New range trip - and it's not all good:

[Viking]

I went back to the shooting range with my S&W Stainless yesterday.
I got 100 rounds of range ammo, they wouldn't allow my Remington UMC, so I bought some Federal 230gr (at 16.95 pr 50, exact designation unknown. Red boxes...)

After the previous range session, I made my best effort to clean and lube it, and I think it was perty clean in the obvious places.

I started getting feeding failures at around 40 rounds, the round would not enter the chamber properly, and the slide was about 5-7 mm (I don't do inches and fractions) away from fully closed.
A small tug on the slide, and the round would click in place and the slide would close up. Click in place as in "jumping up and getting trapped by the extractor claw" kind of thing.
This started happening quite frequently. In one magazine (5 rounds) I had 3 out of 5 rounds malfunction. :butthead:

This of course put a damper on my enthusiasm.

I got home, disassembled and cleaned. To the best of my abilities...
The frame feed ramp is completely smooth. I cannot detect any grooves or nicks with my fingers. The breech is smooth, there are some nooks and crannies on the breech that are hard to reach with a cloth patch or Q-tips. The breech itself look smooth, there was a little fouling above the circular area where the bottom of the cartridge rests against the breech face.

I do not have any pictures to illustrate at this point.

So I'm tapping into the vast body of experience here, both 1911 in general and S&W in particular, hoping for some diagnostic ideas.

Knut :confused:

[John]

Too young a pistol to diagnoze a problem. Keep shooting it and see how the failure rate goes. Keep us posted.

[BrianNJ]

If I had to take a guess at this stage, I'd say maybe try different magazines. I believe S&W ships with Act mags which work real well for me but you may want to try different ones. Otherwise, as John says, just keep trying it out. It is rather new and not broken in.

[hawkpilot]

I have the same pistol and it came with 8 rd Wilson Combat magazines.

Viking, I wish I could help, but I didn't experience any problems at all with mine. I hope you get it sorted out.

[warmrain]

Be sure to clean well with a brush under the extractor claw. And the keep breaking in with hardball. Yes, try different magazines, but mark them and keep a notebook with detailed failure (and success) notes so you can later go back and spot a trend (hopefully a trend of improvement).

If things improve then continued wear-in is warranted. If not then you have to consider sending it back for repair...

[stans]

Could be stem bind. As the round enters the chamber it wedges against a sharp edge where the chamber transitions to the barrel feed ramp. Could also be an overly tight or dirty extractor.

[zork51]

I've got a Pd coming and will have to learn to clean it!!

I've only cleaned some Sigs and revolvers.

Just a thought,

How did the gun fire BEFORE your first cleaning? It if was much better before hand, could it be too much lube somewhere or something not back together quite the same?

If that isn't part of the answer, could you go back to your dealer/gunsmith and watch them breakdown and clean and see how it fires after that?

I rented an Sc this past May and it was flawless, but I'm sure well broken in...

I will be curious to know what you find out.

[Viking]

Went back to the range, with 200 rounds of WWB from Wal-Mart.
Loaded both magazines with 8 rounds, fired semi-slow at 25ft.
Repeated until all ammo was gone

Not a single hiccup. No failures of any kind, feed/extract/eject, no issues.
Slide locked back on empty every time.

Appears to shoot a little bit to the left, confirmed by a better shooter than me...

Hoppes #9 and CLP spray afterwards.

All is good.
Trigger now needs work.
I need a new holster, and get shooting in IDPA or sumpin'

[ccwnow]

IDPA is good. :)

[zork51]

A very experienced shooter brought me as a guest to an indoor range after I picked up my gun on Saturday.

Made friends with him on Packing.org. He has a set of nite sites on a Glock .45, the XS Big Dot that he let me try after I posted asking questions about them. This guys shoots very well.

He is somewhat of a behemoth. Everything he has is Arnold size..He let me shoot his Smith 500 Performance Center Gun. It's on the cover of the 2005 Smith Catalog. HOLY S........................ It's like a depth carge and bonfire all in one. IT'S HIS CARRY GUN.

His pic used to be the feature picture for LTC on Packing.org for Mass.

Anyway, I shot my gun and it shot to the left. He shot it and also had it to shoot to the left.

I went back out yesterday myself at my outdoor shooting range/club. Again to the left around 9 o'clock.

I will be putting other sites on at some point but am considering getting someone with a sight pusher to tweak it for me.......

Seems like it could be an issue??

[TERMINATOR]

Hello Viking...the guys are so right...it takes time and patience to figure out the failure. The majority of pistols that I have all have their preferences, and are somewhat forgiving...however they generally have something they don't like...a magazine, or amount of lube...or bullet type...but if you have the patience and fortitude, you can turn a tempermental piece into a "keeper"...you just gotta keep your cool, and remember...It ain't a perfect world, but it can be modified as needed....most of the time...Good Luck on your quest...you will learn to appreciate the S&W...I do, and my others as well.....

[dimitri]

Anyway, I shot my gun and it shot to the left. He shot it and also had it to shoot to the left.

I went back out yesterday myself at my outdoor shooting range/club. Again to the left around 9 o'clock.

I will be putting other sites on at some point but am considering getting someone with a sight pusher to tweak it for me.......

Seems like it could be an issue??

Zork51,

My 1911 from SW came with it's sights messed up. The front sight was way off center and the rear was slightly off. I sent it off to SW and had it back in a few days (maybe because I'm in Mass?). It now shoots really nicely. Their customer service is really good. It was totally painless.

Good luck!

[zork51]

I'm in Mass. too.......Just might take a ride out there and see if they will do it same day. OR maybe get some new sights and have gunsmith do it. I don't think Smith installs anyone else's sights.

I do pretty well outdoor with the 3 dot, but when I was at the indoor range as a guest I had a hard time picking up the sights. Inside the stall it's very low light.

However, I wear glasses for distance. So I suppose the smart thing to do would be to try without glasses....DUH

The XS Big Dot wasn't all that bright for me at the indoor range either. I was expecting this glowing beacon like some science fiction movie. My trijicons are great in total darkness, but also very hard to pick up in low light. If they only had a brighter slightly bigger white ring around the tritium.

I think I'm just getting old. LOL

I really do like the gun however. I had 2 FTF's but it was cus of limp wristing. The guy who brought me is a pro, and showed me a much better grip with my other hand. NO problems after that.

I was thinking about getting the SS Sc also. I must be outta my mind....

I"m hooked.