Issue with my SIG 239 .40. Seeking input.

cas700850

Inactive
New member. Nice forum.

I was shooting over the weekend, and that included my SIG P239 SAS (1st generation). After 4 mags, I started to have issues. Failures to feed. It happened with both magazines, sometimes while loading the first round, but also on other rounds in the magazine. I was shooting a box of Winchester white box ammo (target flat nosed bullets) I had purchased the day before at Gander Mountain. First few times it happened I tried smacking the back of the slide to help the slide go into battery, which did nothing to help. I had to eject the magazine and retract the slide to allow the round to drop out through the magazine well. I set the rounds aside until I noticed it had been six different rounds, so it wasn't a bad round or two. Examining the rounds showed no obvious issues. Taking the gun apart later to clean, I found no obvious issues with feed ramp or the chamber. I had just installed a Hogue grip on the gun, but I saw no sign that the grip was intefering with slide movement in any way.

I've never had this issue before with either ball or hollowpoint ammo, though I don't remember shooting flat nosed bullets before. I bought the gun used from a trusted friend, who had put less than 500 rounds through it, and my round count is also under 500.

Any suggestions or observations are appreciated.
 
It sounds like it just wont handle flat nosed ammo. Has the feed ramp ever been polished, etc., before? If there is a lip where the ramp and the barrel meet, the bullet could be hitting this, and jamming it up.
 
Well lubed. Didn't see any burrs on the breech face, and the ramps are smoth, thouhh I noticednthatbthe frame ramp and barrel ramp don't line up perfectly. Is that normal to have a slight gap? I just ran two mags of Golden Saber hollow points through hy hand (racking the slide) and had no issues.
 
Slight gap is normal.

If those are factory magazines and the lips are not damaged, then I suspect your gun doesn't like flat nose boolits.
 
Just checked the mags, which are factory SIG mags. No damage to the lips or the follower. Guess I'll need to watch the bullet profile of ammo from now on.

thanks.
 
The flat nose rounds are probably slightly shorter over all.
And the gun needs the longer length of the other types of ammo to function.
Just to see if that is the problem, if they are shorter, use an impact bullet puller to increase their length equal to the others and retry.
 
How many rounds since it's last cleaning, before the jamming? It might have just need the cleaning & lubing you just gave it. I'd try it again with the same ammo and see what happens. Good luck.
 
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