Guinnessdog reunited with pup, range report

[Guinnessdog]

Hello all, for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the saga, please refer to:

http://www.rohrbaughforum.com/YaBB.cgi?board=R9S;action=display;num=1147969546

I got a call from Karl Rohrbaugh last Wednesday, 6-7-06, and he described the warranty work done on my gun. He said the guide rod threads were out of spec by .005", and broke as a result. He also said there was some sort of spur on the barrel that was causing the malfunctions. The barrel was replaced, and he personally ran 100 rounds through the gun without any malfunctions. He said he fired 50 rounds of ball and 50 Gold Dots, cleaned it up and would be ship it out the next day.

I received the gun two days later, for overall turnaround time of 12 days. I thought that was pretty good, and I was impressed that he took the time to call me. A friend who has had some problems with his Kahr PM40 has not yet heard from Jason Moon...

I just got back from the range, having fired about 120 rounds. The results were disappointing.

I fired one box of Blazer Brass 115gr. ball, and had many failures to feed and failures to go fully into battery. The failures to feed were of the type where the breechface rides up over the base of the cartridge. These are easily cleared by pulling back on the slide and releasing, driving the round home. The failures to go fully into battery were cleared by simply pressing on the back of the slide, and the slide would close on the round. Out of 50 rounds, there were about 10 failures.

I then fired 40 rounds of 115gr. Gold Dots, with miserable results. It would jam constantly. I was never able to get through an entire magazine without some sort of failure, and sometimes it would be every other round. Out of 40 rounds, I had at least 12 malfunctions. I quit counting!

Most took the form of the aforementioned breechface sliding over the base of the round, but some were very puzzling. In one instance, the slide failed to fully close, coming up about a quarter inch short. I tried pushing on the rear of the slide but it would not budge. I couldn't tell what it was binding on, so I ejected the round and discovered that the next round in the mag had a big gouge in it where the breechface had dug into it. It seems that the rounds were tipping inside the mag and dragging on the slide's underside to the point where it would hang up.

I then decided to switch to some 115gr. WWB ball. The gun was pretty dirty by this point, so I didn't have much hope. Surprisingly, the pup gobbled these up without a hitch. I got about halfway through the box when I discovered that the grip screws on both sides were backing out. Arrrgh! I put the pup to rest at that point.

I'll tighten up the screws and test some more ammo, but I'm really starting to suspect the magazines at this point. If the rounds are not being presented properly, that would account for all of my problems. However, both mags have the same problems. Did Karl use my magazines during his test firing? I don't know.

Before leaving the range, I fired 50 rounds of 125gr. 38 Special +P's through my scandium J-frame carry gun. There were no failures of any kind.

[sslater]

Guinnessdog,
It sure does sound like magazine issues.  Do you know any other R9 owners you could swap mags with?
Your experience doesn't fit my "too-strong recoil spring" pet theory.  
Small, powerful guns seem to have no margin for error in their tolerances, do they?

Steve  

[capt.koolaid]

Thanks for the update Guiness! More importantly thanks for saving me the cost and agravation on mailing mine back! Im sorry to say I figured this would be the end result. Im also sorry for your misfortune with the "pup". Keep us posted on the magazine issue.

I have to commend you on your patience! Guess ill submit to the peer pressure and just call it a day with mine. Everyones right, The guns perfect, Its just me, I and others such as yourself must be limpwristing it, Its not for everyone you know! Im sure if theses were not refurbs theyd work fine, and the moon and stars must be out of alignment.

Now, who among us wants to buy my "pup"? It desearves a good home to someone able to handle such a fine piece of craftsmanship?

HOLD IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!~~~~~

[tracker]

Kool,
You could just contribute it to Waste Management and
be done with it.

[harrydog]

Guinnessdog,
Did you return your magazines to Rohrbaugh along with the gun? You should always do that and in fact Eric, Karl or Maria usually ask that you do. If so, I don't think it's a magazine issue.

[Guinnessdog]

Yup, I sent in the mags.

Here's more:

Perhaps I'm a glutton for punishment, but I did some more shooting with the pup. Last night I put some blue locktite on the grip screw threads and let it set up overnight. Today I went to the range and tested two loads: 147gr. Silvertips and 124gr. Golden Saber.

I shot 50 Silvertips first. Things went well until about halfway through, then I had one round mash its nose into the bottom edge of the feed ramp, where it wouldn't budge until I removed the magazine to clear it. Somewhere around round 35 the slide closed on an empty chamber with two rounds still in the mag. Then on round 48, the last round in the mag, the cartridge stuck straight up with its base in the magazine and the nose pointing skyward.

Strangely, I consider this an improvement.

Then I switched to the Golden Sabers. I had a good feeling about this round when I looked at the shape of the bullet, as it has a nice curve to it that I thought would aid feeding.

Out of 50 rounds, I had one failure to go fully into battery. This was remedied by a light nudge to the rear of the slide. There were no other malfunctions. Pleased with this new development, I went back to the store to buy up their remaining supply of GS, but they were out of it, much to my chagrin.

I figured I can lay in a supply from the various online sources.

At this point I do not consider the problem solved, although things are looking better. Maybe my gun just likes that load and no others. I won't really know until I shoot it a lot more and see if it keeps working. I don't consider the one failure to be that big of a deal, as the gun was quite gunky by that point.

I was pretty happy with where things sat until I got home and began cleaning the gun. It was at that point I discovered one grip screw on each side had left for parts unknown.

This gun reminds me of a Brazilian woman I once knew. Finicky, tempermental, both hard and easy to love. But when held just right and properly lubricated... spectacular.

[MountainMan]

If the Golden Sabers work for you great.  Some have had problems with them because the primers seem harder than some.

I still use 115 Golddots and 115 Silvertips - still haven't had a problem with them.

Respect your determination to get the Pup to work for you.

[harrydog]

I like Golden Sabers and use them in other guns. I never tried them in the R9 based on what I read here, but maybe now I'll give them a try. Nothing to lose.

[RJ HEDLEY]

"This gun reminds me of a Brazilian woman I once knew. Finicky, tempermental, both hard and easy to love. But when held just right and properly lubricated... spectacular. "


Now, that sound like a fond memory !!
And reminds me of a line an old song, ".....she was hotter than a pistol"  [$2, I left out]

[Guinnessdog]

Just returned from the range, having fired off 50 rounds of Golden Sabers. This seems to be the round my pup likes.

I had no failures until the second-to-last round, which had what would be called a stovepipe except the empty brass was snagged lengthwise, as opposed to sticking out at a 90 degree angle.

I'm not terribly concerned by that, as we all know the pup works best when clean. However, it did end my otherwise excellent shooting session on a sour note.

I had purchased some new magazines from Rohrbaugh and was shooting with those. I marked the mag I was using when the failure occured, and will do further testing on it and my other magazines. My pet theory is some of the problems I have been experiencing are magazine related, so I'll continue the tests with different mags and see what happens.

Maybe it is not mag related at all, but that is one variable that is easy to control.

Captain Koolaid, I feel your pain. I wish my pup worked as well as most other people's. I had broken my rule about buying anything "refurbished," and now I'm dealing with it. I won't be buying any more used guns from now on! (Except that Glock 33 I just picked up for a song - but hey, it's a Glock, so of course it will gobble up ammo without a hiccup like a Sumo wrestler at a wienie roast).

[MountainMan]

. I won't be buying any more used guns from now on! (Except that Glock 33 I just picked up for a song - but hey, it's a Glock, so of course it will gobble up ammo without a hiccup like a Sumo wrestler at a wienie roast).

Guinnessdog - glad it is working out.  Run some 115 Gold Dots through now and see if they have improved.  I agree though to stick with what works.

As far as Glocks - they have their hiccups also.  A malfuntioning Glock shot my brother - he lived.

Keep it up and you'll need a spring change soon.

[dctfn]

Guinnessdog,

I noticed you used the silver tip 147 gr. I recommend you try the 115 gr. They work best in my pup.

Fred

[R9SCarry]

One thing I always suggest to anyone with semi's - even tho ideally no gun should ever malfunction - and that is the ability to clear trouble fast.

Sometimes ''tap-rack-bang'' can do it, tho stovepipes are probably one our worst potential nightmares.  That said however, when at the range fake a stovepipe and then clear the gun quick as you can.  That will usually mean rotating wrist 90º or more as slide pulled back sharply, in hope gravity will see the empty come out.

Of course on occasions that problem can be coupled with next round being part advanced and everything jams!!  However, my main point is with any semi - it is worth some failure drill practice, just in case, seeing as the ever present Murphy will probably decide the day you want 100% that, no - you can only have 90%

[Guinnessdog]

OK, so I'm at the range again today, and now the pup doesn't like anything. Fired 25 rounds of GS, 40 of Hydra Shoks, and 20 of Gold Dots. It choked on all flavors. I know it doesn't like GDs, but I have a bunch of it laying around and figured what the hey. I was getting a malfunction about once every other magazineful.

I think by now the recoil spring is getting a bit tired, so maybe that's the problem today. The spring has over 300 rounds on it by now, and is noticably shorter than a new one.

It seemed to do best with the HSs, and all malfunctions were of the type where the round was not fully driven home, and a push on the back of the slide solved things. Those are the type of malfunctions that respond well to tap, rack, bang clearing, but it was frustrating in that I thought I had more or less solved things with the GS ammo.

This is starting to get tedious. And expensive. Why didn't I buy a brand-new one from Tom in the first place?!!

 

[Richard S]

"This gun reminds me of a Brazilian woman I once knew. Finicky, tempermental, both hard and easy to love. But when held just right and properly lubricated... spectacular. "


Now, that sound like a fond memory !!
And reminds me of a line an old song, ".....she was hotter than a pistol"  [$2, I left out]

Guinnesdog:

It may well be that RJ has "broken the code" on the problem with your little pistol.  (I, however, am forbidden by "higher authority" to discuss any similar analogies drawn from my own personal experience which might be apropos of the foregoing analysis.    :-/  )