Well, my trusty back pocket companion had to take a trip back to the factory. I went to the range last week so I could put a few rounds through my R9 Stealth with the new black magazine I ordered before I carried it. (I wouldn’t trust a new magazine to carry without first running a few through it just to be sure.) My plan for the day was to go through one 50 round box of Gold Dots, and sprinkle in a few WWB’s since they are cheaper, even though a bit dirtier. I loaded the new mag up with 124 grain Gold Dots and mixed WWB and Gold Dots in my original magazine and commenced making some noise. Within a few magazines worth, I experienced a total of three rounds that failed to fire with one pull of the trigger. With two of these rounds, a second trigger pull was required to fire the round. Upon encountering the third round failure to fire, I ejected the live Gold Dot round in order to examine it. It is the one on the right in the following photo (note the primer is barely scratched):
When I got the first two failures, I thought it was an anomaly, so I just pulled the trigger and they both fired fine on the second pull. I didn’t think to set the brass aside to examine and they went into the pile around my feet. I did find one spent brass later that had a primer that looked a bit different than the other ones that fired. This might have been one that needed a second hit with the firing pin. See the one on the left in the photo below. Note the strange appearance of the primer, it almost looks as if you took a grinder to it to knock down the high spots. I can’t be sure it was one of the original two light strikes, but it sure does look different than any of the others I recovered that day:
Here is a sampling of a few others shot that day for comparison:
The grip screws were kept tight throughout the shooting time. The gun was cleaned after last shooting it. In all, I fired about fifty Gold-Dots and about twenty five Winchester rounds the day of the problem. The light strikes occurred within the first few magazines and happened while firing under normal conditions, punching gun out and firing double tap or three quick consecutive rounds with no slow dragged out trigger pulls for slow target shooting.
Has anyone had light hits under similar conditions with their R9? I called the factory, and Ms. Marie asked a few questions, and then sent me directions on how to ship it back to them. I will, of course, post my experience with their anticipated excellent customer service.
