M&P Pro, 5" failure to feed

[PiratePast40]

Only a few hundred rounds down the pipe with the Apex CAEK installed. Did not install the striker spring. Shoots fine with Freedom Munitions 9mm HP but occasionally fails to feed with the 125 grain hollow points. Had the same issue with some HSM 115 grain FMJ rounds.

Taking it back out this afternoon to get better observations of when this happens. So far, I've disassembled all 5 of my magazines, and all springs and followers seem the same. No debris or oil inside the magazines so that is at least consistent. I'll mark the magazines to see if it's a random magazine issue or if one or two may be the culprits. I have inspected and cleaned the extractor hook, but there didn't seem to be any gunk in there anyway. In the last session, I was more interested in completing the practice string than investigating the cause so am afraid I didn't look as close as I should.

Anything else I should be looking for to narrow down the cause?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Edited October 24, 2013 by PiratePast40

[RWF]

recoil spring?

[bthoefer]

How is it failing to feed, can you describe the issue? Double feed, failure to go into battery, etc. What recoil spring are you running?

[PiratePast40]

Shot quite a few rounds yesterday afternoon. Freedom 124 and 115 HPs, Fiocchi 115, and Washougal River. All shot without hang ups except that the 124s hung up one time on a reload.

It's a failure to go into battery, not a double feed or failure to eject. Running the stock recoil spring.

The gun is still fairly new with only about 500 rounds through it. Ejection is now becoming more consistent, but during rapid fire, it occasionally just dribbles out brass instead of throwing it forcefully. I would think that a stronger recoil spring would exasperate the ejection issue.

Recoil springs in different weights seem to be readily available. Just not sure that I should go that route yet. I could install the Apex, reduced rate striker spring that came with the kit and see if that has an effect. Just concerned about reports of light strikes. Since I'm not rolling my own, maybe that's a non-issue.

Maybe I'm over thinking this, and it just needs more time to break in both the gun and the operator?

Any other ideas?

[Nghthwk1911]

So, when I run my Pro, I make sure the rails have a good lube on them, Nothing else gets lubed really, well I put some on the barrel jus to keep it smooth in the slide.

When I started a New Pro out of the box, No Oil to speak of I had this issue, a few drops of 5w-30 full synth oil and a way she went perfect every round.

[Bill Schwab]

I get failures to feed when my recoil spring and/or mag springs start to get weak. My M&P seems very fussy about spring strength.

[cyberzl1]

(hijacking this thread a little bit)

So you haven't had any issues with light strikes on Freedom Munitions ammo?

I bought a pile of their 115 gn. My fiances FS MP runs it pretty well, but still has some light strikes as well.

Frequency:

4.25 FS MP 9 - 1 in 20

5" MP Pro - 1 in 6

I have the CAEK in my Pro, with an Extra Strength striker spring. Her FS is stock.

I've pulled mine apart several times. Cleaned, lubed, etc. I can't seem to get it to work better. Swapped striker assemblies around, swapped parts with my MP40 Pro. I've run out of things to try.

Both run Magtech ammo flawlessly.

My HK runs the Freedom Munitions ammo just fine, but that's a heavy hammer fired pistol, FWIW.

To bring it back on topic, her FS had a few FTF issues, but I think that is mostly because she wasn't holding it strong enough and it was short cycling.

Any ideas?

[dnuke146]

So this is what happened to me with my production 5" pro and how I fixed it:

When I got it back from GS it had a 1lb 8oz trigger on it. 14lb RS and a reduced power striker spring, ran for a while.

Then, naturally in middle of a match were you don't stop to diagnose these things, light hits, first shot and after reload, I know what some of you are thinking and your right, but I'm not that quick so let me get there;). So I change the striker spring out with a Glock standard strength cause that's all we could scrounge up at match. More light hits, very light trigger pulls like it wasn't engaged, especially after reloads.... Ahhhh, I'm slow but I get it, the heavier striker spring just helped increase the problem, replaced the recoil spring with a captured Glock factory spring, popped it off the plastic Glock rod and put it on the Glock tungsten guide rod I have in my M&P that I took out of my G34, I'm slow and cheap BTW, Also the Glock spring won't fit over the M&P tungsten guide rod I had, go figure. And problem has been fixed ever since. I was knocking the slide out of battery when reloading with the weight of a loaded magazine. The light recoil spring was not always going into battery and the heavier striker spring just fights more against it going into battery. I have over 4k more through the gun with same spring setup with zero issues.

Still running a Glock striker spring and a factory Glock recoil spring and the gun runs flawless. The trigger pull went way up, it's now 1lb 10oz .

My story/suggestion isn't about running Glock springs in your M&P it's abut the fine line when running light springs and the balancing act when you start to play around with lighter this, heavier that. Definitely found in these guns, with springs at least, that each action....

Oh and btw if anyone is interested in a sub 2lb trigger on their Pro, with factory parts, other than just the Apex RAM, PM me I'll send you my guys contact info, he's got it down, I think he's still charging $100. I have two guns that he has done, as good as some of the light 1911 triggers I have. Oh, this is with all safeties still engaged, mine are on my production guns.

Doug

Edited October 28, 2013 by dnuke146

[PiratePast40]

Thanks for all the feedback and sharing your experiences. Haven't had any issues with light strikes. Yesterday, I had one failure to feed with 124g hollow points. The failure occurred on the third round of a standard sized magazine loaded with 10 rounds. The bullet hung up on the upper radius of the barrel breech. It appeared as though the bullet was too short to make the turn into the barrel from the feed ramp. I compared that magazine with all the others and could not tell any difference. I only had one box of that ammo with me so couldn't really test it much more. However, the ammo did feed OK in all of the other magazines. Ran another 150 -200 rounds of 115g FMJ through all magazines without any FTF's.

Unfortunately, this type of jam can't be fixed with a tap, rack, and bang. You have to actually pull the slide back to free the round. It is not captured by the extractor because it hasn't gone forward far enough.

Nghthwk 1911and Bill Schwab, were your FTF's like what I described or were they failure to go into battery?

To Bill Schwab, I lived in Lusby in the 80's while working at Calvert Cliffs. Rented a house at the Ranch Club for awhile and used that range quite a bit. Small world!

Edited November 8, 2013 by PiratePast40

[Bill Schwab]

Nghthwk 1911and Bill Schwab, were your FTF's like what I described or were they failure to go into battery?

To Bill Schwab, I lived in Lusby in the 80's while working at Calvert Cliffs. Rented a house at the Ranch Club for awhile and used that range quite a bit. Small world!

No, my FTF's were not like that at all. Every FTF I've had with this gun (approx 7k rounds through it now) have been where the round dips down in the mag and impacts too low on the feed ramp.

Small world indeed! I live in the Ranch Club, unfortunately the CRE range was closed down many years ago so I have to shoot at Sanner's Lake in St. Mary;s Cnty.

[Sarge]

Ever consider that your gun just doesn't like Hollow points? Many, many guns will only run round nose bullets 100% reliably. Nothing really wrong with the gun or the ammo as long as you don't mix them.

[PiratePast40]

Ever consider that your gun just doesn't like Hollow points? Many, many guns will only run round nose bullets 100% reliably. Nothing really wrong with the gun or the ammo as long as you don't mix them.

That thought had entered my mind. Just don't like it, since I have 1200 rounds of the hollow points. Yes, I know - sometimes reality bites!

Edited November 10, 2013 by PiratePast40