Broken recoil spring assembly/guide rod

[rickmartinez60]

Greetings,
I have an R9 earlier edition, I believe 2006. Bought it used. I've taken it to the range 4 times. The FIRST time I ran around 50 rounds thru it. I changed the recoil spring afterward as I was not sure when it had been last replaced. I took it again a couple more times & did another 75 rounds or so with no issues. But a couple days ago I took it out again & ran two mags thru it & on the third mag, three rounds into it, the spring assembly broke. Like a cheap piece of junk. I'd been running mostly Winchester FMJ 115 grain & Speer GD. Anyone ever have those issues?

[tracker]

Is it the guide rod that is broken? If so, I have never heard of that happening.

[backupr9]

I have never hear of a guide rod breaking.  "Bought used" is always a risk...was it abused?  Was +P ammo run through it?...etc.  I often buy at gun shows and have been burned a couple of times with unexpected problems in spite of reasonably careful inspections of the pieces bought....goes with the territory I guess.

[Brenden]

I have not heard of a spring itself breaking either?
Showing a picture would be helpful in figuring out the problem.

Btw, welcome to the forum and your first post RM60.

[Richard S]

With around 6,000 R9s produced, that's the first time I've ever heard of a spring assembly breaking.  Photos?

[Douglas]

I agree. I have never had an issue.

Waiting to see some photos.

Odd.

-But I have made no bones, and around here it matters...

If I decide to pull my off duty, I must be sure it will work.

Force on force is the best training for this.

-It turns the bravado of, "If that was me I'd..."

...into, "This may not be the best idea."

You simply cannot go for your hideout gun in a deadly force situation if you are not 100% confident that it will function properly.

Waiting to see some photos.

[Richard S]

RM60:

If you're having difficulty posting photos of that broken spring assembly you reported, this link explains the process:

http://www.acbsystems.com/boards/rohrbaugh/basefile/pic-post.htm

Without photos the report just hangs there in the wind.

[Richard S]

. . . and loses credibility. 

[Drumbum]

 Happened to me about a year & a half ago. The firing pin retainer rotated slightly, locked up the slide & caused the guide rod to snap off the base & fling downrange. It was still Karl @ the time & they repaired it no problem. Been reliable ever since. There's a link titled "Failure to feed" dated around Aug '13 with pictures of the twisted retainer. You might want to check yours.

[backupr9]

Out of spec firing pin retainers have cropped up on the forum occasionally (including to me) and when rotated they usually slow the slide enough to cause failures to eject or feed...never heard of one totally freezing the slide like that, but it certainly could do so.