I pulled my Steyr S40 out of the safe today to take to the range. I stripped it down to lube it up before I went shooting and noticed this. The inside of the frame just in front of the guide rails looks damaged. In my S9 they are squared off and look clean. On my S40 they are now rounded and look sheared off. It looks like the Slide is battering this portion of the frame and shearing off the plastic as it recoils. Has anyone ever seen anything like this on a Steyr? What is the likely hood that they have a replacement frame? Rellascout
Hows it going. Taking a look at my S40 my frame is nicely squared off where yours isn't. I'd say you have problem.
Its not going well but thanks for asking. Yeah I agree that I have a real issue. I am still under warranty so I will call Diamond Trail tomorrow and get it worked out. My guess is that they will replace the frame and make sure that the slide in within spec. I have looked at it again. I am not sure how it happened. I can only assume that the slide is causing it. Rellascout
Well, thank goodness your Steyr S40 is still under warranty. I've heard of various types of Steyr M and S series problems, but that is defintely a first. I hope you get the pistol into Diamond Trial and get your money worth out of that warranty. Good luck and I'll pray for ya.
Something's definitely out of whack. If the S is made like my M9, the slide shouldn't even touch those ledges up that high; the spring seat extending down from the front end of the slide is slightly relieved so it will strike those ledges down lower, like maybe .2" below the top. Even so, the contact surface on the slide is flat, so I don't see how it could be making the cone-shaped impression on the ledges. One thing, if it is from the slide, the slide velocity would seem to be excessive at the rear of its travel. I would possibly suspect that the spring was kinking and eating into the frame, but the cone of damage should be concentric with the spring, and the presence of the guide rod should preclude such behaviour anyways. Please let us know what USASteyr has to say about it.
If I am seeing the mold mark correctly in your picture, your S40 was manufactured in mid-February 2001. I have an S9 manufactured in 2000 and an M9 manufactured in 2002, but neither frame looks like yours. On my Steyrs the polymer frame in front of the steel slide rails/trigger assembly is a well squared-off, substantial structure. It appears that the designer beefed up the structure to contain the back and forth motion of recoil and return to battery. Your damage looks like the deforming force is coming from the rear, caused by forward movement of the rails/trigger assembly in the frame, and a crushing effect on the rear of the polymer support. The movement and force then broke out part of the polymer frame and splayed out the vertical supports. Without disassembling the trigger assembly, the supports appear to be continuous with the trigger guard, so they act to strengthen frame walls, as well. If things are as they appear, the next phase of destruction probably would have sheared off the remaining polymer support, likely causing a catastrophic destruction of the pistol with pieces flying in all directions. I think you lucked out.
I talked with Steyr this morning. I spoke directly with the local gunsmith they outsource the work to. It is the spring that caused this damage. The spring was off a small amount at one time. Racking the slide with the spring slightly out of spec most likely caused a small nick. Once the inital damage was done the spring bounced making the problem worse. He said he has seen 4 to 6 like this in the S series in the last 3 years. He has not see this on any Ms. Something to watch on the S. They have S frames in stock so it shouldn't take too long. The gun smith said about a month. One of the worst parts is that I am going to have to involve an FFL because they will be replacing the frame. Rellascout
Someone correct me if I am wrong. As long as the gun is being transferred to the repair shop and right back to you, you do NOT have to use an FFL to transfer the firearm. As long as it is your own gun and you are not selling it to someone else, you are within your right to have the gun repaired and shipped back to you directly. This is also assuming that the serial numbers don't change. It's the same if you are selling a gun to another FFL. You don't need a "selling" FFL on your side to ship your gun to a"buying" FFL. I'm 99.999% sure about this. Any lawyers out there? If you ask an FFL, of course they'll say yes...no skin off their backs and they get to pocket $40-50 just for breathing (no offense to any FFLs out there). Just trying to help another member save some $. That's my $0.02.
If they give me a new frame then it is considered a new gun. There will be a new serial number on the frame. Lucky my FFL said he will transfer it for free. Just the $2 for the background check. Rellascout
first of all... they have s frames? holy crap. i need one too. my s40 is all screwed up just like that. i stopped carrying it and shooting it because i was scared something would kb on me. but then i realized that there is very little inertia pushing forward on those little pieces as it comes into battery, and the slide stops before it would completely crush them on recoil. so i just started shooting it again. a lot. i've even had more and bigger pieces fall out when i cleaned it. but it still runs. so i still shoot it. but hey, if steyr has a frame, that would be great. i sent mine in in may and they didn't.
