A Steyr M40 that I purchased a few months ago had its serial number starting with 001. I absolutely loved the way this pistol shot; however, I experienced:
A. frequent (every 6 or 7 rounds) misfires;
B. ejected brass leaving marks on the slide;
C. the mags wouldn't go in smoothly as if something was stopping them half way through;
The correction of the problems B and C was, of course, up to the GSI gunsmith. The misfiring, on the other hand, had to be more or less described to him first. After very carefully analyzing the problem, I came to a conclusion their cause could have been one of the following being faulty:
1. ammo -- CCI Blazer 180 gr and Speer Lawman 165 gr
2. the firing pin
3. positioning of each round -- it may sound strange, but most of the misfired cases had a light indentation off its center whereas all the normally fired cases had a deep indentation dead in center
I immediately ruled out the ammo. I regularly practice with these brands, and other pistols I own have NEVER experienced misfires. So, it was either 2 or 3.
Thus, I send the pistol to GSI with a letter of the problems' descriptions. It came back in about a week, and I took it to the range as soon as I could.
Once there, I found out the ejected-brass-scratching-the-slide issue remained despite that GSI modified the pistol's ejection port. Apparently, at least in my case, it didn't make any difference whatsoever. I decided to let it go since to be truthful, it hadn't bothered my shooting that much in the first place.
They corrected the problem with the magazine catch which functioned flawlessly now.
The misfiring remained. It occurred less frequently but enough for me to be concerned. I seriously planned to make this gun my CCW for colder months and couldn't afford such an obvious malfunction.
As a result, I contacted the company one more time and spoke to Herbert Wohlmuth (a very courteous guy, BTW). He told me to send the pistol to them again, but this time he was going to replace it for a new one. He said a new shipment from Austria was suppose to arrive soon, so one of them would be my new replacement.
I send the gun on January the 27th; it came back last week. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not complaining because the shipment was really badly delayed (work of the #*&%$@& liberals, perhaps?).
My new Steyr M40 has the serial number starting with 005 and its ejection port modified. More specifically, one of its edges as well as all the corners are cut out at 45 degrees. Both mags go in very smoothly with no stoppages along the way. I could hardly wait to take this puppy to a range the very next day.
Out of 250 rounds of CCI Blazers 165 gr TMJ, I experienced 5 misfires. All had exactly the same profile as before. That, of course, upset me enormously until I suddenly noticed a single detail which explained everything. It was, most likely, the cause of all the misfires with my first Steyr, but I simply didn't pay enough attention to notice it. Who would have thought?..
For all of you guys who own Steyr M-series pistol -- with a round in the chamber and the gun, of course, "cocked" (can't really call it like that with Steyr and Glocks, or can I?) and ready to fire, try to pull the slide backward just a little bit, not even enough for the ejection port to open. If you had the same frustrating misfiring problem and unless the real cause of yours is something completely different altogether, you'll be surprised to discover that the slide ... will stay in that position. The recoil spring simply doesn't have enough strength to counteract the firing pin spring which, when the striker's "cocked", acts in the exactly opposite direction, that is, pulling the slide backwards.
It won't happen with an empty chamber. Apparently, even a little resistance of a round being inside and rubbing against the breech face, feeding ramp, and extractor is JUST ENOUGH to even both springs' forces and keep the slide NOT to go into full battery.
Apparently, it's enough for the slide to stick backwards as little as roughly 1/8 of an inch for the pistol to misfire.
When you pull the trigger in this situation, the slide will move forward into full battery first (you won't hear it at a range, or like in my case, may not see it due to deem light) and then make this weak "click" so typical of a regular healthy misfire. Disgusting.
Another package to GSI? I decided to discuss it with a local gunsmith first. What could be done to make each round create less resistance once in the chamber? The breech face on my Steyr is as polished as it can be, so that's out. The feeding ramp? BTW, it's my strong opinion that the Steyr barrel are THE most sturdily constructed, finely machined, and thick-walled I've seen in any pistol. Their feeding ramps are extremely smooth already.
Which brought us to this freaking loaded-chamber indicator gizmo. In a nick of time, its pin that normally protruded from the breech face was filed off, I and tested the pistol one more time. 100 rounds -- 1 misfire. Down to 1 %. Still not satisfied.
The gunsmith did some file job on the extractor after that which was the last thing to try (my other hypothetical thought, of course, might have been "making" the chamber unsupported, but to be honest, I got my Steyr to avoid buying a Glock). I went to a range tonight and shot 200 rounds. One misfire. We're getting better.
Sorry for the long post guys, but I just thought any additional piece of info would be useful for all the owners of this new weapon.
I'm definitely sticking with this gun. You want to know why? At the range today, I did something I'd long thought incapable of doing -- less than 2 inches at 25 yards. What a feeling!
That's all for now, but I'll keep you posted. .
[This message has been edited by Emin (edited March 09, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Emin (edited March 09, 2000).]
A. frequent (every 6 or 7 rounds) misfires;
B. ejected brass leaving marks on the slide;
C. the mags wouldn't go in smoothly as if something was stopping them half way through;
The correction of the problems B and C was, of course, up to the GSI gunsmith. The misfiring, on the other hand, had to be more or less described to him first. After very carefully analyzing the problem, I came to a conclusion their cause could have been one of the following being faulty:
1. ammo -- CCI Blazer 180 gr and Speer Lawman 165 gr
2. the firing pin
3. positioning of each round -- it may sound strange, but most of the misfired cases had a light indentation off its center whereas all the normally fired cases had a deep indentation dead in center
I immediately ruled out the ammo. I regularly practice with these brands, and other pistols I own have NEVER experienced misfires. So, it was either 2 or 3.
Thus, I send the pistol to GSI with a letter of the problems' descriptions. It came back in about a week, and I took it to the range as soon as I could.
Once there, I found out the ejected-brass-scratching-the-slide issue remained despite that GSI modified the pistol's ejection port. Apparently, at least in my case, it didn't make any difference whatsoever. I decided to let it go since to be truthful, it hadn't bothered my shooting that much in the first place.
They corrected the problem with the magazine catch which functioned flawlessly now.
The misfiring remained. It occurred less frequently but enough for me to be concerned. I seriously planned to make this gun my CCW for colder months and couldn't afford such an obvious malfunction.
As a result, I contacted the company one more time and spoke to Herbert Wohlmuth (a very courteous guy, BTW). He told me to send the pistol to them again, but this time he was going to replace it for a new one. He said a new shipment from Austria was suppose to arrive soon, so one of them would be my new replacement.
I send the gun on January the 27th; it came back last week. Don't get me wrong -- I'm not complaining because the shipment was really badly delayed (work of the #*&%$@& liberals, perhaps?).
My new Steyr M40 has the serial number starting with 005 and its ejection port modified. More specifically, one of its edges as well as all the corners are cut out at 45 degrees. Both mags go in very smoothly with no stoppages along the way. I could hardly wait to take this puppy to a range the very next day.
Out of 250 rounds of CCI Blazers 165 gr TMJ, I experienced 5 misfires. All had exactly the same profile as before. That, of course, upset me enormously until I suddenly noticed a single detail which explained everything. It was, most likely, the cause of all the misfires with my first Steyr, but I simply didn't pay enough attention to notice it. Who would have thought?..
For all of you guys who own Steyr M-series pistol -- with a round in the chamber and the gun, of course, "cocked" (can't really call it like that with Steyr and Glocks, or can I?) and ready to fire, try to pull the slide backward just a little bit, not even enough for the ejection port to open. If you had the same frustrating misfiring problem and unless the real cause of yours is something completely different altogether, you'll be surprised to discover that the slide ... will stay in that position. The recoil spring simply doesn't have enough strength to counteract the firing pin spring which, when the striker's "cocked", acts in the exactly opposite direction, that is, pulling the slide backwards.
It won't happen with an empty chamber. Apparently, even a little resistance of a round being inside and rubbing against the breech face, feeding ramp, and extractor is JUST ENOUGH to even both springs' forces and keep the slide NOT to go into full battery.
Apparently, it's enough for the slide to stick backwards as little as roughly 1/8 of an inch for the pistol to misfire.
When you pull the trigger in this situation, the slide will move forward into full battery first (you won't hear it at a range, or like in my case, may not see it due to deem light) and then make this weak "click" so typical of a regular healthy misfire. Disgusting.
Another package to GSI? I decided to discuss it with a local gunsmith first. What could be done to make each round create less resistance once in the chamber? The breech face on my Steyr is as polished as it can be, so that's out. The feeding ramp? BTW, it's my strong opinion that the Steyr barrel are THE most sturdily constructed, finely machined, and thick-walled I've seen in any pistol. Their feeding ramps are extremely smooth already.
Which brought us to this freaking loaded-chamber indicator gizmo. In a nick of time, its pin that normally protruded from the breech face was filed off, I and tested the pistol one more time. 100 rounds -- 1 misfire. Down to 1 %. Still not satisfied.
The gunsmith did some file job on the extractor after that which was the last thing to try (my other hypothetical thought, of course, might have been "making" the chamber unsupported, but to be honest, I got my Steyr to avoid buying a Glock). I went to a range tonight and shot 200 rounds. One misfire. We're getting better.
Sorry for the long post guys, but I just thought any additional piece of info would be useful for all the owners of this new weapon.
I'm definitely sticking with this gun. You want to know why? At the range today, I did something I'd long thought incapable of doing -- less than 2 inches at 25 yards. What a feeling!
That's all for now, but I'll keep you posted. .
[This message has been edited by Emin (edited March 09, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Emin (edited March 09, 2000).]