Failure to Feed!

[Iorndealer]

+1

My 2nd pup arrived at my dealer today.  I've commited  my self to the R9s.  It renders all my other deep concealment weapons useless!

[sslater]

I had a bad outing today with my R9S.  
Up thru 200 rounds mine's been pretty good, other than the barrel's chamber rubbing thru the anodizing.  (Prior thread on this.)
Changed the recoil spring at 200 rounds because it took a set of almost two full coils.
Fired 52 rounds - 26 rounds 124 gr. Speer Gold Dot, and 26 rounds Blazer 124 gr. brass case FMJ.  The first two magazines were big trouble: Three malf's on each magazine.  First a double feed, where the round didn't chamber and the next round jammed tight against the top one.  Locked up tight.  With all that Super Lube grease on the moving parts, trying to nudge the slide back, work the heel release for the mag, and pry the mag out (all while pointing the pup in a safe direction!!) is fun.  Like wrangling greased pigs is fun.  
The Stop Stick in my range kit came in handy in popping the mag loose.  
Next I had a failure to go fully into battery, a stovepipe, another failure to go into battery, a nosedive against the feed ramp. etc.  These were all with 124 gr. Gold Dots.

Then I tried the Blazer FMJs.  Everything worked fine.
The final 13 rounds were Gold Dots; they fed and functioned fine.

I'm wondering:  Maybe the brand new recoil spring was getting things out of whack???  When I stripped it down for cleaning I compared the now-50-round-old recoil spring to the 200-round-old spring and found it had set by just more than one coil.  From now on, I'm going to hand cycle the slide maybe 50 times before shooting it.
We used to hand cycle racing engine valve springs on the load checking fixture a couple dozen times before measuring tension at valve-seated and valve-open conditions.  

The good news is: No indications of cracking on the slide.  

[tracker]

Question is why would a new replacement spring be a
problem when the new spring on the new gun was not;
unless, as you say, there was some cycling and break-in
at the factory---good thought on cycling the new springs
through before firing. Again, this is quirky that should
not be required on a quality firearm.

[sslater]

Tracker,
Well, one thing that is different from "When new" condition is the magazine springs.  I don't have any brand new mags to try, and I'm sure the springs in my original ones have taken a bit of a set.  
I did measure the spring lengths when new, but haven't stripped the mags down lately.  My experience with other magazines is that the springs are good for thousands of rounds.  I think I'll strip one today & re-measure the free length.

[Chuck_S]

Rohrbaugh received my R9S abourt 1100 this morning.  I received a telephone call from Karl Rohrbaugh within 90 minutes to discuss the problem.

-- Chuck

[jarcher]

one thing in the back of my head during all this was that, after my R9s came back from Rohrbaugh and still didn;t work right, I put it away for a while, like months, then pulled it out again.  It's been fine ever since.  

There was a noticable difference in the strength of the recoil spring.  When I broke the pistol down, I was able to pull out the guide rod, and replace it, using just my fingers and no wrench.  Clearly the spring set during its time in my drawer.      

So now, with the weakened spring, the pistol works nicely and, honeslty, I am not nxious to change the spring at all!  I know I'm supposed to after another 50 rounds or so, but I really don't want to.

[Michigunner]

Thanks everyone for providing the feedback on the spring.

It looks like the spring plays a major role in malfunctions.  Perhaps the factory will prepare the springs in the future.

I'll be changing springs with great caution.

Bill

[SAWBONES]

OK, I left the R-9S lubed but uncleaned since last weekend (since it seemed to feed more reliably if slightly but not very dirty) and shot it again today.

I gave up after 35 rounds and 7 FTFs.
An average of a FTF every 5 rounds is obviously unacceptable.

I'll call Rohrbaugh Monday.
I feel like I've given this little gun every chance to "break in" and work.

[Chuck_S]

Mine is very recent manufacture:  R93x is the serial.  

Yours near?

It went to Deer Park last week.

-- Chuck

[Iorndealer]

Sawbones,

Sorry to learn of your frustrations with your R9s.  It's started to seem that an awfull lot of these guns are having difficulties much more than I've observed with other brands.  I love my R9s and matter of fact have purchased a 2nd.  But are we falling victim to believe our own  BS?  I mean "Yea I know it was designed to shot only 7 rounds flawlessly".  "It's not a target or range gun", "It's to be carried a lot and shot very little".

I understand all this but if you can't shoot it for more than a full box (50) rounds with out failure how in God's name can you stake your life on it?

How bout it guy, step up and let us know who out there, after they've"broken in" their 9s can fire 50 rounds stright (no time limit I know the gun gets hot" with out failure?  Hopefully Sawbones example will be in the minority.  I've only 125 rounds through mine and have only  been able to fire the last 25 rounds after a thourgh cleanning flawlessly.

[sslater]

Sawbones,
I'll let you know next week.  I expect to fire at least 50 rounds.  That will bring my round count to 300 total.  If it ain't broke in by then, it won't ever break in.

After my fiasco last week, I think I've got the troubles pinned down to the new recoil spring.  I hand-cycled 50 rounds thru the gun; everything seemed smooth.  For economic reasons, I'll start with a few Gold Dots, fire mostly Blazer Brass FMJ's, & finish with a mag of Gold dots. Hand cycling rounds thru the gun resulted in a bunch of dented cases!  

As I said in another thread on dented cases, I think the top edge of the chamber is denting those unfired rounds as they're being extracted.  The bullet won't allow the case to eject as quickly as a fired case cycles out of the chamber and thru the ejection port.  
Keeping my fingers and toes crossed.....

Steve S.

[SAWBONES]

"...but if you can't shoot it for more than a full box (50) rounds with out failure how in God's name can you stake your life on it?"

Exactly, Irondealer.

I want to like this little gun.
I was quite prepared to like it.
I went to considerable trouble to acquire it, and I've tried to make allowances for it and to give it the benefit of the doubt, but when it still has FTFs after some 250 rounds,
(even after relacement of a cracked slide!!!), and this on a gun intended to be "carried much, shot little", I think a definitive, decisive solution is called for, including troubleshooting and repair or replacement by the factory, including testing of the repaired or replaced gun before it gets sent back to me!
(Mine's serial number R90x, BTW.)

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket, I'd just like to have a gun I can rely on without fail.

[Michigunner]

It has to be 100% reliable.  There is no other choice.

The pistol is worth nothing if you cannot rely on it.

[Michigunner]

I'm sure everyone has already thought about this, but would it be worthwhile for a couple of friends to also fire the pistol which is acting up?

Could it be that there is an occasional mismatch between man and machine, perhaps something about the hand size and shape?

[jarcher]

It would be interesting to get a bunch of us together to fire each others pistols...