what causes this problem?

[jimacp]

I haven't posted in a long time, but I have owned a Farmington R9s for a while now. I put gun through its paces shortly after buying it , and fired @700 trouble free rounds (I had exactly ONE failure during that time...round didn't go fully into battery if I recall correctly).  After firing that many rounds I decided  I had thoroughly tested gun and was happy. Have been using it as daily carry since. Anyway, a few weeks ago I was at range and decided R9s was long overdue for a few more rounds to be fired.  First round fired fine..second fired, but case was FIRMLY stuck betrween breach face and chamber. It took me several minutes to get fired case out. Fired a few more rounds, and same thing happened again!  Quit at that point, took gun home, cleaned and inspected, etc. Went back to range, no problems but only fired a few mags. While this has been the only problem I have encountered with gun, and it seems to be isolated to that one range session, I haven't felt all that confident carrying gun since, especially since tI have no explanation for the failure, and am worried it might happen again. I was firing Silvertips at time of failures. Usually fire gold dot and have gone back to those. Maybe it was teh ammo. Anyone have any thoughts??

[Brenden]

I am going to surmise that you may have had some "crud" work in someplace that it should not have been!!
If you had carried it for awhile without shooting,this is my guess..
Especially after cleaning you did not have a problem..

I carry way too long without cleaning,but I "blow out" with canned air,my pocket holster,and also wipe down the gun itself,every 3-4 days..

Don't know if this truly helps,but I believe it cuts down on the grunge factor..

Keep us up on the Farmy!!

Brenden

[Richard S]

Jim:

If Brenden's diagnosis doesn't resolve the issue, it might be a spring problem. You mention that you have run over 700 rounds through your R9, but you don't mention having changed out the main spring in the recoil assembly. If your pistol still has its original spring, it probably needs changing. They cost only $4.95 each from the Rohbaugh Store:
 
http://www.rohrbaughfirearms.com/store/store_set.html

Good luck in tracing and resolving the problem.

[jimacp]

Richard S:

      I had changed the recoil spring once prior to the malfunctions, but I compared the spring that was in the gun at time of malfunctions to a new spring I had on standby. The old spring was significantly shorter, so that may have indeed been the problem. I have now changed to new spring and will see if everything is back to normal. Thanks everyone.

[Reinz]

I carry daily, but what I carry depends upon whar I am wearing.  Before I got  my pup, if I was wearing slacks I would carry my Kel -Tec 9 due to the big pockets.  Same  - if wearing shorts with big pockets on the weekend.  If jeans, then I would downsize to the Kel -Tec 380.  In the console of the car goes 1911 of course.  Don't get much opportunity to wear jackets wear I live.

Since I am always switching around guns, I have to  admit that I do not "lint clean" as often as needed".
One day I looked down at the hammer strut of the Kel -Tec 9 and saw a LOT of lint and crud.  I racked the slide for further inspection and discovered that the slide motion did not feel as smooth as it should and saw more dirt than usual.

I did a total field strip and clean.  I was surprised to see how in some places the oil had "pooled" and "hardened".  In other places oil had attracted lint and grime.(I do oil sparingly/evenly)
Needless to say this scard the s*** out of me!  I take pride in how I take care of my weapons and now it looked they would not take care of me.
I don't know if it is the Texas heat that caused the solidifying of the synthetic oil or the non movement of the gun parts.  But the point is we all need to check our weapon more often and more detailed  than just a "Blow" check. ( I'm not picking on Brendon, I am just as guilty or more, and I'm sure many others as well)

My bet goes with Brendon, that Jimacp's problem is that the gun needed a cleaning, for reasons stated above.

Reinz

[jimacp]

Even though I hadn't shot it for awhile, I cleaned it at least monthly prior to the malfunctions. However, my cleaning hadn't included disassembly of the mags, and when I did that recently I found big lint balls in both mags. I don't see how that could cause the malfunction I described above, but it is a lesson anyway to check the mags periodically! I hope the recoil spring is the answer. Will be giving it a good workout next week at the range and will let you know!  Lesson learned is that even after thoroughly checking out carry gun (remember, I had @700 rounds with only ONE malfunction) still need to periodically clean and check function. Although I had TOTAL confidence in the gun after 700  trouble free rounds, the malfunctions I recently experienced totally disabled the gun for several minutes. As I said, I have learned my lesson and will routinely check my carry gun now regardless of its prior flawless performance

[Richard S]

Reinz and Jim:

Good advice for all of us to keep in mind.  The "dreck factor" attendant to pocket carry, if ignored, can cause real problems with the operation of a semi-automatic pistol and its magazines.  It's easy to forget about cleaning the magazines, especially any spares carried in a pocket.  I make it a practice to carry spare magazines in mag pouches to minimize the "dreck factor," but they still need to be cleaned out on a regular basis -- bearing in mind that mag springs and their followers will "go airborne" if given half a chance.        

Thanks for the reminder.  

[theirishguard]

jimacp, it sounds like the fuzz balls got in the way. Did you check the size of the silver tips shot to the GD you usually shoot? Tom

[jimacp]

Tom:

I don't have calipers to give actual measurements, but the overall length of the Gold Dots is visually longer than the silvertips. I guess my problem could have been caused by any number of things...I'll be back at range next week to see if all is well again.