We were shooting our Sig P238 today and randomly the slide wouldn't go all the way forward. This happened a few times in the first 100 rounds of factory ammo but was a little worse today when I was shooting hand loads. It would stop short about 1/16 of an inch and the gun wouldn't fire but it could be easily pushed forward and then the gun would fire. The gun would then work fine for a while and then do it again. It was an extremely hot day and the gun was getting dirty. I originally used grease on the slide and wonder if I may have gotten too much on it. The handholds were the correct overall length but perhaps there was a crimp issue. It is a very accurate gun, especially with these hand loads. Any ideas?
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Sig 9238 slide issue.
- Thread starter AL45
- Start date
I use oil, rather than grease but opinions vary. Stay away from Remoil and Breakfree CLP (as the lubricant on the rails). There are a number of good gun oils to lubricate the pistol, like Militec-1, FP-10, and Weapon Shield. I use Mobil 1 5W-30 full synthetic motor oil and think it's great.
a friend of mine has a 238 and the same thing you described happened with less than 100 rds of factory ammo. The cause was dirty ammo, his gun was clean when we started and so dirty after a few mags worth the slide was gritty to operate and hardly go to battery even without a magazine inserted or feeding a round. I was surprised to learn dirty ammo can gum up a gun so quickly but these are tiny guns it makes sense we only use US made ammo now.
The first fifty rounds were Winchester, the second fifty were Remington. We had fewer problems with the Remington. I then shot four test loads, consisting of 20 rounds, using a 95 grain RN cast lead using Red Dot, Bullseye, Power Pistol and Blue Dot. The last 100 were my own hand loads which was a 95 grain RN cast lead, Blue Dot powder and Winchester primer. It was an accurate load, but perhaps too dirty.
well interesting, doesn’t Winchester have a reputation for dirty ammo? I thought I heard their "white box" does but have never used any yet. From your reply it sounds like the problem started with the first 50 rds, even if the rest was clean the fouling wont shoot itself clean.
I only use jacketed handloads for all except 45ACP. Lead fouling and cycling issues are probable problems. 9mm pistols are commonly compact or sub-compact tactical arms that need a good deal of ME to cycle properly IMO. Powder fouling shouldn't cause cycling issue for at least several hundred rounds.
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