Sig P238 super picky on ammo?

[Deja vu]

A few months ago after years I finally got my wife to get her CCW again after letting it expire. After that I took her to the store and let her try out a few pistols. She decided on the Sig P238 as that is what she use to have before the house fire.

At the range it was shooting fine with Buffalo Bore 100 grain cast lead (standard pressure). This was all they had at the store so that’s what we tested it with. I got home and went to my brothers to try out some other brands. We tried Federal, Winchester, Hornady and Fiocci. To my disgust not one of those was able to make it threw an entire magazine with out a malfunction.

My brother said we should try breaking it in, I helped him reload 500 rounds of 95 grain fmj bullets, long story short, that failed, cleaned the gun many times. Still seems to only like heavy cast lead. Since the Buffalo bore 100 grain seems more like a hunting round than a self defense round I am left scratching my head.

What should I do? She likes to go on runs alone in the late evening. I’d like her to carry but I want it to be a gun the works.

 

[ballardw]

So what specific failures are you getting?
Do you have more than one magazine and try them?
Did more than one person fire the pistol with the same behavior?

 

[RickB]

If the gun likes 100gr lead, shoot 100gr lead.
Adequate penetration is the real concern with .380, and the heavier, the better.

 

[HighValleyRanch]

I have some of that BB .380 flat nose hardcast bullets. Pretty hot .380.
So maybe all the others you tried were not hot enough to cycle the Sig. Tells you something.
Try loading hotter and see if it works or try finding a lighter recoil spring to try out.

 

[TunnelRat]

If it won’t cycle typical factory ammunition call SIG. It came with a warranty, make SIG live up to that.


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[RKG]

I tend to concur with TunnelRat: there is something wrong. My P238's have digested everything I've ever fed them without failure. At one time I tested a handful of different factory loads, but my regular feeding is 115 grain Hornady HAPs for range and drills and 115 grain Hornady XTPs for carry.

 

[Deja vu]

It get a lot of failure to extract and rare failure to feed.
I have had multiple people try to shoot it with basically the same results. I did see some peening on the barrel feed ramp. It’s pretty minor but I don’t think it was there before.

I have 3 magazines for it, 2 of the six round and 1 seven round magazine.

 

[TunnelRat]

It sounds to me like you did your due diligence. Multiple shooters, multiple types of ammo, different mags. Personally I would call SIG.


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[Shadow9mm]

Sounds like sig needs to look at it. It should feed whatever you put in it, provided it is the correct cartridge....

 

[TailGator]

We have two that run fine on anything except very light hand loads. I'll join the "call Sig" choir.

 

[CCCLVII]

In my opinion Sigs Customer service in the past is lacking, that said its been along time since I have used them.