My Gun Jammed

[roblox84]

So today was the first day I shot my p64 and after the first shot I took the gun jammed on me. I included a picture of it, it's not the best but I only had my cell phone camera on me. It jammed on me twice towards the beginning of my shooting, but later it didn't seem to happen. The second time it jammed was after about 3 or 4 clips. It almost did it three times but the third time, the slide jammed but half a second later released itself and was ready to shoot again. The bullets I was shooting were brass and the brand name was Makarov. That's all it had on the box. Does anyone know what the issue might be here?


Edit....I forgot to mention that after the last bullet, the slide never locks open. It just goes back to the firing position thinking there's another bullet in the gun. But the thing is, when I pull the slide back without any bullets in the mag, it will stay open until the mag is taken out.

[frankmako]

did you break down the gun and cleaned it before shooting it? make sure you are not limp wristing the gun. have you cleaned the insides of the mag?

[lachesis]

It sounds like the gun is short cycling - that is, the slide isn't going as far back as it should. First three things you should do to troubleshoot:

1) Clean the gun. Really, deeply clean it, especially if you haven't before. I've heard soaking in mineral spirits (not the grips) works wonders. This will probably fix it.
2) Try different ammo. I can say from experience that Brown Bear and Silver Bear both shoot great.
3) If it's still not working, get another shooter to run a box or two through the gun. The high recoil of the P-64 can make it tempting to limp wrist them, which can cause short-cycling.

If none of those things fix it, then there might be something wrong mechanically.

[roblox84]

The gun was cleaned prior to shooting, but I just cleaned it again and oiled it very well. Before taking it apart I noticed it was fairly dry so I am very much hoping some oil will do good. I will also try the bear ammo if my local shop carries them. Do you guy's happen to know why the slide might not be locking into place after the last bullet? I've shot 100 rounds through it and it only locked back once after an empty clip.

[tdickens]

Ditto to Clean! Clean! Clean!

[juniustaylor]

Would sound to me like limp-wristing and/or crappy ammo not allowing the slide to come back fully. As others said, try some different ammo and focus on your hold on the gun.

[lachesis]

That makes me wonder - is it possible for the slide to come back far enough to cause extraction, but not far enough to lock open on an empty magazine?

...

Answered my own question by chambering one round on top of an empty magazine (safety on, fwiw). Yes, the slide can be pulled far enough back to cause ejection but not lock open after. So, my guess is still short-cycling due to dirt, ammo, or grip.

[lwb64]

One thing I noticed from you photo, the next round in the mag appears to be nose down, if the rounds are not moving up in the mag properly they will not shove the round up far enough to chamber. Make sure that the ammo you are using are not too long and also clean and oil the mags.

[roblox84]

Thanks everyone for the responses. By the way, how would I go about cleaning and oiling the mags? Just blow them out with some compressed air and drop a little oil inside?

[GeneCC]

Yeah, I second/third/fourth cleaning the pistol. Self loading firearms have an "energy budget" or amount of energy needed to cycle the system. Dirt causes friction which robs the system of needed energy. I recall that most designers allow for some dirt but not too much dirt.

Once you cleaned the piece you can try again.

I have not yet broken down the magazine of my P-64 so I am not exactly sure how this is done. I do notice a stub of magazine spring that projects from the side of the bottom of the mag. Perhaps you press up on this stub to free the floor plate from the magazine?

[juniustaylor]

I have not yet broken down the magazine of my P-64 so I am not exactly sure how this is done. I do notice a stub of magazine spring that projects from the side of the bottom of the mag. Perhaps you press up on this stub to free the floor plate from the magazine?

That's exactly how it's done. You push up or you can push the mag spring stub inward. That will free the floorplate so that you can slide it off. You can then take the spring and follower out. Installation is the reverse. You can just hold the spring stub up long enough for it to contact the top of the floorplate. Then just shove the floorplate on into place and the stub will fall back into the little recess which it uses to lock the floorplate from sliding off.

As for the nose-up condition in the picture. I can't tell if that's a mag problem or the nose of the bullet entering the chamber is bound-up and the case head of that-said round is holding the nose of the one in the magazine down. Make sense??? Kind of like a tongue twister. Looks more like it was bound up and under pressure.

[Curly1]

I have the same condition with my P1 if I use Remington 115gr cause they are just a little shorter than the WWB ammo which works perfectly.

I would try different brand ammo if it continues after cleaning.

[gwbiker]

With all 9x18 Makarov handguns I own, I clean slide/frame rails with alcohol and then lightly lube same with slide glide or TW25b. I also completely disassembly magazines, clean and lightly lube follower and spring. Lube the recoil spring/barrel contact area, too.

YMMV, but my experiences with above method has been free of FTF and FTE issues.