A curious malfunction

C

Coronach

New member
I had my Sig-Sauer P-232 out at the range the other day, and experienced a bizarre malfunction. The trigger stuck all the way to the rear. After boggling for a second, I cleared the gun. The trigger remained glued all the way to the rear, actually flush with the frame. I gave the gun a solid *whap* with the heel of my palm, and the trigger rebounded to its proper place (the SA position).

I reloaded, racked a round in, and resumed firing (slowly, watching/feeling for any reoccurance or anything out of place). A few rounds later, bingo- it did it again. I clear the gun and proceed to fiddle/tinker/mess-with it in classic non-expert Guy fashion. Turns out I could make it do it just dry-firing, from either SA or DA.

I turned it in to my dept armorer (I'm a LEO and this is my off-duty gun), and OF COURSE it won't do it for him, or for me while I'm in his presence. His solution was to run it through the sonic washer, since he thought it might not be clean enough (:rolleyes: I keep it clean, but 1. this was in the middle of an extended range session so it WAS a little cruddy and 2. in his defense, he deals with a LOT of cops who neglect their gear).

I get it back and it still does it.

Thoughts?

Mike
 
Dry fire the gun at home before you go to work. If it sticks, then take the stuck gun to your armorer. Then he has a clean, malfunctioned weapon upon which he can work his magic. I would bring it to him/her "pre-stuck".

Sorry that this "tabletop gunsmith" (butcher?) couldn't help any more than that.
 
Thats exactly what I'm trying to do. The only problem with that is the 'sticking' appears to be kind of delicate now, in that if you jar/jostle it enough it will pop back into its proper place. So much so that it tends to correct itself when I put it in the gunbox for transport. :rolleyes:

The first few times it happened I was able to clear the gun without the trigger rebounding properly, but now it seems to be only lightly stuck, if this makes any sense. I note that this is AFTER the gun went through the sonic wash, which leads me to believe that there might have been SOMETHING gumming up the works, or at least aggravating the problem. It is also harder to get it to do, which I suppose is a good sign.

Either way, I'd rather not bother the armourer anymore unless I'm utterly stumped. He's a nice guy, but he is a little busy at the moment due to a new academy class and having to fine tune about 50 pistols.

thanks,
Mike
 
Could possibly be the return spring in the trigger, ask them to check it out. It could be a blockage or it may need to be replaced.
 
There may be a burr or tiny piece of brass trapped under, or near, the trigger bar. The same thing you describe happened to a friend's gun. When the department armorer disassembled the pistol he found a sliver of brass was the culprit.
 
I can't believe your armorer didn't disassemble the pistol, at least partially, to have a look at the trigger, trigger bar and trigger bar spring. Takes only a few moments. Could be some junk in there, or perhaps the trigger bar spring is out of place or damaged. Let us know how it goes.
 
He did, and finding no obvious problems, plunked it in the sonic wash. Its now hardly doing it at all (read: at present, I can't 'make' it do it), but I'm still uneasy, as it did it a couple of times post-sonic-washing. The gun is shelved until the next range outing (sunday), when I'll put it through its paces again.

Thanks for the input,
Mike
 
Hmmm, it does sounds like the problem may go away by itself as the gun continues to wear in. But since it's a defensive firearm, I'd be concerned about not knowing just how much wearing in is required before I can be confident that the problem has gone away for good.

Anyway, having recently encountered an intermittent malfunction of a different kind in a P232, I went ahead and shipped this gun to the service department at SIG, even though the malf I was having may also have gone away as the gun wore in. I'll be interested to see how SIG responds.
 
DO NOT CARRY THIS WEAPON!!!!!!!

If your department armorer is unable to resolve this for you, send it back to Sig and have it fixed. Do not carry this until it is resolved and tested with a couple of hundres rounds of flawless operation. While your armorer probably went through the Sig school, he or she is probably most familiar with the P226 or similar design, and is not as adept with the P232. No knock against them, it's just not something they deal with every day. Send it to someone who does.

Could the problem be related to the sonic washer? These are great devices, but they clean EVERYTHING, to include the necessary lubricants. Our departmet got one of these recently and I have been using it on a regular basis, but after a few trips in the drink my Sig's trigger was awful. A trip to the armorer resolved the problem, no lubrication on the innards. My trigger felt like dry metal sliding across dry metal and it was heavy. A complete teardown and lubrication and it was back to normal. If you took one of your teeth and rubbed it across a chalkboard, that is how bad it felt.

Could this lack of lubrication be causing your metal to metal surfaces to bind?

Let us know how this turns out.
 
Rather the other way around, if anything. One possibility he mentioned (and which makes logical sense to my non-gunsmith self), was that gunk had gotten into the space between the frame and the rubber grip, in the area where the trigger bar (?) travels, and was causing *just* enough friction that the trigger reset/rebound spring was having difficulty overcoming it.

Field strip the 232 and you'll see what I mean...the trigger actuates a long bar or lever which, for some reason, plunges down behind the grip along the right side and then pops back up to meet the seer/hammer assy (probably not the right terms, but anyway). Unless you take your grips off during normal cleaning any grime/crud/grit/dirt that builds up between the frame and the grip in the region of that lever or bar will go unchecked.

Said area is a place not normally accessed/cleaned in normal use, and since I had put MANY rounds through this gun, it had probably gotten pretty filthy. If the sonic wash had fixed the problem right away, I would be more convinced. The fact that it continued to be dodgy post-wash gave me pause, even if it has since (seemingly) cleared up.

I agree with your assessment, NotNut...the gun is shelved until it proves itself to be reliable again (next outing, tomorrow). I'm not concerned about it proving itself with defensive ammo- this isn't a FTF issue and I don't have THAT much loot to burn. It is now reliable in dryfiring...if I get a few hundred live rounds through it, dirt/crud and all, we're back in business. Failing that...


Mike
 
I think blades got it.

Probably a burr on the trigger bar or brass shaving and gunk lodged around it.

380's overall seem less reliable than the larger calibers,even in fine guns like Sigs.

Hope it gets worked out.
 
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