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M-40, 2nd range trip. Mostly good.... minor not good..(long)

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Ok, before I qualify with my M-40 as a duty weapon I want to make sure she's all broken in and reliable.
First outing was PMC ball ammo and mixed defensive hollow points without any issues. Total round count 250.

Second range trip was today. I was shooting some 6-8 year old reloads that I had from a source that I trust.

Loaded one magazine with 12 rounds and all was good. Every round went off properly and the gun ejected and fed fine.
Next I load 3 magazines 12 rounds each and rapid fire all 3 magazines without issues. All rounds feed and eject fine.

Reload 3 magazaines and shoot first mag, no issues. On the second mag I had one problem, gun failed to return to battery fully. I eject what I figure may be a bad round and allow slide to slam home. Gun stays out of battery slightly :evil: . I retract slide and eject round , allow slide to slam home and again fails to go into battery. I push the slide foreward into battery and the trigger had not reset :?: . What's going on ? I decide to eject mag and round and my slide won't budge,WTF :x I'm getting pissed now.

Finally manage to get the slide open and eject the round. Nothing appears to be out of the ordinary. I hand cycle the gun several times and dry fire several times. All seems to be normal.

next I dissasemble the gun (field strip) and I notice a large streak of brass color on the chamber side of the barrel right where the ejection port is.

Since everything seems to be normal at this point I reload my mags and go back to shooting. For the rest of the session the gun feeds, ejects and fires as it should.

I think that a peice of errant brass may have gotten lodged between the breech and the slide causing the gun to lock up. Don't ask me how.

Well 500 rounds of reloads today and with the exception of the above described problem the gun functioned flawlessly. I got groups of about 4" off hand at 25 yds. at 7 yds head shots on a shillouette were easy. At 15 yds I was placing center mass rounds within 2"-3" off hand .

Another deputy I was with got to shoot my M-40 and thought the sights were "bad ass". he liked the lack of muzzle flip. His H&K .40 full size has more felt recoil and a whole lot more muzzle flip.

comments are of course always welcome.
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I've never reloaded for a pistol. Do you resize?
The reloads were from a friend who reloaded commercialy. They were resized as needed. I had over 1000 rounds when I started and the last 500 or so were what was shot today.

A co-worker shot about 75 rounds of this stuff through his H&K without any issues. I shot about 500 total today through my M-40. The only problem was the one I mentioned above. As I said, I think a peice of shaved brass got between the barrel and the slide and locked the gun up. After cleaning the gun the brass mark is still there on the side of the barrel.


BTW, I had exactly 3 cases fly back and hit me on the forehead. The rest ejected perfectly.
G
sounds like QC issue w/ reloads, even from a great source reloads are still reloads. Great for cheap practice just don't bet your scores or life on them.

that brass streak didn't go away w/ solvent and wire brush?

might need to dremel polish it away or isn't there a specific solvent just for copper/brass?

go drop 300 rnds of wwb from wally world thru it and see how it does, then I'd be concerend if it happened again.
Streak is still there. Solvent removed most of it.
I'm not concerned at this time because it was reloads.
Yeah, I've heard alot of horror stories about Steyr's and non permium ammunition. Kind of like a fine fighter jet needs premium high-octain jet fuel the Steyr needs premium ammunition. Maybe, I just baby my Steyr way too much, but I wont put anything other than Federal Premium, WWB, Spear, or sometimes Blazer Brass through it

Sounds like the M-40 did really well though, and you should feel comfortable with it as 500 rounds with only that one issue isn't that bad. However, that streak would bug the crap out me and I think I'd probably replace it if I were you and couldn't get it cleaned. However, that would probably defeat the whole purpose of you breaking it in?

Anyways, don't let it get you down...even $3,000.00 custom 1911s have failures after hundred of rounds with reloads. Keep on keeping on with the Steyr and safe shooting.
G
Where do you work?

I was just curious, I work for a P.D. south of Houston and sometimes carry my M9 on duty. I will do so more often once I can afford a Safariland 6280 or mabye a Bladetech duty holster for it.
I have the 6280 for mine.
The number 77 magazine pouch for Walther fits perfect.
G
Good info about the mag pouch, thanks.
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