I have finally enough data on Steyr M40 to report

E

Emin

New member
For all the owners and to-be-owners of this pistol -- there was a series of threads about Steyr a few months ago. There, I posted my overall bad experience with it, and here's an outline of what happened, just to refresh your memory. Also, there have been a few TFL members recently interested in gathering more info on the gun so, here's my input...

My first Steyr M40 with a series number 0015** (an early number, I admit) misfired horribly, so I sent it back for a repair to GSI. I got it back in about two weeks with the assurance the problems had been corrected. However, after checking its performance at a range, I realized it continued misfiring as bad as before, if not worse.

This time, I noticed that the pistol didn't go to full battery which was, in fact, the direct cause of all the misfires. I had a gunsmith polish the feed ramp -- no results! I sent the pistol back to GSI again. At that time, somebody here on TFL posted about
receiving reimbursements for shipping expenses from GSI. Sure enough, I called them to confirm that and yes, they did refund some people who had to send their firearms to GSI more than once. The rep confirmed the
company's willingness to refund me and said she would pass this info to the chief gunsmith at GSI, Herbert Wohlmuth, as well.

After waiting for at least a month and half, I called GSI and spoke to Wohlmuth himself. He declared the gun a "lemon" and said he was going to replace it to a newer version weapon the shipment of which from Austria they were expecting.

What better could I have hopped for? Well, I received the pistol. Without reimbursement, BTW. At that time, however, I didn't give a damn about these reimbursements so glad I was. The pistol's serial number was much higher too, 0056**. Seemingly, I should have had a good, reliable gun at that point -- any Steyr pistol shoots (when it didn't misfire in my case, that is) just beautifully to me. I can't say its accuracy is much better than of any of my Sigs, but the target acquisition is simply flawless -- hence, very easily performed double taps. I said it in my older posts, and I'll say it again -- I seriously doubt I'd go to such a troublesome extent trying to fix the gun's problems had it not shot so great.

Anyway, off to a range I went. Boy, was I pissed off! Exactly the same problem of misfiring happened again with almost the same ratio. That made me thinking the pistol's refusal to go to full battery was my error -- perhaps limp-wristing was the cause. I paid a very thorough attention to this (I never limp-wrist my Glocks), but the problem didn't go away. Well, this brand new gun was also shipped back to GSI -- this time with a detailed letter indicating not only possible suggestions on what may have caused the misfiring, but also a polite reminder about all the shipping costs.

Amazingly, I received the damn thing back in just 3 days (!). It was just around the time GSI sent all those "new trigger upgrade" notifications. According to the paperwork included with the gun, besides the trigger upgrade, it had the whole action replaced.

At the range, I had 1 misfire out of 150 rounds. That's about 0.7 % as opposed to anywhere between 5 to 10 % with the first pistol and this new one before its action's been replaced.

Will all the statements from other TFL members about their Steyrs' flawless performance automatically cancel the significance of my experience? Not in this life!

You be the judge...
 
Emin: Did you really have a misfire? It sounds as though you are describing a failure to feed. A failure to feed is when the cartridge does not get fully seated in the chamber. Typically, the nose of the cartridge gets hung up on its way into the chamber and the slide does not close completely. With the slide out of battery, on many (most?) semi-autos, you cannot pull the trigger.

In contrast, a misfire is when a cartridge is chambered completely, you pull the trigger, but the round doesn't fire. A misfire can be caused by a faulty or missing primer, a weak or broken firing pin spring, gunked up firing pin, very hard primer, etc.

Jared
 
M1911,

I guess it was a malicious combination of both: Steyr M-series will let you pull its trigger with the slide being out of battery. As one does that, the slide will "click" to the full battery simultaneously striking with the firing pin -- it will feel like dry-firing the gun. The shot, however, won't occur.

Upon extracting the unfired cartridges, I consistently saw a light and slightly off center pin mark on the primer. My guess is, as the slide goes forward to full battery, the firing pin strikes almost at the same time; thus, although it does reach the primer, the dent created is simply not deep enough to ignite the latter.

The bottom line is I pretty much knew HOW the misfires/FTFs happened. I was, however, more concerned as to what causes them.

Thanks.
 
I don't know, but sounds like a light strike problem to me. The firing pin spring doesn't sound beefy enough...

Albert.
 
Being able to fire the gun out of battery sounds like a giant cluster F waiting to happen. I'd be more worried about that than the misfire caused by this new feature. Does this happen with all the ammo you shoot or just home loads, specific brand... If the feed ramp is polished, you might want to polish the chamber. If its rough enough you might end up having that eat up the spring energy and not allow the gun to go into battery. You could also have an undersized or otherwise poorly cut chamber. I'd start with different ammo and see if it presists.

I tried on of these things in the shop today. I love the sights, but that trigger was a bear. It was not very mushy, but boy did I have to squeeze the succer to make it go boom. After my Wilson it felt like a 25# jobber.
 
My new, but cleaned and lubed Steyr M40 failed after firing its first (and only) round during a training course on a police range in Delaware. The S&W Sigma 40-equipped Delaware cops were amused, but I was embarassed and angry. Police armorer and I became convinced that this was a design flaw and all the posts on this subject and GSI's replacement activity seems to confirm. I immediately traded this gun back in and took a financial beating in the process. I lost faith with Steyr over this pistol.
Saw another Steyr M (9mm) in another shop. When the shop owner demonstrated the "key lock" safety, neither he nor anyone else could unlock the safety and return to firing condition. I was not favorably impressed. Steyr may eventually get it right. Meanwhile I recommend the HS2000 pistol imported by HS Arms from Croatia. It works right out of the box. What a surprise these days.
 
You want right out of the box?
Try a Springfield 1911A1...

I am really surprised about the troubles these M40s are having. Besides the trick sights and that retarded key lock thing - I had considered the Steyr M series to be abundantly average for a service pistol. 1 out of 150 isn't cool. Is this after 500 rounds of "break in"? Regardless - This experience would have me getting into a new service pistol instantly. HK or SIG for a .40 cal working gun. These problems are just not acceptable in a gun your staking your life on - even worse if your staking the lives of your loved ones on!
Switching from the Steyr - I'ld look at the HK USP .40 Compact. It's a very nice little carry package that should give you not the slightest problem.



------------------
You might laugh in the face of FEAR... but unless your armed, its a nervous, unconvincing, little laugh.
 
I have a rule - I never buy pistols, rifles
and stuff which is "freshly designed" and
have not been around for a several, better
15-20 years. As a mechanical design engineer,
I know that it's impossible to design something that is totally free of problems
from the start...Whatever ads tell, and whatever the brand name is, it does not matter, it will not be O.K. unless a lot of
practical trials are put behind the products.
That's the reason the Maks and CZs are so good - those pistols are just old enough to
be around long enough to have all their bugs
worked out.
 
Sounds like a problem I had once with my M9 that now has several hundred rounds thru it, with no other malfunctions of any kind. The slide did not close totally on one round so I helped it to close with my hand. Then I tried to shoot, but it was a misfire. After that, the slide did not want to open so I had to use force to get the round out of chamber. After that the gun worked again flawlessly. The round that jammed and did not fire was a Sellier & Bellot FMJ, but all the other rounds of the same box worked flawlessly. Probably that round's brass was a bit larger in diameter than it should have been.

If you have problems try other ammo brands. It is not always the gun, it can be ammo as well, or the combination. Just a guess, but
if a gun manufacturer produces to tight tolerances and an ammo manufacturer to loose tolerances, those brands might not fix well together.

Ossi
 
Sounds like a problem I had once with my M9 that now has several hundred rounds thru it, with no other malfunctions of any kind. The slide did not close totally on one round so I helped it to close with my hand. Then I tried to shoot, but it was a misfire. After that, the slide did not want to open so I had to use force to get the round out of chamber. After that the gun worked again flawlessly. The round that jammed and did not fire was a Sellier & Bellot FMJ, but all the other rounds of the same box worked flawlessly. Probably that round's brass was a bit larger in diameter than it should have been.

If you have problems try other ammo brands. It is not always the gun, it can be ammo as well, or the combination. Just a guess, but
if a gun manufacturer produces to tight tolerances and an ammo manufacturer to loose tolerances, those brands might not fix well together.

Ossi
 
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