Malfunction, Ammo or Gun?

[Paroxsym]

Took a trip out to the range yesterday with the intentions of shooting a short video so I could examine my trigger squeeze and other things. While I was shooting the video I managed to have my first-ever malfunction with my P95, but I can't decide if it was a problem with the gun or with the ammo. Heres how it went down: Fired a round, and was going to do a decently fast paced double-tap, the second round fires but the slide does not move, spent casing still in the chamber, no felt recoil, nothing...but the hammer resets in single-action even though it appears the slide did not move. Here is where it gets complicated, you can see in the video that I squeezed the trigger for the second round, but it was not far enough back to release the hammer, the round also does not "sound" right when it fires almost like it didn't have the correct powder charge. I put the video on youtube, I'll link it pretty soon when its done uploading.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsnDbHy00_A&feature=plcp

 

[ACM73]

That's really weird. I have no advice for you, but I too am curious as to what happened there. I'm sure someone will have an idea of what happened.

 

[Paroxsym]

I hope so, I've been thinking about it since it happened yesterday, its driving me nuts! haha

I edited the video down a little bit, so its not so long. Just after 50 seconds in is when the MALF happens, for those that haven't watched yet.

 

[Cheesewhiz]

Could be a short load, even factory ammo can be loaded short on powder.
The other thing to check and make sure that your gun doesn't fire out of battery. With an unloaded gun, take a toothpick or something that thick and pull back the slide slightly, put pick or whatever in the ejection port to hold the slide out just a bit from fully locking, cock the hammer, the gun shouldn't fire out of battery.

 

[Paroxsym]

Something that was just pointed out to me if you watch very carefully, immediately after the malf, I get hit in the chest by a small object, but I can't figure out what it is. I know its not the spent casing, as I ejected that manually. Very odd indeed, something very strange going on here...lol

 

[rugnelli]

It looks like what hits you in the chest is the previously fired round on its way to the ground. It doesn't eject to the side like the other rounds did, it appeared to go straight back. Additionally, the slide did move rearward slightly after you shot the quick follow up. It just didn't go back far enough to eject a round. My impression is that it was a light charge in that round not powerful enough to completely eject the spent casing...

At least, that is what I think I can see in the video...

rugnelli

 

[WMB30]

What I see and hear is prior to the round not firing both rounds sounded normal with ejection, the second hitting on your chest. Even though the sound of the second round was normal the recoil appears with less muzzle rise than all other rounds. What was condition of the round (case ?) that was manually ejected?

Bill

 

[bigdlou]

Yikes that second shot was under loaded. Ammo problem 100%! The sound and recoil of the follow up shot is not normal. The powder was less than normal. In cases like that I would do a field strip and check the barrel for a stuck bullet before firing another round. If im not sure where the bullet went that is. A stuck bullet in the barrel then a follow up shot will cause barrel explosion! Ive seen trained range officials stop a shooter during competitions because of this type of sound.

What ammo where you using?

 

[Paroxsym]

That was Magtech 115gr FMJ that I was shooting, which as far as accuracy goes, is the best I've found for my P95 so far. In almost 1000 rounds thats the first time anything funky has happened.

I didn't field strip it because when I first locked the slide back and looked in, I could see into the back part of the barrel and saw that a significant amount of light was coming through it, which would indicate no blockage. But yeah, thinking about it your probably right, I should've stripped it down and checked stuff out to be sure, lessons learned I guess.

 

[blume357]

I really could not tell a difference in that round from the others... I'm thinking the ejector just didn't catch the cartridge is all... could happen for any number of reasons.... thing to do is go out and fire another 100 or so rounds and see how it does.

 

[Mortblanc]

On a short charged round, as this one obviously was, the slide will often go back far enough to reset the hammer but not far enough to strike the ejector or pick up a new round.

The slide will close on the empty round with the hammer back.

I reload and this happens all the time with marginal power loads. It is quite a common occurance. The Ruger P series is set up for pretty stiff 9mm loadings and the starting loads in many reloading manuals are too light to function 100%.

If this was factory ammo you got the one in a million squib load.

Two things in addition.

1. Any time you have such a short cycle load always check for a barrel obstruction. Many times a squib wll not exit the barrel.

2. The look on your face was priceless!

 

[Paroxsym]

Haha I know, I laughed at myself a bit when I first looked at the video.

About the barrel, if anything like this happens again I'll definitely be checking it, just to be on the safe side. I didn't really look that time because I could see light coming down the barrel when I was checking things out, but I guess its better to be safe than sorry.