MEGA Problem with Taurus P99

MusashiMyamoto · April 22, 2010, 03:09 AM

My family owns a beautiful Taurus P99, it was purchased brand spanking new a few years ago for my mother to carry as a concealed weapon. We have just recently began experiencing major reliability problems. I will put down the following information because I cannot figure out the problem, nor can my father who is a very well respected and experienced firearms expert. The problem started the day that I took my friend Ruben to the local Hernando County Sportsman's Club Range, I was teaching him the safety techniques of firearms, as he had no prior experience. We started with his favorite firearm of mine, my Russian SKS as it was very simple and straight forward, after he got used to it we decided to move onto a pistol, as he is interested in getting a CCL. So we decided to first use the Taurus P99, we was using UMC FMJ 9MM (obviously) ammo, and the gun worked flawlessly like it should for the first 60-70rds then all hell broke loose. The firearm kept jamming every single round, to two rounds fired. So while this did actually help with the simulation and gave him first hand experience with what to do with a jam, it kept me puzzled as to why or how it's jamming. The Jam would happen where the bullet would fail to be fully extracted from the barrel, it would only be coming out just a little bit and then the round in the magazine would be stuck down in the magazine and the slide would be back.

So I did the obvious, when we got home I got to work, cleaning and scrubbing that little baby with every proper cleaning technique I was aware of, then changed the magazine (as I heard that could be the problem) and changed the ammo. I used several different kinds of new and fairly old ammo (about half a decade old but still very much usable) so I got all of this together and went back and tried it again, feeling as though the problem was fixed. Well it wasn't and it was the same as was before, it kept jamming and jamming AND JAMMING!!!.

So I handed it over to my father who did a lot of work to it, he stoned all the parts in it that could be stoned, (for those of you who are new to this or don't know what stoning is, its smoothing the components of the firearm down such as seer, with several expensive stones) he also took the gun apart again, completely apart to every single bare component and smoothed them all, so smooth you could really see yourself in them. While it was also apart my father inspected all the parts because thats what we also thought could be the problem, my father who happens to work at a nuclear plant inspecting metals, steam pipes, and other things such as that, said that everything was so perfect it looked new. WHAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM! so we took it back to the range for the third time, and it jammed again and again, we tried different magazines and ammo, NOTHING WORKED!

So I have come here to ask for everyone's help, I am sure that somewhere out there their is a person who can help me and my family get this reliable, smoothing working, ACCURATE (my father can hit beer cans at 90yrds off hand with this, and remember its a 9MM) fantastic pistol back in fully operational mode. Thank you for all who have read what I just wrote, if you have ANY questions please feel free to email me or leave a comment, I also own a lot of Audio/Video equipment (I work as an A/V director for a small company) I will be more than happy to take extremely high resolution photo's for anyone that requests and gives me specific instructions as to what they want the photo's to be of. Their about 14 mega pixel (if thats not high resolution then IDK what is) Thanks for all who have read what I have written and help contribute to this problem, I am sure it will be a learning experience for everyone involved.

Thud · April 22, 2010, 03:55 AM

Have You tried to change the magazine? I'd put only one round in the mag and see if the pistol extracts and ejects properly.... Cheers, THUD.-

Chesster · April 22, 2010, 06:54 AM

Welcome and sorry for your problems. Some suggestions, As Thud said, change mags. Check to see if ejector is broke or damaged. Check the extractor spring. Check the extractor for breakage or debri underneath.

greyson97 · April 22, 2010, 09:02 AM

send it back to Taurus

TSR80 · April 22, 2010, 09:16 AM

Try a different mag.

Make sure the guide rod and recoil spring are seated correctly. If you have switched to a weaker recoil spring put the stock one back in.

Make sure the gun is lubed correctly.

These guns and their Beretta counterparts don't like to be run dirty and don't like a lot of lube. If you run them dirty or dry they will stove pipe OFTEN, I've owned both.

LordTio3 · April 22, 2010, 09:46 AM

Am I the only one who read that he specifically changed the magazines and tried several different ones loaded with different kinds of ammo to troubleshoot and eliminate this as a possibility?

Please take some time to actually READ before you spam the OP with things he's already thought of and made a point to tell us about.

Here are some possible problems as they occur to me:
1. If you are using non-Taurus magazines made for your weapon by a separate party/company, these are sometimes not up to the same QC that 1st party magazines are (i.e. Glock magazines). If you are using all Taurus magazines to no avail, then this is most likely not the problem.

2. Check the slide seat. At battery with no round in the chamber, try and wiggle the slide from side to side on the frame. I've personally seen excessive slide play be the problem in FTE situations, though, from your description, it seems as if your 99 is suffering from "double feeds". This would be due to an unlikely manufacturer error. There should be VERY little play in the slide seat if any at all. If there is excessive play, you need to notify Taurus and their CS department should take very good care of you.

3. You may have gotten a bad Taurus. Sometimes, you get a bad Taurus. I'm not knocking the manufacturer, but in my experience, sometimes Taurus just puts out some bad lots within their models. It seems they are at least as aware of this and it would probably be a larger strike against them if their Customer Service on the issue was any less satisfying. This may be the case if you cannot get it working. Call them up and they'll take care of you. It'll probably take a couple of months, but it'll be worth it on the next range trip to not be so frustrated at money and time wasted.

Hope everything works out for you.
Sorry for your luck,
~LT

vladan · April 22, 2010, 10:19 AM

LT, yes, solid advice about the mags, especially when he said it worked for him for years

Musashi,
My guess without actually seeing the gun is the extractor. Just as Thud said, load one round in the mag and see if it extract... My PT92 once jammed in similar ways when piece of brass shaving got stuck under the extractor.
I would say just to send it to Taurus as their service is pretty good but unfortunatelly your father "stoning" by now probably voided lifetime warranty that Taurus provide so you might have to pay to Taurus to fix it for you if you are unable to find the problem.

TSR80 · April 22, 2010, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Am I the only one who read that he specifically changed the magazines and tried several different ones loaded with different kinds of ammo to troubleshoot and eliminate this as a possibility?

Please take some time to actually READ before you spam the OP with things he's already thought of and made a point to tell us about.

Yes, I read it. So, my suggestion of "try a different mag" would imply one he hasn't tried yet, so if he's already tried two well, try another one. Sorry if you considered this to be spam. In your rush to correct and scold everyone in this thread you didn't think through the suggestions offered.

Chesster · April 22, 2010, 10:49 AM

Quote:

Am I the only one who read.......

Journalism 101, capture the reader in the first sentence, make your case in the first three, otherwise you'll loose....something or other.

MusashiMyamoto · April 22, 2010, 05:19 PM

OK no one really suggested anything that I was either unaware of, or had not done before, and yes I had changed magazines many times with many different configurations of ammo and such. Thanks for the suggestion that the pistol should be sent back to the manufacturer, however since the pistol was purchase in the mid 1990's and has already had numerous spring kits put on it before, the one were using now is from brownell. So I'm sure the warranty is way out of service from the changes. The stoning that was done was not the first, it was simply a much more time consumed one with new stones. My father does this to most firearms we own, usually to the trigger in order to smooth it, he says that he doesn't believe in a hair trigger just a smooth one, and I believe him.

My father said that more than likely the problem is the main extraction spring has worn out, and therefore must be replaced. He also noted that this first started happening when the pistol had already been shot many times and was hot. So were going to replace the spring, maybe just get a brand new spring kit for the whole thing from numerich or brownell and just give it a sprucing up. It will be sometime before we get it delivered, maybe a week or so. When it was first taken apart the extractor was indeed dirty, so thats why we was sure it was fixed, Thanks for everyone's help and if you have any more tips for this particular problem feel free to post them. As I can see this is not the first time it has happened.

putteral · April 23, 2010, 04:02 PM

I would call Taurus. They have a lifetime warranty.
Hernando is a great range. Been a member there for 3 years now.

LOUcifer · April 23, 2010, 07:05 PM

MEGA problem with Taurus????????????

LOL...well I already knew that

Sorry your having issues...If you purchased your Taurus from Shooting Sports in Tampa then they'll tell you Taurus is just as reliable as Glock...LMAO!!

I fell for that a few years back...I've since learned my lesson and only own 2 manufacturers currently S&W and SIG and that's it.

G'luck

B.N.Real · April 24, 2010, 01:22 AM

Try a new recoil spring.

The one you are using might have expanded out of spec and be rubbing causing a binding in the action of the gun when the slide moves fully backwards.

Also check the extractor.

Sometimes they break so clean,they look perfectly fine when they have in fact snapped off perfectly enough to make you crazy with how the gun won't clear itself when it cycles.

April 22, 2010, 03:09 AM	#1
MusashiMyamoto Junior Member Join Date: April 22, 2010 Location: Crystal River Florida (AKA middle of no where) Posts: 2	MEGA Problem with Taurus P99 My family owns a beautiful Taurus P99, it was purchased brand spanking new a few years ago for my mother to carry as a concealed weapon. We have just recently began experiencing major reliability problems. I will put down the following information because I cannot figure out the problem, nor can my father who is a very well respected and experienced firearms expert. The problem started the day that I took my friend Ruben to the local Hernando County Sportsman's Club Range, I was teaching him the safety techniques of firearms, as he had no prior experience. We started with his favorite firearm of mine, my Russian SKS as it was very simple and straight forward, after he got used to it we decided to move onto a pistol, as he is interested in getting a CCL. So we decided to first use the Taurus P99, we was using UMC FMJ 9MM (obviously) ammo, and the gun worked flawlessly like it should for the first 60-70rds then all hell broke loose. The firearm kept jamming every single round, to two rounds fired. So while this did actually help with the simulation and gave him first hand experience with what to do with a jam, it kept me puzzled as to why or how it's jamming. The Jam would happen where the bullet would fail to be fully extracted from the barrel, it would only be coming out just a little bit and then the round in the magazine would be stuck down in the magazine and the slide would be back. So I did the obvious, when we got home I got to work, cleaning and scrubbing that little baby with every proper cleaning technique I was aware of, then changed the magazine (as I heard that could be the problem) and changed the ammo. I used several different kinds of new and fairly old ammo (about half a decade old but still very much usable) so I got all of this together and went back and tried it again, feeling as though the problem was fixed. Well it wasn't and it was the same as was before, it kept jamming and jamming AND JAMMING!!!. So I handed it over to my father who did a lot of work to it, he stoned all the parts in it that could be stoned, (for those of you who are new to this or don't know what stoning is, its smoothing the components of the firearm down such as seer, with several expensive stones) he also took the gun apart again, completely apart to every single bare component and smoothed them all, so smooth you could really see yourself in them. While it was also apart my father inspected all the parts because thats what we also thought could be the problem, my father who happens to work at a nuclear plant inspecting metals, steam pipes, and other things such as that, said that everything was so perfect it looked new. WHAT COULD BE THE PROBLEM! so we took it back to the range for the third time, and it jammed again and again, we tried different magazines and ammo, NOTHING WORKED! So I have come here to ask for everyone's help, I am sure that somewhere out there their is a person who can help me and my family get this reliable, smoothing working, ACCURATE (my father can hit beer cans at 90yrds off hand with this, and remember its a 9MM) fantastic pistol back in fully operational mode. Thank you for all who have read what I just wrote, if you have ANY questions please feel free to email me or leave a comment, I also own a lot of Audio/Video equipment (I work as an A/V director for a small company) I will be more than happy to take extremely high resolution photo's for anyone that requests and gives me specific instructions as to what they want the photo's to be of. Their about 14 mega pixel (if thats not high resolution then IDK what is) Thanks for all who have read what I have written and help contribute to this problem, I am sure it will be a learning experience for everyone involved. __________________ "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle" -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 3 Attack by Stratagem, Last paragraph in chapter

April 22, 2010, 06:54 AM	#3
Chesster Senior Member Join Date: September 6, 2007 Location: Dixie Posts: 2,538	Welcome and sorry for your problems. Some suggestions, As Thud said, change mags. Check to see if ejector is broke or damaged. Check the extractor spring. Check the extractor for breakage or debri underneath. __________________ Chesster Proud NDN "The American Idle" Vote 'Pro-Choice' on 2nd Amendment issues!!!

April 22, 2010, 09:02 AM	#4
greyson97 Senior Member Join Date: June 29, 2009 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 1,284	send it back to Taurus __________________ "Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe, maybe. I've yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet." -Heavy si vis pacem, para bellum

April 22, 2010, 09:16 AM	#5
TSR80 Member Join Date: February 18, 2010 Posts: 65	Try a different mag. Make sure the guide rod and recoil spring are seated correctly. If you have switched to a weaker recoil spring put the stock one back in. Make sure the gun is lubed correctly. These guns and their Beretta counterparts don't like to be run dirty and don't like a lot of lube. If you run them dirty or dry they will stove pipe OFTEN, I've owned both. __________________ TSR80 - Firmly seated in reality. Basing conclusions on emotions is like wiping before you poop, it doesn't make any damn sense.

April 22, 2010, 05:19 PM	#10
MusashiMyamoto Junior Member Join Date: April 22, 2010 Location: Crystal River Florida (AKA middle of no where) Posts: 2	Thanks for the help, the problem is still there OK no one really suggested anything that I was either unaware of, or had not done before, and yes I had changed magazines many times with many different configurations of ammo and such. Thanks for the suggestion that the pistol should be sent back to the manufacturer, however since the pistol was purchase in the mid 1990's and has already had numerous spring kits put on it before, the one were using now is from brownell. So I'm sure the warranty is way out of service from the changes. The stoning that was done was not the first, it was simply a much more time consumed one with new stones. My father does this to most firearms we own, usually to the trigger in order to smooth it, he says that he doesn't believe in a hair trigger just a smooth one, and I believe him. My father said that more than likely the problem is the main extraction spring has worn out, and therefore must be replaced. He also noted that this first started happening when the pistol had already been shot many times and was hot. So were going to replace the spring, maybe just get a brand new spring kit for the whole thing from numerich or brownell and just give it a sprucing up. It will be sometime before we get it delivered, maybe a week or so. When it was first taken apart the extractor was indeed dirty, so thats why we was sure it was fixed, Thanks for everyone's help and if you have any more tips for this particular problem feel free to post them. As I can see this is not the first time it has happened. __________________ "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle" -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War, Chapter 3 Attack by Stratagem, Last paragraph in chapter

April 22, 2010, 03:55 AM	#2
Thud Senior Member Join Date: December 29, 2005 Posts: 193	Have You tried to change the magazine? I'd put only one round in the mag and see if the pistol extracts and ejects properly.... Cheers, THUD.-

April 22, 2010, 09:46 AM	#6
LordTio3 Senior Member Join Date: March 5, 2010 Location: Bloomington, Indiana Posts: 850	Am I the only one who read that he specifically changed the magazines and tried several different ones loaded with different kinds of ammo to troubleshoot and eliminate this as a possibility? Please take some time to actually READ before you spam the OP with things he's already thought of and made a point to tell us about. Here are some possible problems as they occur to me: 1. If you are using non-Taurus magazines made for your weapon by a separate party/company, these are sometimes not up to the same QC that 1st party magazines are (i.e. Glock magazines). If you are using all Taurus magazines to no avail, then this is most likely not the problem. 2. Check the slide seat. At battery with no round in the chamber, try and wiggle the slide from side to side on the frame. I've personally seen excessive slide play be the problem in FTE situations, though, from your description, it seems as if your 99 is suffering from "double feeds". This would be due to an unlikely manufacturer error. There should be VERY little play in the slide seat if any at all. If there is excessive play, you need to notify Taurus and their CS department should take very good care of you. 3. You may have gotten a bad Taurus. Sometimes, you get a bad Taurus. I'm not knocking the manufacturer, but in my experience, sometimes Taurus just puts out some bad lots within their models. It seems they are at least as aware of this and it would probably be a larger strike against them if their Customer Service on the issue was any less satisfying. This may be the case if you cannot get it working. Call them up and they'll take care of you. It'll probably take a couple of months, but it'll be worth it on the next range trip to not be so frustrated at money and time wasted. Hope everything works out for you. Sorry for your luck, ~LT

April 22, 2010, 10:19 AM	#7
vladan Senior Member Join Date: March 14, 2010 Location: Central Florida Posts: 813	LT, yes, solid advice about the mags, especially when he said it worked for him for years Musashi, My guess without actually seeing the gun is the extractor. Just as Thud said, load one round in the mag and see if it extract... My PT92 once jammed in similar ways when piece of brass shaving got stuck under the extractor. I would say just to send it to Taurus as their service is pretty good but unfortunatelly your father "stoning" by now probably voided lifetime warranty that Taurus provide so you might have to pay to Taurus to fix it for you if you are unable to find the problem.

April 23, 2010, 04:02 PM	#11
putteral Senior Member Join Date: May 17, 2008 Location: Homosassa,Florida Posts: 206	I would call Taurus. They have a lifetime warranty. Hernando is a great range. Been a member there for 3 years now.

April 23, 2010, 07:05 PM	#12
LOUcifer Senior Member Join Date: April 5, 2010 Location: Tampa Posts: 228	MEGA problem with Taurus???????????? LOL...well I already knew that Sorry your having issues...If you purchased your Taurus from Shooting Sports in Tampa then they'll tell you Taurus is just as reliable as Glock...LMAO!! I fell for that a few years back...I've since learned my lesson and only own 2 manufacturers currently S&W and SIG and that's it. G'luck

April 24, 2010, 01:22 AM	#13
B.N.Real Senior Member Join Date: February 22, 2008 Posts: 4,092	Try a new recoil spring. The one you are using might have expanded out of spec and be rubbing causing a binding in the action of the gun when the slide moves fully backwards. Also check the extractor. Sometimes they break so clean,they look perfectly fine when they have in fact snapped off perfectly enough to make you crazy with how the gun won't clear itself when it cycles.