Sig P229 Jamming problem

[Kevincrossville]

Hi, I have had a jamming problem with my Sig P229 .40. I purchased this gun used. It is AC serial number IIRC so it is over 20 years old if my research is correct. Hopefully someone can help me. I'm getting a failure to feed. This happens with my reloads and all factory ammo I have tried so far. Some ammo is worse than others but it still happens with all ammo. It strips the round out of the magazine and goes partially into the barrel then jams. It is jammed in tight usually as I cannot push on the slide and make it chamber all the way. I have to eject the round which works fine. At first I thought it might be a weak mag spring because I thought it was just doing it on the very last round in the mag but I bought a new macgar mag and it has the same problem and it is not just the last round.

 

The gun is clean and very well lubed including gun grease on the rails. The feedramp has been polished and is very smooth.

 

Any thoughts? Before this sig I was a glock man and never experianced many jams so I am inexperianced in this area. Thanks for any help.

 

[Garufa]

Maybe a a new recoil spring is needed.

[thundersnow]

Send it off to Sig for their reconditioning service. It'll come back running like new. They did magical things for my p6! Best 89 bucks I ever spent...

[Byedan]

Recoil spring would be my guess, with out having the guns in my hand

[leroy]

Kevin:  As others have posted; take a look at the springs, or better; change them out.  I would also take a look and see if the nose of the round is hanging on a rough place on the barrel hood (...top of the barrel where the round starts in the chamber...).  Clean it up real well with some powder solvent and look at it closely (...a magnifying glass and a light would be great...); if it is the least bit rough, it needs to be polished.  Try some hard ball (...round nose, no lead exposed...) rounds and see if they work.  Also, dont discount bad magazines.

 

Hope this helps.

leroy

[StPatrick]

I had this exact issue with a 1911, replacement of the recoil spring fixed it.  The nice thing is they're cheap compared to other fixes.  Wolff is generally regarded as the go-to for gun springs of all types: http://www.gunsprings.net

[Oh Shoot]

http://www.gunsprings.net

 

.com

[StPatrick]

.com

 

Or that one, which actually works.  I always get their .XXX extension confused with Numrich.

[TnShooter83]

Have you taken the extractor out and clean and looked at it good?

It looks like the round is not sliding up under the extractor in that pic.

If you take the slide off and barrel out of the slide.

Is it hard to slide the rim of round in between the extractor and the breech face?

 

You could also inspect the feed ramp for wear, fouling, or nicks and dings.

But I doubt that is the issue.

 

It could like others said be a spring issue.

But you can check the other stuff before/while you are waiting on springs.

Edited June 12, 2013 by TnShooter83

[j2flan]

IF, with the barrel out, your rounds "plunk" right into the barrel without a hitch, I would look to the magazine. My 229, I been shooting since 1996, will run fine with reduced recoil springs (light reloads) and standard 16LB spring that has cycled over 5,000 times. Could be the spring, but I would check all that has been mentioned and that mag. Good luck

 

 

 Go here for the original part >> http://www.topgunsupply.com/sig-sauer-p229-gun-parts/

[East_TN_Patriot]

My guess is that you have a magazine problem, but it could be a recoil spring problem.  I have never heard of a problem like that on a P229 unless there was a magazine problem, but it is wise to change out the springs on a pistol of that vintage, especially if it has a high round count (or unknown round count).  I personally wouldn't get anything except the factory springs, especially since they are cheap and pretty easy to find.  Top Gun Supply, Brownells, MidwayUSA, and Sig Sauer all sell them. 

 

If you are curious about my preference for factory springs, it is simple.  Any firearm that I intend to use for personal defense is kept as close to factory original specs as possible.  One of the first things that happens in a defensive shooting is that your firearm is collected by the police as evidence and submitted to the crime lab to have it looked over.  Part of that is to determine how the firearm functions in comparison to factory original specs.  If you shoot someone and the lab comes back with a report saying you put lighter springs or anything beyond factory spec parts into your firearm, a lawyer (either an anti-gun prosecutor or one representing the person shot in a civil suit) can claim you did some careless work on your gun and/or clearly "wanted" to kill someone because the factory gun "wasn't good enough" for you.  I know the likelihood of that happening are very slim, but I figure why take any chances.  Besides, I generally have a preference for OEM parts in my guns and vehicles when it comes to those that specifically relate to the proper function of the machine.

[MiddTennTaco]

My guess is that you have a magazine problem, but it could be a recoil spring problem. I have never heard of a problem like that on a P229 unless there was a magazine problem, but it is wise to change out the springs on a pistol of that vintage, especially if it has a high round count (or unknown round count). I personally wouldn't get anything except the factory springs, especially since they are cheap and pretty easy to find. Top Gun Supply, Brownells, MidwayUSA, and Sig Sauer all sell them.

If you are curious about my preference for factory springs, it is simple. Any firearm that I intend to use for personal defense is kept as close to factory original specs as possible. One of the first things that happens in a defensive shooting is that your firearm is collected by the police as evidence and submitted to the crime lab to have it looked over. Part of that is to determine how the firearm functions in comparison to factory original specs. If you shoot someone and the lab comes back with a report saying you put lighter springs or anything beyond factory spec parts into your firearm, a lawyer (either an anti-gun prosecutor or one representing the person shot in a civil suit) can claim you did some careless work on your gun and/or clearly "wanted" to kill someone because the factory gun "wasn't good enough" for you. I know the likelihood of that happening are very slim, but I figure why take any chances. Besides, I generally have a preference for OEM parts in my guns and vehicles when it comes to those that specifically relate to the proper function of the machine.

Short of attaching a chainsaw to the light rail - if its a good shoot, aftermarket replacement parts wont matter. Anyway, I prefer factory parts because thats what they were designed for.

And obviously its not a genuine SIG. Ive always been told that SIGs are infallible, lol.

[runco]

If its the Recoil Spring, this place is a very good place for Sig replacement parts (most Sig enthusiastics use this place), Top Gun Supply.  Here is their web address, actually I already looked up your Spring:  http://www.topgunsupply.com/sig-factory-recoil-spring_p229-40-357-blue.html

 

Two other ideas though:  You stated your feed ramp was highly polished, I assume this means its been worked on.  Could someone left a unintentionally burr in the chamber?  The other idea, change magazines. 

Edited June 16, 2013 by Runco

[East_TN_Patriot]

Short of attaching a chainsaw to the light rail - if its a good shoot, aftermarket replacement parts wont matter. Anyway, I prefer factory parts because thats what they were designed for.

And obviously its not a genuine SIG. Ive always been told that SIGs are infallible, lol.

Well, I would disagree. I recall several articles discussing this issue, and I am virtually certain at least one was written by Ayoob stressing the importance of keeping defensive weapons as close to factory spec as possible for that particular make and model due to cases where these alterations were presented as evidence against someone in a defensive shooting. I am confident this is one ofmthe reasons most law enforcement agencies do not allow duty weapons to be modified internally. I also know for absolute certainty that it is common practice for the majority of crime labs to look over any weapon submitted to them to see if it was altered from the factory specs. I personally would rather not have to explain why I modified my weapon from factory spec and hope that a jury of potentially gun-ignorant people would consider it proof that I was itching to kill someone with my modified "weapon of war".


EDIT: here is a commentary that gets to my point and references Mr. Ayoob:

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2011/02/travis-leibold/why-farago-and-you-shouldnt-modify-his-self-defense-guns-trigger/

EDIT 2: Here is another article that discusses the same issue:

http://www.armedcitizensnetwork.org/choosing-self-defense-guns Edited June 16, 2013 by East_TN_Patriot

[Kevincrossville]

Thanks for all the replies. I have received a new spring kit and installed the sig recoil spring and re cleaned the pistol. Im not sure the new spring made much difference, maybe just a tad. I think, as someone hinted to, that the round is not sliding behind the extractor properly. am currently searching for detailed instructions of taking the slide apart. More importantly the extractor. I've tried punching the pin out but can't get it to budge in either direction. I'll have to order a new one since i've been beating on it and will probably get the little punch tool from sig while i'm at it. If anyone knows anything else I will need let me know.

I can slide a round between the extractor by hand. Im not sure if I just need to clean the insides out or what the problem would be. with the new spring it's not doing it near as much but I can still get it to happen very easily by riding the slide closed. It's almost like the angle if the round feeding up the ramp is not agreeing with the space behind the extractor.

Thanks for the help!

[Kevincrossville]

UPDATE: I found out how and removed the extractor. It was gummed up in there pretty good but not to bad. Got everything cleaned and put back together and it seems to function a bit better but will still fail to feed...the catch is that it's only happening on the last round of the magazine when there is no other round to push it up. I have tested two different mags, one older one new. I've yet to test fire but will this week and report back. I have a feeling that it will work fine in live fire and the only reason it is happening now is because im riding the slide trying to make it happen but I will for sure report back.

As always, comments are welcome on this issue as well as getting the stubborn pin out of the slide. Of course it is the older style and I will be ordering a new one soon.

[East_TN_Patriot]

If you still have problems with it after changing springs and using a new mag, I'd guess the problem may be with the barrel and the polish job that your OP suggests has been done. Perhaps they did so much work that they changed the ramp angle? Also, I know some of the early Sig P6 pistols had a ramp design that was not hollow point friendly, but I'm pretty certain no such problem exists with the P229. I've fired thousands of rounds through Sig pistols and my old police department issued P229 pistols and I've never seen that problem unless it was a magazine problem.

As far as pointers on how to detail strip the slide, this guy did a 6 part series in disassembling his P226 and the P229 is pretty much the same process.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=PnwQJItG1Vo

[Spurholder]

NVM.

Edited June 17, 2013 by Spurholder