S&w 41
Thanks Barry for your reply.
So you insert the magazine, pull the slide back...then I'm confused.
At this point, you should release the slide and a round gets chambered. The "cock the piston" part is throwing me, as the gun was cocked when the slide was pulled back, and there is no piston.
Assuming it's: mag in, slide pulled back, then released to fly forward, then shoot...
What happens now?
I have not loaded any rounds into the magazine yet, I have been dry fireing. I hold the slide back slightly when I fire to take the pressure off the fireing pin.
Prior to inserting the mag the slide works perfectly freely. I insert the empty mag, pull the slide back and release it to cock the pistol, pull the trigger and the fireing pin releases okay. It is then that the slide jams and I cannot pull it back more then about 1/8 of an inch. I remove the mag and after much trying eventually the slide becomes free again.
If I re-insert the mag and cock the piston again, the same priblem occurs.
I hope this makes more sense.
I know the word "jam" gets used a lot, but it's awful vague term. I'm guessing that, at the shot, the slide isn't traveling far enough rearward to pass over the next round in the magazine to pick it up on it's way back forward. The result is the top round in the mag is pinched/trapped by the slide, or the slide just closes without picking it up at all.
I don't know what ammo you are using, but my 41 prefers ammo a little on the stout side. It did as I described above when using mild ammo, such as most grades of Eley. It got better after shooting a few hundred rounds, but it still does it now and then. With even slightly heavier ammo, like Winchester T22 or Rem Std Velocity, it does fine.
I don't know what they do now, but at one time, Wolff Gunsprings stocked a factory weight spring for them, and a couple of lighter spring weights. The fact they had several Reduced Power springs and no Extra Power springs made me think that 41s must be spring on the heavy side. But that's just a guess.
