Strange malfunction @ range today

[sslater]

I finally got to the range today and had something strange happen to my R9S (July 2005 build).
Removed my mag full of 124 gr. Gold Dots including the round in the tube.  Put in a different mag with Winchester FMJ practice stuff.  Fired all six rounds without incident.  Dropped the empty magazine out, slapped in another full mag, went to rack the slide and......THE SLIDE WOULDN'T BUDGE!
Switched hands and tried again.  No luck.  Removed mag, made sure no round was in the chamber, tried pushing down on barrel hood.  Still no luck.

So I put the R9S away after only 6 rounds fired and shot up a couple hundred rounds of .22 + 40 rounds from my old Star Firestar M40 (.40 S&W).  

At home I put the slide in my vise, gave the grip a good shove & the gun finally came out of battery.  I stripped the slide off, checked for burrs or signs of distress and came up empty.  It looks the same as it has for the last 200 rounds.

I looked through some of the older threads like "Gloom, Despair, etc."  but that was more of an infant mortality issue.
Has any one had a similar experience?  My gun has about 360 rounds total.  Guess I'll have to call Rohrbaugh tomorrow, but now it is cycling smooth as can be....


Steve

[R9SCarry]

Steve - that is indeed very strange.

I am trying to imagine the mechanics of a lock-up and so far cannot find an answer.  But if after new mag insertion then - something mag oriented it'd seem.  But what?

I certainly would agree - speak to the R factory and explain the event - see if any explanation and do give any feedback on that.

This is I am sure the first and only time this has occurred, well - that we have heard of here.

[Michigunner]

Steve,

Is there a chance the assembly pin could have moved to the left a small amount?

I'm probably the last person in the world to solve a mechanical problem, especially since my slide would not operate because the pin was flush on the left side, and not pushed in all the way.

Still, the violent forces of discharge might do strange things.

Bill

[BlueGrips]

That also happened to me once and was traced to the assembly pin, as mentioned above. It was my fault for I did not push it in all the way. I mentioned that to the R-brothers and, it was not the gun's fault,  they even sent me a replacement pin along with an over-sized pin just in case. But from that time on, I always give the pin a slight tap during installation. The problem disappeared.

Cheers!

[R9SCarry]

Good and actually very obvious point Bill - I had overlooked it.

Certainly about the only mechanism that would achieve total lock-up would seem to be small pin displacement.  Need only be a coupla thou'.

I must get better at lateral thinking!

[sslater]

I think you are right about the pin being slightly out of position.  Probably like cuteo100's experience.  
When It occurred yesterday my first thought was the pin or one of the holes in the frame had failed because the slide wouldn't move back more than a few millimeters.  When I was able to get the pup apart at home everything looked fine.  Pin fit in the frame holes is still nice and snug, no burrs on the slide.  
I'll just be careful to make sure the pin is all the way home from now on - and get back to the range real soon.  

[Erich]

I had much the same thing happen to my R9s after a bit of metal flaked off a cartridge (also WWB) that I had fired and got lodged in the slide rails. When I forced the top end off (still at the range), I saw the offending crumb and cleaned it out. Then I quick-cleaned and re-lubed the gun, and went right back to firing w/o problems.

In my case, it was just a matter of the gun's tight tolerances not being able to shed a piece of malfunctioning cartridge case. My friend was amazed that such a little flake of cartridge could have such a deleterious effect, but then (he's a mechanic) noted that a semiauto is just an engine, and said that a similar-sized piece of metal flake would have a much worse effect inside a cylinder!  

[sslater]

Erich,  I did find a tiny flake of shiny metal embedded in Superlube when I cleaned the frame.  About the size of a comma ",".  It wasn't aluminum, either.  
The six rounds I fired b4 the gun locked up were brass cases.  Maybe that shiny flake was left over from the last time I fired Speer GDHPs.  I seem to remember someone commenting on another thread saying he didn't like plated cases because the plating can flake and cause problems.
Maybe Colt's was on the right track building 1911's that rattle like a diesel Oldsmobile on a cold morning!

[R9SCarry]

Well - something else I had not considered but also very possible from what Erich has said.

All good info folks - this is why the forum is so darned valuable - ideas, thoughts, opinions - great stuff.