CC, welcome to the Forum. You'll find lots of good advice and civil discourse here!
First, is your R9s brand new or new-to-you? The reason I ask is the early R9 guns needed a recoil spring and magazine spring change before they ran reliably. (Second gen recoil spring has a closed coil at both ends. The first springs had one closed and one open end.) The current magazine springs are much longer - and stronger - than the original springs.
Little guns shooting high pressure cartridges have a lot of things going on in a small distance, so timing is really critical.
Next, there's the old song about technique. The R9 requires a strong hand, and it still wants to move around. You really have to dominate this gun.
Third, I've had good success with WWB for practice but recently read in American Rifleman magazine that Winchester is moving its center-fire ammo operation from IL to the South. Union problems. So, I'm staying away from Winchester ammo until they get their operation moved. I don't want to accuse the about-to-be-unemployed workers of sabotage, but people losing their jobs aren't going to be as careful...
For carry I've settled on Speer Gold Dot 115 and 124 grain. Mostly 115 grain due to availability. Some Forum members like 147 grain, and I've used it successfully, but feel that's a very heavy bullet for the short R9 barrel.
Finally, if all else fails, your pup will have to go back to Rohrbaugh for some TLC. I understand Karl Rohrbaugh still personally works on all repairs. You will be made whole, it's just the inconvenience factor.
Hope this helps,
Steve
