Jammed while racking the slide

[BlueGrips]

I was able to jam my Rohrbaugh just by racking the slide. I can reproduce it all day long, even using two different magazines. The ammo was Speer GoldDot 124GR GDHP. See below:

Here is the 1st jam just by racking the slide back and let go. The slide got stuck open and the bullet still sat in the magazine. This would happen once every few racks.





I then rack the slide again and let go. This time both bullets got stuck. The only way to undo the situation was to take a chopstick and push down on the 2nd bullet while securing the slide (racking the slides won't help)




Now, I was able to reproduce the same exact situation with another brand new magazine.





Taking the gun apart reveals nothing abnormal.





Bought and carried it daily for almost two months, the gun has only 20 bullets through it, by me, using the same ammo from the start. It has been well cleaned and oiled w/SuperLube. Maybe I need to shoot more to break her in?

I am hoping if the board can see anything obvious w/o having me sending the gun in to be checked. Any input will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Cheers!

Cuteo

[Newt]

Are you riding the slide home or are you yanking it back and letting go? I have not had this problem but I always snap the slide back and release when fully rearward. Is the gun jamming during firing? If not I don't think you have a problem, alot of autos will jam if you ride the slide. even a AR15.

[BlueGrips]

Are you riding the slide home or are you yanking it back and letting go?

Newt: I always yank it out all the way and release. I have several other semi-autos in .45ACP, 40S&W, and 9mm and never have any issues with racking them slides. I originally suspected that at first but now I ruled that out: It jammed again after I read your message and verified my racking style.

Is the gun jamming during firing?

Yes. I had 2 during firing a few weeks ago. However, since I thought that the slide pin was coming loose I requested a new pin from the factory. The sent me two immediately (great guys!) But this racking problem seems to be of a different issue. Would hate to have sending her in.

Cheers!

[Newt]

By looking at the pictures again it seems maybe the mag is letting the bottom bullets push up on the chambering bullet. Try to close mag lips some.

[tracker]

sure sounds like a magazine problem except for two things:
it didn't happen in the first twenty rounds and it happened
with two magazines.

[tracker]

was the magazine fully seated?

[R9SCarry]

I wonder re mag' seating tho - pretty much assume this would be the case (properly seated).

I can say honestly I have never had this occur with ANY ammo - and I carry with 124 GD's.  I sling-shot the slide - every time round picks up and goes into battery - perfectly.

I do think leaving this aside - the gun maybe needs toward the 100 round mark for a good break-in - JMHO.

[BlueGrips]

Tracker: I always make sure that the magazine is fully seated and the retainer is clamped on well.

I do think leaving this aside - the gun maybe needs toward the 100 round mark for a good break-in - JMHO.

Chris: I think you are on to something. I will shoot more rounds in the next days to break her in and report back. I suspect that the nature of the design  (tight tolerance) may have some affect.

Thanks to all.

Cheers!

[BlueGrips]

Update: Went to the range and put two boxes of Winchester white boxes (100 bullets) and another box of Speer GD 124g through her this morning. No hickups whatsoever. One thing interesting was that I could not duplicate the racking issue with ball ammos.

Afterward, I went home and tried racking it again using the Speer GD ammo. Got one jam out of every 12  to 18 racks.  

So, I stripped it down, cleanned, (Inspected the barrel lips, etc. No nicks,etc. ), lubed it well, and put it back together. Tried racking it again. So far so good, no failures! I am keeping my fingers crossed!  

Cheers!

[R9SCarry]

Basically sounds good - tho that is a lotta ammo thru before a clean!!!

[Craigt]

I have been composing a range report on my first two sessions with my new R9S but decided to jump in here.  I had exactly the same problem.  I don’t have all my statistics calculated yet but here is what I know.  I am not an expert on all of the lingo so please forgive me if this could be explained better.

Started with Speer Gold Dot 124gr.  1st magazine no failures.  (Believe it or not, the very first round was a bull’s eye at 7 yds, medium slow aim.)  18 mags total, 11 mags had at least one jam.  116 rounds, 19 jams: some with the bullet nose jammed low on the barrel, some jammed in the barrel angled upward, some jammed at the top of the barrel and some as shown in Cuteo’s photos.

Switched to Remington 115 gr MC round nose.  35 rnds, no jams.  One round did not fire on the first try, dent in the primer, reloaded and next trigger pull did the job.

I will reduce all the data in the next few days and write up a report.  For now I am not very happy.

CraigT

[cobb]

I had the exact same problem, except it was with 2 boxes of 20 rounds of 115 gr. Speer Gold Dot.  I had also purchased 2 boxes of 124 gr. Gold Dot, and had zero problem with those, it was just the 115 gr. Gold dots that gave me the problem.  I have since run 2, 50 round boxes of Speer Gold Dot through it, zero problems.

At the time, and maybe it was my imagination, but the 115's looked slightly longer than the 124's, I had no way to measure them at the time.  I wish now I would have kept a couple of rounds and did some comparisons.  My thought is that it was a slightly out of spec lot of 115 gr. Gold Dot ammo.

Want to add that my s/n is R768, what is your?  Maybe something with the Rohrbaugh s/n  range.

[tracker]

#747 belongs to me and I didn't have any problems with
30 rounds of Gold Dot 124 on the first range visit. This
sounds like a problem that needs a factory resolution.

In any case carrying this gun with anything less than
6+1 seems ill-advised.  

[tracker]

someone else mentioned that they had a glitch for not
seating the last round far enough back in the magazine
and I noticed that it takes a little extra effort. Is that
a possibility?

[sslater]

My R9S was shipped from Deer Park last week.  I took delivery the day after it arrived at my dealer, and it is s/n R360.  As I reported in another thread, my range experience on 26-July-05 was very good.  No failures of any kind with Speer GD in 115, 124, & 147 gr. ammo.  Two indications of very hard primers with 115 gr UMC hardball practice stuff.  Both of those rounds fed okay, just wouldn't fire.

I think the s/n isn't a good indicator of when a particular gun was built, just when the frame was started.  I remember reading that many frames were re-processed for anodizing and machining updates.