P-32 Ammo feed problem?

D

DonP

New member
I took my stepdaughter to the range this weekend for her first time shooting.

She's a little tiny thing (95 pounds with a couple of rolls of quarters in her pockets) and thin as a rail. I let her try my P-32 (good size for tiny hands) with a box of UMC hardball ammo I picked up at the range.

We had a lot of problems with the ammo failing to feed properly. The action would jam about a quarter inch from fully locking the slide forward. I had to push the slide forward and then it would fire fine and cycle properly for another ten or twelve rounds before jamming again. I'm trying to decide if it was the cheaper than average (reloaded?) ammo or if I had done a lousy job of maintaining the gun by not oiling and greasing it more often. I can't recall having this problem when I run my carry grade Silvertips through it.

Has anybody else had problems like this with their P-32? I'm really concerned because this is a personal protection piece.

Don P.

PS:
By the way, she loved shooting my Colt Government Pcketlite .380 and the Buckmark with the red dot. She already wants to know when we can go again. We have another convert to shooting, a 3rd year pre-med college girl at that! I can't wait till she gets into her next college dorm discussion on gun control or the 2nd amendment. I've gradually been giving her the whole story and the real facts. I just figure that every smart kid that we teach the facts to is going to make two or three other people think again about the BS that Sarah & Co. dishes out.

Sorry Sarah, you missed your chance to brainwash this one for good, Ha ha!
 
Nice story, Don!

It's always especially nice to hear a story about taking a daughter to the range.
Now, to your problem. How old is your P-32? There is a recoil spring upgrade. I called Kel-Tec to ask if there were any upgrades and they told me about the spring...plus, they sent me one for free. (K-T sends out a lot of free stuff.) Anyway, it's a much stronger spring. If you haven't already done it, I bet it would help fix the functioning of your P-32.
Loved the Pocketlite, eh? Some day you'll be buying her one!

Kentucky Rifle
 
Hey Don,
I think a lot of people who own the Kel-Tec p32 (myself included) would first advise you to stay away from reloaded ammo with the Kel-tec. I had some fte's with my p32. Then someone here reccommended this website:

http://www.goldenloki.com

Once I did the 'fluff and buff' as advised on the page, then following the lubrication reccommendations, the p32 has been flawless.

Another thing to keep in mind for someone who may purchase their p32, throw it in their glovebox or purse and forget about it - is that I personally believe the p32 needs a little more attention than that. By this I mean that the p32 is so small and it fits great in pockets, and a lot of places with lint, etc. In these conditions, the pistol needs to be taken out on a regular interval and cleaned and greased.

But anyway, check out that website. There are a lot of great answers there. You may also want to check out the Kel-tec owners group website at http://www.ktog.org

Good luck
tman
 
T Mans says:
Another thing to keep in mind for someone who may purchase their p32, throw it in their glovebox or purse and forget about it - is that I personally believe the p32 needs a little more attention than that. By this I mean that the p32 is so small and it fits great in pockets, and a lot of places with lint, etc. In these conditions, the pistol needs to be taken out on a regular interval and cleaned and greased.
Click to expand...

What do you use on yours? I used to use Browning Oil but have switched to Super Lube (with Teflon),scrub a while with a toothbrush then wipe off the excess. I did the F&B thing, but it didn't seem to matter, 'cause the model IV doesn't seem to have any problems.

My wife has one in the pastel ivory color and she uses liquid Comet bathroom cleaner spray to keep the plastic parts bright (from time to time as we don't know what prolinged use would do to it). We never F&B'd hers but it makes no difference in the function.
 
I'm thinking that perhaps limpwristing may have contributed to some of the problems. A lightweight gun like the P-32 has to be held firmly & maybe your stepdaughter wasn't holding it firmly enough. Make sure the slide rails and hammer slide interface is lightly greased, that can cause problems with some P-32s if they are if they are not.
 
Don:

A lot of problems with functioning are caused by the Remington UMC ammo itself, it's the lowest powered stuff out there. See Golden Loki's website and you'll see how slow it is compared to the others he tested. As I recall it's aound 750 fps?

Folks complain to us all the time about this ammo they buy at WalMart and bring to our range to shoot. Try another brand of FMJ ammo for practice, KT's just don't seem to tolerate it well, at least in my experience. It's not bad ammo, just weak.

Make sure you put some grease on your slide rails, hammer, and around the barrel - slide lockup area. I like RIG +P stainless grease myself.

Hope this helps.
 
Besides a recoil spring upgrade, I also upgraded my magazine spring.
I had to smooth the chamber on my P32 with a pencil wrapped with sandpaper in my drill press. The chamber was ROUGH allowing the casings to catch.
 
MeekandMild:

- sorry for the slow response - I haven't been following this post. I think the best thing for a failure to feed with the Keltec is polishing the feed ramp. Goldenloki has some good grease reccommendations. I think I use 'Gunslick' grease on the rails and the hammer/slide interface. This was all new to me, also - I had always been an 'oil only' kind of guy. But they feel pretty strongly that the grease really helps. I actually think your biggest problem may be ammo. Try Fiochhi (sp?). That seems to work best with the p32 -although winchester white box 71 gr ball ammo works great in mine.

If all else fails, every kel-tec has a lifetime warrany - send it back to them and let them take care of you.

- Good luck - let us know how it goes.

tman
 
t-man, thanks for the info about 'Gunslick' grease. I'll see about trying it.

I must have been unclear about my language though, 'cause I've experiance no problems at all with either p32, the one I F&B'd and the one I didn't. I was just ax'in the question about grease.:)

BTW, I do use Fiocci, a really great little hardball.
 
One other factor must be mentioned - rim lock. The 32 ACP is not rimless. The rim sticks out beyond the casing and depending on the brand, the rim on one shell will lock with the next shell. UMC is one of the worst for this. Fiocchi has a gentler slope behind the rim and rarely-if ever (I have never had a aproblem) has a problem with rim lock. Hollow points are very prone to rim lock as the overall length is shorter and will move about and thus give you rim lock. In my P-32 I put a hollow point in the chamber and all Fiocchi FMJ's in the mag.

Depending on the gun and ammo, rim lock may not fully "lock" but cause enough resistance to loading the next shell to prevent the slide from seating fully. Get good ammo. Fiocchi costs more than UMC, etc. but it works and works well!
 
I have two P-32's, and I can highly recommend several things you can do to make yours function flawlessly (as mine do):

1. "Fluff & buff"--polish all frictional parts, including recoil springs, magazine spring, and magazine follower.

2. Replace the stock 9 lb. recoil springs with Wolff 13 lb. springs.

3. Replace the magazine spring with Wolff +10% spring.

4. Clean and lube it thoroughly after each trip to the range (or creek).

5. Grease the rails; oil all other parts--I like MiliTech 1.

6. Don't limpwrist! These guns are s-o-o-o-o light, and they need a stable force to cycle and reload against.

Hope this helps.
 
Update on my wife's non fluffed and buffed p32:

1)I convinced her to stop using the bathroom cleaner on the plastic parts, with a plea that it might contain chlorine which would hurt the metal.

2)I drove about 15 miles out of the way to pick up a box of UMC for her to test to see if it would jam. There was one failure to feed and 2 failure to eject in a box of 50, but she's never had any problems with any other brand.

3)At her insistance I polished the feed ramp. But keep in mind this is a 43xxx so the factory has been prepolishing them better than the early ones.
 
Thanks for all the advice

Thanks for all the feedback.

I did the F & B on it before we took it to the range so I knew that wasn't the problem. But I took the '32 to the range a couple of days ago and ran two boxes of Silvertips through it. Not one FTF or FTC in 100 rounds! I feel a lot better about using it as a carry piece again. With the Hedley pocket holster (with the backing panel) it fits perfectly in my suitcoat pocket where I would normally carry my wallet.

I have yet to have anyone able to tell I was carrying, including my wife when we recently moved the older daughter back to college. It wasn't a very "nice" neighborhood and she mentioned to me half way through unloading boxes from the truck that she wished I had brought "something" along with me. I asked her how she knew I wasn't carrying and I even offered to let her pat me down several times, for the fun of it! On the way home she told me she was glad I had brought the P-32 along.

Not bad for a lady that was pretty "anti" when I met her.

I think my stepdaughters FTE and FTC problem was cheap ammo, a weak wrist and the need for grease instead of oil on the rails. Next time I take her I'll work on having her hold her wrist locked.

Thanks again guys.

Don P.
 
I've had trouble (FTF) every time I've used UMC ammo in my P32.
I stopped using it and stopped having problems as soon as I did.
Daddycat
 
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