Springfield EMP .40S&W Feed Problems

[jmaass]

I've been having double-feed problems with my EMP in .40 S&W. It now has over 800 rounds through it in the past month, and the problem has been consistent. I noticed what I think is the cause, but I'd like confirmation from others.

With the slide locked-back, I inserted a loaded magazine and noted that the ejector was pressed down hard on the top round's rim and the bottom portion just above the ejector groove. See the photos below for the damage to the top round in each magazine, on the left side. Note also that this magazine was inserted gently until it locked into place, not slammed home with the slide locked open.

None of my other 1911-type guns have this clearance problem.

This would seem to tilt the next round nose-up a bit while the ejection process is happening, slowing the slide, impeding ejection, and resulting in a double-feed. I'm also seeing some brass shavings adhered to the bottom of the ejector, and in the chamber when cleaning.

I'm contacting Springfield Armory today, but was wondering whether I am correct that this is the likely cause of my reliability problems?

Some photos:

Edited May 8, 2009 by jmaass

[G-ManBart]

That sure sounds like it could be the problem. Really short 1911's have enough going against them recoil spring and slide velocity wise that I doubt it would take much to cause significant havoc in the cyling.

Factory mag or aftermarket? I'm wondering if the mag catch slot is just a little low and raises the mag in the well a bit too much. It wouldn't take much to raise the bottom of the ejector...lots of extended factory ejectors already have the clearance cut in that area. It would also be easy to raise up the mag catch slot a little at a time to get the clearance, but then you have to make sure it doesn't put the top round too low on the feed ramp, or too low that the slide won't grab it (ask me how I know about that one!). R,

[jmaass]

That sure sounds like it could be the problem. Really short 1911's have enough going against them recoil spring and slide velocity wise that I doubt it would take much to cause significant havoc in the cyling.

Factory mag or aftermarket? I'm wondering if the mag catch slot is just a little low and raises the mag in the well a bit too much. It wouldn't take much to raise the bottom of the ejector...lots of extended factory ejectors already have the clearance cut in that area. It would also be easy to raise up the mag catch slot a little at a time to get the clearance, but then you have to make sure it doesn't put the top round too low on the feed ramp, or too low that the slide won't grab it (ask me how I know about that one!). R,

Thanks, Bart.

I have eight factory magazines ("Mfg. in Italy by MEG-GAR for Springfield Armory"), and all are the same. I don't think the problem is the magazines.

They haven't been shipping this .40 S&W version of the EMP for more than six months (the 9mm version has shipped for a couple of years), so I suspect they might have a few issues to tweak. I have received an RMA from Springfield to return the EMP for service, and I'll be sending it Monday.

I expect that they will undercut and shape the ejector to provide for clearance.

The only other "factory defect" is that they did not provide checkering on the front strap - who designs an expensive personal defense gun with a smooth, slippery front strap? I doubt that I'll get them to "repair" that error under warrenty!

Edited May 9, 2009 by jmaass

[jmaass]

I should make it clear that I **really** like the .40 S&W EMP, and will be spending some money on tweaking it once the feed reliability is 100%. Here's my list of enhancements-to-come for this carry gun:

• Drop the trigger to 3.5-pounds from the factory 4.75-pounds;
  
• Checker the frontstrap 25- or 30-lpi;
  
• Round-off/de-fang the thumb safety (it's eating a hole in my thumb with a high grip!)
  
• Birdsong Black-T finish overall;
  
• Black Davidson grips;
  

Edited May 9, 2009 by jmaass

[DougCarden]

Jeff,

please update us on this little sucker.....I REALLY want one, but have been burnt on the other micro guns and having to guess when to replace the recoil springs....

I know they will get you taken care of....

Thanks,

DougC

[jmaass]

Jeff,

please update us on this little sucker.....I REALLY want one, but have been burnt on the other micro guns and having to guess when to replace the recoil springs....

I know they will get you taken care of....

Thanks,

DougC

Doug:

Today I shipped the EMP back to Springfield for warrenty work. They say 2-4 weeks to turn it around.

I'll post on the results when it gets back!

Meanwhile, I'm shopping for a 'smith to do the other work I want done!

[jmaass]

My EMP 40 is back from Springfield for it's warrenty work.

I haven't taken it to the range yet, but the service invoice lists the following as being done:

• Reassembled guide rod, reamed
  
• Barrel, Polished barrel ramp
  
• Tuned extractor, tuned ejector
  
• Tested.
  

Just from visual check, it no longer scores the case of the top cartridge in the magazine like it did before.

I'm going to shoot it for a while and make sure it's reliable, and then it's off to the 'smith for some enhancements.

[Behr]

I've got one in 40 also. I've had no problems what-so-ever in about 700 rounds of various factory ammo, hardball and JHP. Didn't even need a "break in" period to run. My ejector does not contact the rounds in the mag like your photos show. Hope yours has been figured out. I love mine, it is a keeper for sure.

[jmaass]

I've got one in 40 also. I've had no problems what-so-ever in about 700 rounds of various factory ammo, hardball and JHP. Didn't even need a "break in" period to run. My ejector does not contact the rounds in the mag like your photos show. Hope yours has been figured out. I love mine, it is a keeper for sure.

I'm happy for you that yours is working well!

I got to the range today, and mine still has some feed issues (10 occurances in 80 rounds).

With Remington UMC 180gr ball:

• Rounds nosing-down in the magazine, and not feeding (this was with new
  magazines, which may be contributing). Extraction OK, but chamber empty;
  
• Not locking-back on last round;
  

It fed 100% with the three original magazines and 180gr Gold Dot JHP, although it doesn't lock back on them, either. I suspect that it's short-cycling a bit with the non-premium ammunition. I've heard that the short-barreled guns are a bit finicky about ammunition, and the recoil spring is very strong in this gun.

I'm not going to bother sending it back to Springfield again. I've been planning to send it off to my gunsmith Matt McLearn for work anyway, and he'll settle-out any reliability issues in short order.

(Since I am sending off this gun for work, I needed to get a substitute carry gun for the month+ it will be gone. I bought a 9mm EMP yesterday, and it ran 100% with three different ammunitions today. A disappointing 6+ pound trigger, and a very rough slide operation, but it did what it was supposed to do on each trigger pull. I'll see how it is after 300+ rounds, and maybe it will go to Matt, too, after the .40 gets back!)

[technetium-99m]

Best of luck to you, my 9mm EMP runs like a scalded cat, or dog, or mongoose.

Make sure to post pics with the enhancements, mine could use some frontstrap checkering.

[jjanglin]

In just about all the nose dive type problems Ive ran accross, the second round isnt setting properly

over under the top round for various reasons, like cocked follower, mag spring not any good or

weak, in double stack guns its usually the top portion of the mags to narrow. Id say you have a mag

problem , possibly a junk mag catch, etc etc.

Jim/Pa

sailors

[jmaass]

Best of luck to you, my 9mm EMP runs like a scalded cat, or dog, or mongoose.

Make sure to post pics with the enhancements, mine could use some frontstrap checkering.

My new 9mm EMP is still working great - not a hitch with several more kinds of 9mm ammunition and another 150 rounds.

I have noticed (for the record) that Springfield is assigning serial numbers on 9mm and 40mm EMPs that are indistinguishable. Both of my EMPs s/n are of the form "EMP8xxx".

[mikeone]

Thanks for posting!

Ive been wanting an EMP for quite some time, I was going for the 9 but the .40 looked so much better with it's steel frame, this goofy feeding is not good

for a carry gun, Im wondering if the OAL of the .40 rounds is causing this? Or the mag lips? I dunno but I hope you get it sorted so I can learn from ya

on what I may have to do to mine.

Thanks Mike

[jmaass]

My .40 EMP headed back to Springfield today for more warrenty work.

Following that, it slides over to the Springfield Custom Shop for checkering of the frontstrap (why wasn't that part of each one sold originally?). Springfield estimates that the checkering will be completed in 6 to 8 weeks. Then it goes to my gunsmith to perform his magic.

The 9mm EMP is still running 100% reliable with every kind of commerical ammunition I've been able to find.

[jmaass]

My .40 EMP headed back to Springfield today for more warrenty work.

Following that, it slides over to the Springfield Custom Shop for checkering of the frontstrap (why wasn't that part of each one sold originally?). Springfield estimates that the checkering will be completed in 6 to 8 weeks. Then it goes to my gunsmith to perform his magic.

The 9mm EMP is still running 100% reliable with every kind of commerical ammunition I've been able to find.

Just a note about Springield's customer service.

The pre-paid FedEx label that they provided for me to use in shipping the .40 EMP back for work was for overrnight service, so FedEx delivered it to them yesterday (6/11) around Noon.

Just now (6/12 Noone EST)) I had a phone call from Brad, the 'smith working on my gun, asking a clarification to the letter I included with the gun. That is, they are *already* working on it!

Not having a backlog is a wonderful thing (from the customer point-of-view)! Kudos to Springfield Armory for nicely managing their warrenty work!

Edited June 12, 2009 by jmaass

[troy2198]

Just bought a 40 EMP myself and during test firing I've been having nothing but failures with it. So far did 150 rounds with Sellier and Bellot 180 gr and 200 rounds with Blazer Brass and then maybe 10 rounds with federal just to see if there was any difference. So from the start I had the occasional slide not going into full battery with a simple fix of just pushing it home easily. After about 50 rounds I started to get not only failures to go into full battery but double feeds, failures to extract, and then failures to fully eject. This problem is occurring just about every other round. Had some jams too that required forcefully locking the slide back and then also forcefully pulling the mag out. The weapon fires just fine when everything goes right, and is very accurate. Had about a 2 1/2" to 3" shot group just messing around and breaking it in. I'm aware that this weapon needs a break in period until it works smoothly but so far this one seems to be going horribly wrong. I love the weapon, and i can perform with it very well, but I just need it to work now! Was wondering if anyone else had any problems such as this with theirs? The only thing so far that has helped is after firing so many rounds, taking a rag and wiping the breech which slightly improves the function of it. I'm also getting a lot of brass shavings when I clean it, not sure if thats normal for the gun. How many rounds should it take to break in this weapon also?

[G-ManBart]

Just bought a 40 EMP myself and during test firing I've been having nothing but failures with it. So far did 150 rounds with Sellier and Bellot 180 gr and 200 rounds with Blazer Brass and then maybe 10 rounds with federal just to see if there was any difference. So from the start I had the occasional slide not going into full battery with a simple fix of just pushing it home easily. After about 50 rounds I started to get not only failures to go into full battery but double feeds, failures to extract, and then failures to fully eject. This problem is occurring just about every other round. Had some jams too that required forcefully locking the slide back and then also forcefully pulling the mag out. The weapon fires just fine when everything goes right, and is very accurate. Had about a 2 1/2" to 3" shot group just messing around and breaking it in. I'm aware that this weapon needs a break in period until it works smoothly but so far this one seems to be going horribly wrong. I love the weapon, and i can perform with it very well, but I just need it to work now! Was wondering if anyone else had any problems such as this with theirs? The only thing so far that has helped is after firing so many rounds, taking a rag and wiping the breech which slightly improves the function of it. I'm also getting a lot of brass shavings when I clean it, not sure if thats normal for the gun. How many rounds should it take to break in this weapon also?

I don't own an EMP, but know of a couple of things you can do. Shortened 1911s are less forgiving about certain things than the standard guns, and that's what you might be experiencing. After 2-300 rounds I'd expect that the weird stuff would have gone away, and then it shouldn't have only been a few here and there, not as frequent as you're describing.

First things first. Do a complete teardown of the top end, including pulling out the extractor. Clean the extractor tunnel out with some solvent and a Q-tip. Do the same to the firing pin tunnel. Don't oil either one when you're done. If it'll make you feel better, put a tiny dab of oil on your finger and wipe it over both the firing pin and extractor....they don't need it, it'll only attract powder fouling and grit, but some people seem to worry that those two parts are going to stop working and get rusty if they don't put oil on them (I have a gun I didn't touch in like 8 years...literally...firing pin and extractor were fine even with no oil.

Check the recoil spring/guide rod etc....probably not likely there's a problem there, but it's possible. Put the gun back together and run some good ammo through it...at least 100 rounds of something WWB quality or better. If it doesn't run all 100 rounds I'd send it back and let Springfield fix it. I've seen the tightest custom guns you can imagine run 100% from the very start so a compact gun that's not as tight shouldn't take 1K through it to break it in. R,

[troy2198]

Just bought a 40 EMP myself and during test firing I've been having nothing but failures with it. So far did 150 rounds with Sellier and Bellot 180 gr and 200 rounds with Blazer Brass and then maybe 10 rounds with federal just to see if there was any difference. So from the start I had the occasional slide not going into full battery with a simple fix of just pushing it home easily. After about 50 rounds I started to get not only failures to go into full battery but double feeds, failures to extract, and then failures to fully eject. This problem is occurring just about every other round. Had some jams too that required forcefully locking the slide back and then also forcefully pulling the mag out. The weapon fires just fine when everything goes right, and is very accurate. Had about a 2 1/2" to 3" shot group just messing around and breaking it in. I'm aware that this weapon needs a break in period until it works smoothly but so far this one seems to be going horribly wrong. I love the weapon, and i can perform with it very well, but I just need it to work now! Was wondering if anyone else had any problems such as this with theirs? The only thing so far that has helped is after firing so many rounds, taking a rag and wiping the breech which slightly improves the function of it. I'm also getting a lot of brass shavings when I clean it, not sure if thats normal for the gun. How many rounds should it take to break in this weapon also?

Well this is the second time I've had to send in my EMP 40. After the first send in, the weapon would work better than before, but eventually led to the same problems after a hand full of mags. Customer service at Springfield was quick and speedy, got the weapon back in less than 4 days. They repolished the feed ramp, exchanged the 40 extractor with a 9mm version and lengthened the ejector. Now when I break the weapon down for cleaning I cannot get the extractor out of its slot without the use of a punch (overly tight fit). Cleaned the weapon very thoroughly and took it to the range yesterday only to find that it didn't even make it through 2 mags before problems started. Again I had failure to go into full battery, fail to extract, fail to feed, fail to lock back. Instead of using cheap ammo for range tests I went with winchester ranger 40 165gr fmj but still had the same problems. Love the weapon, just wish that the precision part of it was correct. Feels like I paid $1000 for a high-point at this stage of the game. Personally I have heard nothing but bad news about the 40 version. I'm requesting to replace the 40 with the 9mm or a comparable 45 1911.

[G-ManBart]

I cannot get the extractor out of its slot without the use of a punch (overly tight fit).

Not necessarily overly tight at all. Sorry to hear it didn't pan out. R,

[Chinofino]

Yep. I had feeding issues with my brand new 9mm EMP. It was flawless the 1st 150 rounds...then 100 rounds after...nothing but feeding problems and it got worse and worse. No special ammo. No +P. Just factory 115 gr. Federal FMJ ammo. Bullets kept getting caught on the feed ramp; bullets had deep cuts on the front left side. Inspection of the feed ramp...it appeared to be a mess. The left edge of the feed ramp was jagged and chipped. Also, looks like a little stress crack is starting at the top left edge of the feed ramp. What a disappointment! After dropping $1200 on this...you'd think there shouldn't be these kinds of issues. Well got the usual RMA # from Springfield and sent it back for repairs. I've had 3 issues now with brand new Springfield pistols. All purchased in 2011...all with issues right out of the box. I don't think I'll be dropping any more $$$ on Springfields again.

[Kilts]

Bought a .40 EMP. First time out to the range - went bang once, then had feed problem. After many times of clearing, reloading, etc. gave it up for the day. New gun, first time out - not happy. Took it to my local FFL who's also a smith. He inspected and told me the extractor claws were broken. Should have spotted it myself. Oh well. Sent back to SA for warranty repair. Got it back within a week. (Thanks SA!) Took it back out. No more spent casing extraction problems, but now had feed problems with some flavors of ammo. Intentionally tried numerous brands and grains to see if this gun was finicky - it definitely is. My EMP does not like non-premium, non-big name ammo. Doesn't like 180 grain either. Loves 165 grain premium ammo - both FMJ range ammo and JHP defensive ammo. Shot mag after mag of Federal Premium 165 gr (American Eagle FMJ and Hydra Shok JHP) - no feed problems. Going back out again this weekend to verify what I think I know - that it still will perform with these two loads. If all goes well, the EMP will accompany me to a scheduled NRA training class in two weeks (but I'll take a backup anyway). If not, back to Springfield Armory.... Good luck to all us .40 EMP owners....

[szhttm]

An old thread has been revived.

I have had my EMP in 9mm for and never had a single issue after thousands of rounds through it. I use it every once in a while to compete in local USPSA Single Stack Minor matches.

How many rounds have you put through your new EMP 40? I wouldn't worry about any issues until you pass at least 250 rounds.

Good Luck And Be Safe!!!

[dentedr]

I see this is an old thread but I will share my experience for someone who may be searching for information. I bought a lightly used EMP in 40 for good price, person told me the gun ran fine. Took it out and every second or third round wouldn't eject (case was still stuck in the chamber). I checked the tension of the extractor with an empty case and found there was no tension on it and the case would fall out by just rotating the slide. I tensioned the extractor so the case would hold and haven't had a problem in over 500 rounds since. I have used premium defense ammo and cheap range ammo with all three factory magazine.

Hopefully this helps someone out there.