[hhsmiley]

I had someone tell me after I had a jam at an IPSC match today that he thought the OAL of my rounds was too long for my magazines. I must admit the rounds are almost touching the front of the mag.

The rounds measure 1.250 which I guess is pretty standard for this cal. What length should they be loaded to for use in STI hi-caps? I think I might have heard/read once that they should be loaded shorter for those mags.

 

[Silver Surfer]

What kinda jam you getting? Rounds sticking way down at the bottom of the mag? maybe the last 1/4-1/3?

 

[hhsmiley]

I only had one jam like this. It was not really a FTF or a FTE, per se. It seemed like all of a sudden there were two live rounds lodged in the chamber/eject port together and neither of them would eject after racking the slide (or attempting too anyway, it was stuck back). I dropped the mag and they fell out.

These mags normally feed quite well. The springs are nearly new and the Arredondo followers are MUCH better than the factory ones. I've never had a malfunction like this one before. It was either the 7th or 8th round out of 20 (140mm mag with + 2 Arredondo basepads) that I loaded that caused the problem. I had no other problems before or after during the match.

I only posted about it because I probably would have won the match had it not been for this one glitch. I absolutely hate it when I'm "in the groove", (which isn't all that often!

) but my equipment fails me.

So, I just thought I'd see if anyone had any bad experiences with rds. loaded to 1.250 with STI mags. If not it might be something totally different, but at least that would eliminate the rounds or magazines as the culprit.



[This message has been edited by hhsmiley (edited 11-04-2001).]

 

[Rich in VA]

HHS,

1.250 is the correct length. My daughter's STI has eaten quite a few of these in the last few years. If you've never experienced any jams before with this rig, count your blessings and move on......

Rich

 

[Silver Surfer]

Double feed!(Death jam) If it only happened once I'd note which mag it was and chalk it up to a "**** happens"

 

[Tom Freeman]

I use a slightly shorter OAL of 1.240 for my ammo and it works fine. If going shorter doesn’t help, try polishing the inside of the tube, there might be a burr or something holding up the show. Good luck to you.

Tom
AF Shooting Team

 

[hhsmiley]

I had another match Sunday. I paid more attention to which magazine I was using when any problems cropped up. I had 2 jams on Sunday and they were with the same mag. The gun ran flawlessly with the others, even after they'd been dropped in the mud a couple of times. I'll take a close look at it and polish the tube up or replace the spring and see if that helps. Thanks for the replies and advice.

 

[Brazos Custom Gunworks]

With 38 super use an OAL of 1.24 or 1.245 this keeps all the rounds under 1.25. In the 38 super the rims will stack every once in a while and you need a little shorter length. With supercomp or TJ brass you can get away with longer OAL. All that being said I don't think that would cause a double feed. Usually a double feed is caused by the lips on the magazine being set too wide. Your magazine lips at the release point should be 0.355-0.365 if you are having problems I would try towards the smaller end.
Also one other tip if you are using plus 2 pads don't load more than 21 rounds in the magazines, especially with Arredondo followers. If you do the last rounds are past the indentations in the tube and can bind or pass the follower.

------------------
Bob Londrigan
Brazos Custom Gunworks
254-622-2245
http://www.brazoscustom.com