Para Todd Jarrett 40 misfeeds

[HSMITH]

Nose dives sound like what is happening most. A couple things cause nosedives, dirty or sticky magazines are one. Pull the mags apart, clean them out with brake cleaner and a brush, and make sure they are spotless and dry. Nose low presentation to the barrel ramp is another one, this is a tuning issue and may be beyond the average shooters ability to correct so try a few more mags. Low slide speed, this ties into lubrication and possibly a short stroke. If you have a buffer in the gun take it out. Get the gun good and wet with a decent oil, no grease right now. A low presentation of the round to the slide and barrrel ramp is another cause and is something most shooters should not try to address, instead try to find a few more mags and try them. Over springing is another cause, try shooting it with a DEATH GRIP crushing the frame and not letting the front sight rise at all. Who cares if you hit anything, just grip it to death and see if it runs. If it does, drop the spring rate about 4 pounds and try again with a normal grip.

It also sounds like you are getting 3 point jams at least part of the time. Usually this is a dirty extractor tunnel on a traditional 1911 type system, but some of the Para's have the Power Extractor. If your gun has a traditional internal extractor I can help, if it has a Power Extractor you will need to send it in until it works.

Depending on how much you want to mess with this thing we can keep trying to help, well some of us anyway, or you can just send it back with a courteous but firm letter describing how it fails and requesting it be fixed. For the price of a TJ Para I don't think I would mess with it much....

[38superman]

Perhaps I'm just a little too demanding but I feel that any respectable firearms manufacturer should be able to produce a handgun and magazines that run.

If the gun and mags that are well designed and manufactured, there is no excuse for a ninety percent failure rate with any SAAMI compliant ammo.

Especially a high end gun that costs that much.

That little rant off my chest, the first thing I would look at is the magazines.

They are stamped and formed sheet metal and are often not manufactured to very consistent tolerances.

If they were, people like Beven Grams wouldn't have gotten so many of my hard earned dollars for mag tuning.

If mag is notched a little too high, the mag release will catch it and allow it to hang too low in the mag well.

The bullet is not up high enough when presented for chambering and the result is a mis-feed.

The bullet shape will have an impact on how bad the mis-feed is, but the mag is often the root cause.

Make sure you eliminate this as a possible issue before you start tinkering with extractors and such.

Tony

[Joe4d]

100% agree Tony, since original poster replied that he was using American factory ammo I say send it back. The reason we have guns that dont run out of the box is because we keep buying guns that dont run and then take them to a gunsmith to "Tune" there is no disadvantage for a manufacturer not to have perfect or nearly perfect QC. It amazes me people will put up with this with firearms but not any other product on the market. If this was a toaster it woulda been back at walmart faster than a deported Mexican.

[steel1212]

What I had problems with was the extractor and ramp. The power extractor is just that POWERful. It needs a bevel on the bottom to let the rounds come up under it. Second thing was work the feed ramp so that the bullets come into the chamber more than going towards the top of it.

Personal opinion, if I paid big money for Para's top of the line gun and it was giving me fits with factory rounds I would send the mother back. I got the 800$ limited model and expected to do some tweeking. The TJ model should be all tweeked IMHO.

[MagicTH]

What I had problems with was the extractor and ramp. The power extractor is just that POWERful. It needs a bevel on the bottom to let the rounds come up under it. Second thing was work the feed ramp so that the bullets come into the chamber more than going towards the top of it.

Personal opinion, if I paid big money for Para's top of the line gun and it was giving me fits with factory rounds I would send the mother back. I got the 800$ limited model and expected to do some tweeking. The TJ model should be all tweeked IMHO.

Absolutely agree. Paid extra $$$ for an already tuned up gun. An experienced Para shooter was at the match today and he looked at the gun. The Ejector was VERY rough. The factory spring was very heavy. Jack put in a 16# spring and we tried it with his ammo, then the Winchester I bought. Ran very smoothly. Slide works much better with the 16# spring. I did not use it in the match because of the ejector which needs replacing in Jack's opinion.

[Merlin Orr]

If you want a tweaked gun buy from a gunsmith. A "special big name shooter" model gun is special in the sense that it has a "special big name shooter" name on it. Not that it is hand built...

[SA Friday]

Magic, talk to Steve Moore. He lives in the Denver area, is a gunsmith, and is a USPSA shooter. He's at almost every Aurora match, and many of the others. He is the go-to guy for the 1911-2011 frame gunsmithing around there. He's built a lot of the local shooters guns too.

If you have problems getting his contact info, PM me and I'll pass it along to you.

[Gregory_k]

Does it have all the right parts in it? I saw one TJ model right from para with a commander length recoil spring in it. Even with the right recoil spring the gun would not feed AE 180gr 40.

[mjbine]

I was never able to shoot any factory loads. I had to load 1.168 oal in order to get the para to run correctly. Once I did that it was good to go!

[MagicTH]

Does it have all the right parts in it? I saw one TJ model right from para with a commander length recoil spring in it. Even with the right recoil spring the gun would not feed AE 180gr 40.

Nice

The spring that was in it was very stiff. I tried a lighter spring from another Para shooter and it worked fine. I took the gun to Steve Moore yesterday and he agreed. This makes sense especially with the one box that was really not working since those were much lighter loads (160 pf). Extractor seems fine. Ejector became damaged apparently from the miss-feeds. Replacing ejector and getting several lighter springs to see which ones work the best.

I was never able to shoot any factory loads. I had to load 1.168 oal in order to get the para to run correctly. Once I did that it was good to go!

Steve also said Para's like longer OAL and suggest 1.2 versus the typical factory load of 1.125.

Thanks to all for the tips!

[mjbine]

Does it have all the right parts in it? I saw one TJ model right from para with a commander length recoil spring in it. Even with the right recoil spring the gun would not feed AE 180gr 40.

Nice

The spring that was in it was very stiff. I tried a lighter spring from another Para shooter and it worked fine. I took the gun to Steve Moore yesterday and he agreed. This makes sense especially with the one box that was really not working since those were much lighter loads (160 pf). Extractor seems fine. Ejector became damaged apparently from the miss-feeds. Replacing ejector and getting several lighter springs to see which ones work the best.

I was never able to shoot any factory loads. I had to load 1.168 oal in order to get the para to run correctly. Once I did that it was good to go!

Steve also said Para's like longer OAL and suggest 1.2 versus the typical factory load of 1.125.

Thanks to all for the tips!

Be sure to check the free bore in your para before you load out to 1.2. If you don't have the free bore to load to 1.2, then headspace will be incorrect and you could have an AD while going into battery. Better to be safe than sorry.

[MagicTH]

Be sure to check the free bore in your para before you load out to 1.2. If you don't have the free bore to load to 1.2, then headspace will be incorrect and you could have an AD while going into battery. Better to be safe than sorry.

Will do. Thanks.

[steel1212]

If you want a tweaked gun buy from a gunsmith. A "special big name shooter" model gun is special in the sense that it has a "special big name shooter" name on it. Not that it is hand built...

It may not be hand built but if they are going to charge 600$ over thier base target model P16 it had better run out of the box at least!

[JFD]

I'm betting on the stupid extractor being the problem. The power extractor is something I plan to avoid.

My older Para feeds anything at all, no matter what the length (factory to 1.200"). I've got 16 mags and haven't had to tune a single one of them. I would expect you to have trouble getting 20/21 rounds in new mags (with extensions) due to the crap springs Para has started using, but they should be good for 16 rounds factory/19 rounds extended.

[benny hill]

O.K. now for the fix. Open the feed lips up to .390, install ISMI springs, radis the bottom edge of the extractor, polish pamp & chamber to a morror shine, polish breach face & presto, it will run anything.

[benny hill]

Almost forgot, install a 12# ISMI recoil spring.

[Sgtsvi]

One of my buddies has one of these guns (that I sold him) that has mag problems. You cant fill the mags with dawson base pads because it allows the follower to go past the indentions and bind up the mag. He called Para and they told him to put the factory base pad on the gun and it will work fine. I talked to TJ about the gun after he finished his last stage at the nats and he told me he uses Arrendondo followers with Dawson bp's. He polishes the inside of the base pads and loads his ammo to 1.185.

I thought I would pass this on to you guys with the P16's in case you have mag issues.

[NetJunkie]

Extractor problem. My new 2011 had the same problem. Round would chamber about half way but jam at about a 15 degree angle. I could easily rechamber the round.

For those saying go get a nice tuned gun the one above with the problem was a brand new Brazos Custom. It would jam on every 4th or 5th round whether it was Atlanta Ammo or Winchester white box. I put 500 rounds through it to break it in.

Sometimes things happen. Bob fixed mine quickly and it seems to be resolved. If one of his guns can have the problem anyone else sure can. Just have them fix it.

[MagicTH]

One of my buddies has one of these guns (that I sold him) that has mag problems. You cant fill the mags with dawson base pads because it allows the follower to go past the indentions and bind up the mag. He called Para and they told him to put the factory base pad on the gun and it will work fine. I talked to TJ about the gun after he finished his last stage at the nats and he told me he uses Arrendondo followers with Dawson bp's. He polishes the inside of the base pads and loads his ammo to 1.185.

Since you sold one, do you know what kind of basepads the TJ P16 model comes with? Para's own I presume. They work nicely as far as insertion and changing...nice, crisp, even with a full 16 rounds. Steve has modified the followers to look like the Arrendondos.

...Sometimes things happen. Bob fixed mine quickly and it seems to be resolved. If one of his guns can have the problem anyone else sure can. Just have them fix it.

Thanks. It's being fixed by Steve Moore. I should have it back tomorrow if parts came in on time.

[JFD]

12 of my 16 mags have Dawson extensions and work perfectly. All I do is polish the inside of the mag tubes with skotch-brite pads and use the same pads to make sure the followers don't have any rough edges. Arrendondo followers have done nothing but create problems for me.

Again, these days you'll need to replace the Para mag springs to get max capacity.

[Vulture]

I also own this very same gun and mine didn't like Independance Ammo either. Do everything that Benny Hill says and buy the longer loaded ammo of your choice along with an 11 or 12 lb spring and your problems should start to diminish. All I had to do with mine was polish the feed ramp and I haven't had any problems since. I reload my own ammo to 1.170 instead of buying it but the Para does like longer loaded rounds. Most double stack 1911/2011 style guns like longer rounds so it's not a Para only condition. I use dawson base pads with factory followers and Wolff +10% springs and I can get 20 in each mag and it will feed all of them. The new springs that come with the Para's now are junk. They are ok if you just want to load 16 rounds and I guess you could use them for a season until they wear out and then replace them but Brownels sells them cheap so skip the headache and upgrade your springs. Polish the inside of your mag tubes with scotch brite pad and it will help the follower to wear itself into the mag tube. Also make sure there are no little burrs on the followers from the manufacturing process. Lightly sand them off if there are any. I shot this gun all year long and didn't have any misfeeds. You may want to think about reloading your own ammo so you can taylor it to your liking. I load holllow point and truncated cone and both run fine.

Happy shooting SV

[Parashooter]

I've also got a P16-40, and have been having FTF problems as you describe. I noticed that it seemed slow feeding so I popped the baseplate off a mag and found the spring/follower would hang in the tube.

Pulling the spring out I found it to be curved, causing the coils to drag inside the tube... straightened them out and ther is a HUGE difference.... I've only shot one match since then, but I haven't had any failures since. (Man I've gotta find time to practice!)

Pete

[Bryan 45]

I feel real lucky after reading all these posts. Just so everyone doesn't give up on Para, I have a P16.40 limited that's about 3 years old w/ the Power Extractor. I use factory mag bodies, followers and springs, with DP basepads. I can get 21 in a mag, and the mag seated with the slide forward. I load my .40 ammo to factory length, 180g at 980 fps. I've replaced the mainspring with a reduced power one, but I can't remember what #. I run a 16# Wolf recoil spring. Nothing fancy about my gun.

But, it's never failed to feed, fire, extract or eject. I never "practice" and typically only shoot one match a month, so I only have around 3K rounds through it. Just FWIW.

Now watch it go TI next match....

[MagicTH]

Finally some fellow P16.40 owners!

Thanks for the tips guys. After the last "tune-up" things are better. Shot 130 rounds of factory length ammo with 1 nosedive, 2 FTF and 1 round failed to break-over (a 3% failure rate versus the 30% I was having). Then I shot my last 70 rounds of 1.19 OAL from Precision Delta. No FTFs! Need to shoot more rounds to prove it's really OK. I will check out my mags as suggested too.

Also watched BE's "Competition Reloading" video where he says OAL is determined by your magazine and you want the longest OAL that will fit in the mag. This matches your advice.

So, I just finished building my reloading bench and a new 650 from B.E. is on the floor waiting for installation. Will be using Montana Gold 180 gr. CMJ, once fired Speer nickel brass, Winchester SPP. I have several powders to try as well based on opinions from this board. I will load to 1.19-1.20.

[dawulf]

I have a Jarrett model that I bought new in Dec. of 06'. It will not run commercial ammo under 180gr. Commercial 180's or higher runs fairly well in it. Handloaded 180gr TC's with a length of at least 1.190" work the best for me.

I am using factory mag tubes with factory followers and springs and Dawson base pads. The mags will hold 20rds reliably. I tried Arrendondo followers once, nothing but problems.

The only thing changed on the gun was I added an Ed Brown wide ambi safety, and changed the recoil spring to a 12.5# IMSI spring.

I have roughly 6,000 rounds through the gun. That is 22 matches plus practice at least 2 or 3 times a month. The gun works good for me.

Hope this helps,

Tom