Svi Grips Cracking

[GASMAN]

I have a SVI 38S racegun,in which the grips cracked after 3K.In a fairly typical spot,on the right side at the mag release hole at the 2 o clock position,and also at the front edge of the checkering of the grip on the right.I put it down to bad luck,ordered another grip,and after another 2K,the same cracks appeared !.Now I didnt want to be spending $120 every few thousand rounds getting a new grip,so Ive just left it as is,and after another few thousand rounds,the gun still functions fine.

Strangely enough,on my previous gun,which was set up almost in the same way,I had 40K through it with the same grip,never a problem,and the only difference is that on the old gun,I shot exclusively 124gr bullets,while on the new one I shoot only 115gr.Im wondering if the 115 gr bullets are harder on the gun,subjecting the grips to more forces?Both rounds were loaded to a PF of 167.

Has anyone had the same experience?is there any company that repairs this problem?any ideas whether SVI would replace a grip such as this?

[MikeFoley]

Are you loading rounds in the magazine until it is static? If so, seating them may be putting excessive force on the grip at its weakest point.

[EricW]

Don't practice your reloads with empty mags. Make up some dummy rounds and use loaded mags. Empty mags have nothing to slow them down but the mag catch, which is why your grips are breaking in that location.

[EricW]

Also, what color grip are you using? Black is the strongest of the colors.

[ErikW]

Do a search on crack or cracked, by username Nolan. I think he had this problem repeatedly and solved it.

[Carlos]

Problem seems worst with contoured & undercut grips. Any modification to your gripframe?

[GASMAN]

Thanks for the replies,lots of food for thought.Practicing reloads with empty mags certainly makes sense as to cracking in that location

My grip is a standard,unmodified grip

[diehli]

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...ic=9881&hl=grip

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...ic=7869&hl=grip

[dvc40jim]

I get a lot more calls about cracked grips with the new short guns, and lighter bullets seem to also be part of the equation.

If one particular gun cracks the second grip, and nothing is diff. in the way you practice, clean or shoot... it's likely that something is slightly off center. Even molded parts, or machined parts come out diff. from batch to batch and from one frame to the next.

Having done hundreds of grip reductions, undercuts, double undercuts and re-contours... without a doubt that work if done correctly is not part of the problem. I see far more cracked factory stock grips than anything else.

Also to note is the majority of cracked grips I encounter are from incorrect assembly and dis-assembly than anything else. But we have fixed dozens of cracked grips of all sorts, no problem and after 5 years in the grip game and hundreds of customers, I have yet to have one call me about a cracked or failed grip.

[Harmon]

how many rounds you load in your mags?

[.40AET]

Before you do anything email SVI (info@sviguns.com) and ask them what they recomend you do remedy the problem. They have an unbelievable warranty! SVI has offered to fix or replace any of the things that have broken on my limited gun.

Good luck.

[Greg G]

I'm not sure if this is applicable to your situation but it seems the later STI mag releases are square on the bottom instead of beveled and as a result if you slam the mag in empty or simply hard enough then you will be hammering the mag release against the frame each time.

I had problems with mags dropping out of my pistol while shooting and beveled the lower edge of the mag release where it engages the notch in the mag to resolve it. What I have noticed is the mags now hit the disconnector rail when I load them empty, this has resulted in some minor marks on the mags but it does not affect the function of the pistol.

If I lock the slide back and push the mag in as far as it can go the mag release moves out slightly after it has engaged the notch as the bottom edge of the notch pushes on the bevel slightly. I would be happy to post a picture of the mag release if it will help at all. Might stop you ruining grips but no guarantee on the mags, although I I have shot my pistol like this for 18 months and had no problems.

[GASMAN]

Thanks for all the helpful info,thanks 300lb gorilla for those links.This forum is great for getting good advice from people who obviously have insight

Im up here in Canada,and as such can only load 10 rds into a mag,some of the posts got me thinking that,unlike inserting a fully loaded mag,which being fully compressed and absorbing a lot of the impact on the top round,a partially loaded mag still has a long way to be fully compressed and thus impact would be transferred to the mag release and the grip,and it seems reasonable that a crack would develop.Also remember,that due to these weird laws we end up doing a lot more reloads during a match compared to you US guys!

[Brazos Custom]

STI mag catches are all beveled on the bottom now. The square edge was supposed to stop the magazine from being over inserted but it was also causing magazines to drop sometimes during recoil.

Here is a picture of the bevel:

Mag catch bevel