So I received my new Special Forces R9 a couple of weeks ago and finally found time to get to the range. Beautiful looking little black gun. Before heading out, I took it apart and lubed it(oil). Thanks to the info I found here, disassembly and reassembly was not very challenging and I could do it without any pliers or jigs.
I did my homework on this forum and after failing to find suitable ammo at my local gun shops, I searched around on the web and ended up buying 500 Rds of 124 grain Hydrashocks and some WWB. No plans on messing about with something unproven or that might work in only some R9's My thought about buying so much ammo at once was: 1. Good price , 2. I wouldn't feel happy carrying without 200 rds of my carry ammo through the gun.
I got to the range and put 2 magazines of WWB though the gun. No problem. A little snappy and a second shot takes longer to get off than when I am shooting my HK P7M9, but really quite manageable for the planned application. For the third magazine full , Hydrashock. First round FTF. Cleared that round. Tried again, FTF. Cleared that round(set both aside), tried again, FTF. Repeated that entire sequence with the other mag and the same exact thing happened. Then I thought that putting some more WWB through might "loosen things up" One more mag WWB, no problem. Fourth magfull, FTF but it looked like the round would feed if I pushed on the slide a little and it did. Part way through that mag, FTE! Cleared it and shot the rest of that mag no problem. Next mag, FTF on the first round, had to be cleared. Another FTE in that mag! By then I decided to stop being frustrated and put that gun away and spent the rest of the time with my P7 and Seecamp .32.
After the first FTF, I made sure that the magazine was well seated at each exchange. I shot all the suspect rounds through my P7 ( which will eat anything, but I only feed it good stuff). The Hydrashocks measure to be between 27.96 and 28.06 mm with a mean of 28.01mm. The FTE's were not due to fatigue because clearing all those FTF's took time and I shot my P7 in between mags of the R9.
I understand the Rohrbaugh povides excellent customer service, but this experience so far has been quite disappointing. It just seems to me that at this price point quality assurance should be tighter. I understand that a gun with these close tolerances can be challenging.
If anyone has any suggestions before I send this gun back for servicing, I would appreciate them. Please do not suggest that I try different ammo as I have no other use for the Hydrashock. They are not my preferred carry ammo in my HK.
I do suspect that Rohrbaugh will make this right, but I also think everyone should know that all is not rosy with these little guns out of the box. I never had a gun that was this bad out of the box, though my purchases have been skewed to guns with reported reliability out of the box ( Ruger Mk II, Secamp .32(two), Beretta 92, HK P7M8, Colt Kodiak).