Brought Out The Solo--No Failures

[RustyIron]

Today was cold and I was unmotivated to work on my projects, so I decided to kill an hour poking holes in paper.

Since this is a Kimber forum, let's talk about the Solo first. I fed it some Winchester Ranger SXT 147 gr. that has been in the gun for quite a while, followed by about 60 rounds of Freedom 124 gr. RN. Everything ran perfectly. Wow. That's a first. I'm both astounded and pleased. The gun must have eight or nine hundred rounds through it by now. Perhaps two trips to the factory and a lot of ammo is what's required to make the gun run right.

The Sig P938 is always a fun gun to shoot. Shockingly, it experienced two failures to fire--once with the Winchester SXT, and the other with the Freedom Munitions. A second hammer strike solved the problem. The only possible cause would be dirty firing pin. On that gun, I don't clean it every time, and it probably had 400 or so rounds through it. Perhaps on tiny guns, I need to clean it every time. That's how I roll on the Solo, too.

The other gun to come out was the Sig P229 in .357 SIG. That gun always runs perfectly and is a joy to shoot. No matter if I'm shooting DA/SA, fast, slow, it doesn't matter. It puts all the holes in a little group and is well behaved. I really like this time of year when it gets cold. That means I wear long pants and the P229 gets to come along with me more often.

[Cucamonga kid]

Originally Posted by RustyIron I really like this time of year when it gets cold. That means I wear long pants and the P229 gets to come along with me more often.

What is "cold" in La Habra? ' cause it's 7* with 6" of snow on the ground here in Big Sky. Lol
I'm envious: I think I'm getting a touch of cabin fever here. I lived in Cucamonga, Ontario, Orange and Long Beach over a span of 19 years. This global warming is a bitch!

[RustyIron]

Originally Posted by Cucamonga kid What is "cold" in La Habra?

Dude! It's expected to make it down to 38 tonight, and tomorrow the high will only be 68. This is a seriously fouuuuled up situation.

[Dude22]

Thanks for the report out. Always nice to hear some positive comments about the Solo.

[Chuck43]

RustyIron, when I first got my P938 after about 300 rounds I started experiencing occasional failure to fire. When I pulled the firing pin two pieces slid out, it had cracked in half. A phone call to Sig and I had a new one in the mail, about 1500 rounds later and the problem hasn't repeated itself.

[Trex]

Originally Posted by Chuck43 RustyIron, when I first got my P938 after about 300 rounds I started experiencing occasional failure to fire. When I pulled the firing pin two pieces slid out, it had cracked in half. A phone call to Sig and I had a new one in the mail, about 1500 rounds later and the problem hasn't repeated itself.

Sounds like Sig's customer service is ( perhaps ) as good as Kimber's?

[Cucamonga kid]

And it's "lifetime"👍🏻

[GoingSolo]

Originally Posted by RustyIron Today was cold and I was unmotivated to work on my projects, so I decided to kill an hour poking holes in paper. Since this is a Kimber forum, let's talk about the Solo first. I fed it some Winchester Ranger SXT 147 gr. that has been in the gun for quite a while, followed by about 60 rounds of Freedom 124 gr. RN. Everything ran perfectly. Wow. That's a first. I'm both astounded and pleased. The gun must have eight or nine hundred rounds through it by now. Perhaps two trips to the factory and a lot of ammo is what's required to make the gun run right. The Sig P938 is always a fun gun to shoot. Shockingly, it experienced two failures to fire--once with the Winchester SXT, and the other with the Freedom Munitions. A second hammer strike solved the problem. The only possible cause would be dirty firing pin. On that gun, I don't clean it every time, and it probably had 400 or so rounds through it. Perhaps on tiny guns, I need to clean it every time. That's how I roll on the Solo, too. The other gun to come out was the Sig P229 in .357 SIG. That gun always runs perfectly and is a joy to shoot. No matter if I'm shooting DA/SA, fast, slow, it doesn't matter. It puts all the holes in a little group and is well behaved. I really like this time of year when it gets cold. That means I wear long pants and the P229 gets to come along with me more often.

We appear to have a similar family of firearms, my 229 is of the .40 variety. Nice choices!

[RustyIron]

Originally Posted by Chuck43 When I pulled the firing pin two pieces slid out, it had cracked in half. A phone call to Sig and I had a new one in the mail

That is indeed a strange one, Chuck. I've never had a firing pin break, but in the old days it was a concern from dry firing. I don't think it matters on any modern firearms.

There were no obvious causes for my failure to fire. When I cleaned the firing pin channel, the swab was just a little dirty, and when I douched it out, there were a couple minute brass flecks that came out. I wouldn't expect this to be a problem, but little guns are a more finicky than full-sized pistols.

I can't remember if we've spoken of this, but if you haven't already done so, Loctite the guide rod joint on your 938. There have been reports of some coming unscrewed. Use wicking-grade Loctite, and you don't have to disassemble it.

Also, I thought this would be a good opportunity to squeeze Sig into giving me a new mainspring housing and sear spring. I told them of the failure-to-fire and my concern that it was a result of the well-known issues with their first generation MSH's. I asked them to send me the parts. The CSR explained that a faulty MSH wouldn't cause this symptom, but offered to upgrade the parts if I sent in the gun. Since the gun was over a year old, he wouldn't pay shipping. I didn't want to pay nearly sixty bucks in shipping, so I just bought the parts outright. $13.95 for the mainspring housing and sear spring, delivered. Although I don't really need it at this time, I'll be much happier knowing that the chance of a future failure is eliminated.

[Chuck43]

Thank you for the heads up on the guide rod. I had read about that problem even before I got my P938 and so that was taken care of before it's first range trip.