service. They are pretty good about such things.

 

[Marlin009]

greyeyezz

How can the case not eject completely yet be on the bench? I'm not understanding something?

In two magazines, on the last shot, the slide locked open and the casing was loose in the breech, I dumped it out. I didn't notice any damage to it but at that point I wasn't looking for it.

 

[Marlin009]

golfnutrlv - My P238 does give the brass a good hard kick every once in a while. It has never caused a stoppage though. Mine has been very reliable.

Do you have the new magazine followers? they look very similar to the standard 1911 flat magazine follower. Run another hundred rounds through it, and if you are still having an issue, call Sig customer service. They are pretty good about such things.

I don't know. It's a brand new gun, came with two mag's, one six and one seven with the extention.

AK103K - Mine did that constantly, and about 5-10% of the brass fired through it was not reloadable.

This is the cause, and I suspect sooner or later youre going to start seeing these stoppages. Mine did it on a regular basis.

Your percentage is right on, maybe a little low. On a regular basis ain't gonna fly.

Just got back from the range. I shot 100 rounds of Federal ammo. I did have one jam that looked like yours. But I also had these (one is from Friday).

I have about eight more that are dinged up pretty good but not hammered like these. This is just what I could find around my feet or on the bench that I knew were mine. I'm sure there were more. I showed it to a couple of the guys (this is where I bought the gun) and they were stumped as well. One took it out a shot a seven round mag (their reloads I beleive), one was hammered, but didn't jam. He also shot three Hornadays that looked fine.

He is going to let the owner know and I will go in next week and see what he thinks. I'm sure there will be a good resolution one way or the other. I really like shooting it but this is both disappointing and unacceptable.

 

[Billy Shears]

One of mine did that to the brass as well. It was a true Jam-O-Matic too. I sent it back to Sig to no avail so I just got rid of it.

Those little P238 pistols seem to be hit or miss in terms of reliability and QC in my experience.

 

[Marlin009]

Threedogdad - One of mine did that to the brass as well. It was a true Jam-O-Matic too. I sent it back to Sig to no avail so I just got rid of it.

Those little P238 pistols seem to be hit or miss in terms of reliability and QC in my experience.

Well, if that means selling it back to Sig or the LGS, so be it. That would suck but I'll get over it. I'll certainly give them a chance to fix it, but I'm not planning on eating it. I did quite a bit of research before I bought it and read that there were some problems with the earlier ones. I thought the issues had been resolved, apparently not. The case has a 12/13/2010 sticker on it.

 

[AK103K]

Mine was supposedly made after the cut off date too. It was dated 05/10.

I had mags with both follower types and that didnt seem to matter.

I also did the standard 1911 extractor tension test, and it passed and that didnt seem to be an issue.

I also tried swapping out recoil springs, and tried Wolffs 11 and 12 pound springs since SIG never had any available. They never would tell me what the weight was either. My gun worked about the same with the Wolff 12 pound spring, but didnt like the 11 pound spring at all.

I had about 700 rounds through my gun when I gave up on it. It never smoothed out, nor got any better. I didnt send it back, as so many that did, were still complaining about continuing problems, even after multiple trips back. I figured it wasnt worth wasting any more time and money on it, so I dumped it at a bit of a loss by trading it off for a Glock 26. Havent missed it a bit.

 

[Marlin009]

I took it in and spoke to the owner. He seemed to know exactly what was causing it, the extractor wasn't letting go (my version of what he said). The casing is being spun around and the slide is hitting it as it comes forward. He picked up one of the casings and the dent in it matched up perfectly with the slide but not all of the casings had that same damage. He suspected maybe the spring was too tight or that maybe it was something on the extractor itself. He is going to look at it and determine if it needs to be returned to Sig. He said it will be fixed or he'd give me a new one. That's all I needed to hear, we'll see.

Thanks for the input guys. I would not have thought that the slide had enough force to do that to a casing with out it getting pinched somehow. Maybe it is but there was no obvious damage to the base. Some of them did have a slight burr on the edge of the rim but that's it.

 

[LambOfGod]

New Slide Spring

Guys,

I just received a new slide spring in the mail from SIG; took over 4-weeks but I finally got it. I'm not impressed with SIG's customer service and hope not to deal with them again. Nonetheless, as you can see from the photo the spring is much longer and totally different in design. The wire of the spring is flat rather than round. The new spring hugs the pin that the spring slides over so it doesn't bulge out either into the slide or the body of the gun. I haven't shot the gun yet but this new design seems to be on the right track.

I'll post back and let you know how it shoots.

 

[Marlin009]

Guys,

I just received a new slide spring in the mail from SIG; took over 4-weeks but I finally got it. I'm not impressed with SIG's customer service and hope not to deal with them again. Nonetheless, as you can see from the photo the spring is much longer and totally different in design. The wire of the spring is flat rather than round. The new spring hugs the pin that the spring slides over so it doesn't bulge out either into the slide or the body of the gun. I haven't shot the gun yet but this new design seems to be on the right track.

I'll post back and let you know how it shoots.

Were you having the same problem? If so, who determined it was the spring?

 

[rnpfraker]

Marlin009, I'm having the exact same problem

I saw this post and was very happy someone else can relate to me so I joined up to post about it. I have the exact same problem with the brass and mine also ends up up the deck looking like that.

Very strange. I already sent my P238 back to Sig for a spring problem once and they fixed it. After getting it back, I realized it was deforming all of my brass and it's even jammed once or twice on the last shot

I called today and they're gonna have me send it back to the factory again. I have a very good pic on my cell phone that i'll try to post tomorrow.
-Ryan

 

[B.N.Real]

You guys are making the Ruger LCP sound better and better.

 

[SW-14]

That new spring is interesting. Mine has been chewing through recoil springs after only a couple hundred rounds or so. I might have to give them a call.

 

[Marlin009]

The gun ended up going back to Sig. I got it back today, pretty pleased with the quick turnaround. They adjusted the extractor and replaced the recoil spring. They fired 50 rds of Speer Gold Dot 90gr GDHP with no malfunctions. I wonder if they looked at the brass. Hope to shoot it this weekend, we'll see.

Edit - the recoil spring is the one the LambOfGod posted above. Mine had the short one.

 

[Marlin009]

Shot it yesterday, same problem. Back to Sig.

 

[rnpfraker]

fixed

I got my sig back within 10 days of sending it and after almost 200 rounds.... she's fixed!! woohoo.... They replaced the spring to the newer flat spring and also upgraded the extractor.