At his request, I took Billy Ray's new Sig P250 to the range today to see if I could recreate the failure to fire/light primer strike misfires that occurred on our last outing with his gun. Billy Ray is currently doing a concert tour of sorts in the Appalachian region of our country with Ricky Ray. I know they had a farmer's market gig Saturday, sharing the bill with belly dancers of some sort. Hey, it's better than the musicial gigs I've been doing lately...
In any event, I bought a box of Winchester factory solid bullet ammo and some high end reloads, both running 115 grains solid bullet type. I've noted previously that this gun was LPS'ing on P&B ammo (I think that's the name) which is new but low end ammo. Out of all of the many autoloaders I've owned, I've never had this problem of LPS. I think in the history of shooting cheap loads in my Glock M21 for practical shooting practice, I had one misfire out of about 10,000 rounds. I shot that gun A LOT. And that misfire would not fire again in the Glock or either of the 1911's I tried it in afterwards. It was a true bad cartridge.
El Fisho Jr. and I ran those two boxes through the P250 this morning, and again I'll mention that I find the gun to be outstandingly accurate. I really like the grips, which fit my small/medium sized hand far better than a Glock 19, a Walther P99 or any of the large capacity Sigs (229, 226, 2022). That's why it's so sad that it's having the misfire problem, because who wants a gun prone to not working?
It is mentioned enough on the various gun forums, as a simple google will tell you, that it appears to be a design defect. I've mentioned before that the Federal Air Marshal's have ordered this gun as a replacement for the Sig 229 all metal gun, a big mistake. The 229 is well known as being accurate and reliable. It's one of the few guns I'd risk my life on in a law enforcement job like the Marshal's. It's reasonably concealable compared other guns of it's ilk (Glock 32, Springfield XD, Smith and Wesson, etc) and more concealable than it's big brother the Sig 226. All things considered, if I had to carry a duty gun in .357 Sig, that's the one I'd carry.
With the prevalance of LPS in Billy Ray's pistol, as well as the large number claimed on the internets in forums, as I said, it appears to be a design defect. Some spring needs to be weaker or stronger, or some piece of metal needs to be heavier. The DA pull is long as hell, and I can't believe that it would need a longer pull. In fact, it would be good if the pull was half it's current length, as far as I'm concerned. It would still be more pull than any Glock. It's gotta be that the hammer actuated striker or some spring attached thereto is not getting enough "getem-up-and-go" to hit the primer hard enough to detonate. Why it happens sporadically is beyond my limited mechanical engineering knowledge. But you don't have to know why, you just have to accept that it does misfire.
And move on.
I've urged Billy Ray to get a Sig 229 as a replacement, and there are tons of models to choose from. Billy Ray is leaning towards a Browning Hi-Power, and that's a fine weapon as well.
It's really too bad about the P250. It functioned flawlessly today with the Winchester ammo, but had FIVE LPS's with the 50 rounds of high end reloads I shot. Ten Percent. That's about the same as happened last time, and utterly unacceptable that it happened more than once. At this point, the gun has had about 200-300 rounds through it, and although I know some guns are claimed to need "breaking in", none of the autoloaders I've owned ever had this issue.
This might be the one bad pistol in Sig's history. Shame too. With a safety/decocker, an actual hammer, a da/sa trigger and an available .22 plinking replacement kit, the P250 could rock out. The design was not well thought through, and the lack of availability of the replacement barrels, slides and magazines has made it's converible features mute. It's size and shape is great, but the reliability is horribly disappointing. I mean, it's really worse than a gun that jams feeding or ejection issues.
In any event, I bought a box of Winchester factory solid bullet ammo and some high end reloads, both running 115 grains solid bullet type. I've noted previously that this gun was LPS'ing on P&B ammo (I think that's the name) which is new but low end ammo. Out of all of the many autoloaders I've owned, I've never had this problem of LPS. I think in the history of shooting cheap loads in my Glock M21 for practical shooting practice, I had one misfire out of about 10,000 rounds. I shot that gun A LOT. And that misfire would not fire again in the Glock or either of the 1911's I tried it in afterwards. It was a true bad cartridge.
El Fisho Jr. and I ran those two boxes through the P250 this morning, and again I'll mention that I find the gun to be outstandingly accurate. I really like the grips, which fit my small/medium sized hand far better than a Glock 19, a Walther P99 or any of the large capacity Sigs (229, 226, 2022). That's why it's so sad that it's having the misfire problem, because who wants a gun prone to not working?
It is mentioned enough on the various gun forums, as a simple google will tell you, that it appears to be a design defect. I've mentioned before that the Federal Air Marshal's have ordered this gun as a replacement for the Sig 229 all metal gun, a big mistake. The 229 is well known as being accurate and reliable. It's one of the few guns I'd risk my life on in a law enforcement job like the Marshal's. It's reasonably concealable compared other guns of it's ilk (Glock 32, Springfield XD, Smith and Wesson, etc) and more concealable than it's big brother the Sig 226. All things considered, if I had to carry a duty gun in .357 Sig, that's the one I'd carry.
With the prevalance of LPS in Billy Ray's pistol, as well as the large number claimed on the internets in forums, as I said, it appears to be a design defect. Some spring needs to be weaker or stronger, or some piece of metal needs to be heavier. The DA pull is long as hell, and I can't believe that it would need a longer pull. In fact, it would be good if the pull was half it's current length, as far as I'm concerned. It would still be more pull than any Glock. It's gotta be that the hammer actuated striker or some spring attached thereto is not getting enough "getem-up-and-go" to hit the primer hard enough to detonate. Why it happens sporadically is beyond my limited mechanical engineering knowledge. But you don't have to know why, you just have to accept that it does misfire.
And move on.
I've urged Billy Ray to get a Sig 229 as a replacement, and there are tons of models to choose from. Billy Ray is leaning towards a Browning Hi-Power, and that's a fine weapon as well.
It's really too bad about the P250. It functioned flawlessly today with the Winchester ammo, but had FIVE LPS's with the 50 rounds of high end reloads I shot. Ten Percent. That's about the same as happened last time, and utterly unacceptable that it happened more than once. At this point, the gun has had about 200-300 rounds through it, and although I know some guns are claimed to need "breaking in", none of the autoloaders I've owned ever had this issue.
This might be the one bad pistol in Sig's history. Shame too. With a safety/decocker, an actual hammer, a da/sa trigger and an available .22 plinking replacement kit, the P250 could rock out. The design was not well thought through, and the lack of availability of the replacement barrels, slides and magazines has made it's converible features mute. It's size and shape is great, but the reliability is horribly disappointing. I mean, it's really worse than a gun that jams feeding or ejection issues.
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