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Old August 19, 2012, 08:22 PM   #1
JN01
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Sig Sauer P938 at the range

Purchased a P938 Nightmare yesterday, my first Sig. As I do with any new gun, I stripped it, cleaned it, and re-lubricated it. Following this, I hand cycled the slide 5-600 times.

Went out to the range today, while not a total "nightmare", there were some issues.

Started out with 25 rounds of Remington 115 grain hollow points. Nine or them failed to extract, fresh round tried to cycle into the chamber over the spent casing. At this point, I'm thinking, Oh crap!.

Next up was 50 rounds of Winchester 115 grain Silvertips which ran flawlessly. Whew!

50 rounds of WWB 115 grain hollowpoints produced 6 failures to extract.

Another box of 115 grain Silvertips (different lot, older ammo I've had for a while) produced 8 failures to extract.

Finally, 50 rounds of Speer 124 grain +P Gold Dots ran perfectly.

Out of 225 rounds fired, there were 23 failures to extract.

Recoil was not bad considering the size of the gun (but you won't mistake it for a .380), though after 225 rounds, my hand felt a little abraded by the grips. Muzzle blast is pretty impressive though.

A couple of the grip screws loosened up during firing, a bit of blue locktite should take care of that.

Trigger pull is not bad.

I am not the greatest pistol shot, but accuracy seemed to be decent after I started getting used to handling the gun. I was limited to shooting at 25 yards, but with the box of Gold Dots, I scored a 428 on a NRA 25 yard pistol target. I had to hold off to the right as it shot 3-4" to the left of point of aim at 25 yards.

I'm not sure what to attribute the failures to extract to. I intend to try more and varied brands of ammunition to see if it is ammo sensitive or simply needs a break in period. If not, I'll be contacting Sig's CS department.

I'm hoping the bugs can be worked out, it should be a great little gun. It's a bit disappointing that it can't run 100% out of the box, but that unfortunately seems to be the norm for a lot of companies these days.
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Old August 19, 2012, 08:32 PM   #2
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I had many FTEs on mine while using WWB. Switched to Federal Champion at the advice of someone on this forum and although not perfect it was substantially better. Had no FTEs with Remington Golden Sabers.

Also had a grip screw work lose and lost. Called Sig and they sent me a grip screw and suggested blue Locktiting it and the other 3 as well. I explained the FTE problem to the rep and ask if they had reports of anyone else having this issue. He said they had not and although WWB is not "premium" ammunition the pistol should still cycle it correctly after a proper break-in period. Sounded like a cop out to me but I'm going to give it a few more rounds before I bitch too much.
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Old August 19, 2012, 08:47 PM   #3
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Sorry to hear about the reliability issues. My buddy had a 238 that has been sent back to SIG twice now for reliability issues. It's just tough to put the 1911 style guns in a pocket package. Hopefully yours gets better with time...
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Old August 20, 2012, 02:59 AM   #4
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I just purchased a SIG P-290 to use as my conceal carry weapon. I like the way it felt in my hand and the size is just right for me. However it had to go back to Sig. I was getting too many light strikes and I did try a few different brands ammo. When it did fire I had no problems with feeding or ejection, and for a little 9mm it is pretty accurate. While talking to the Sig rep. I ask the same question that I always ask any rep. and that was "have you had any problems with other customers having light strikes with this model?" Of course he said no. The thing is I did some research before calling Sig. (should have did some research before buying) and this is a known problem with this model. They even came out with an updated trigger group for the P-290. Several people even posted it on U-tube. Point being they are not going to tell you if they have had any problems with any given model. Or at least they have never admitted anything to me. Most of the time they will tell you to try another brand of ammo. My thinking on that is if you buy a box of good quality ammo it should work in a good quality pistol regardless.
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Old August 21, 2012, 06:12 AM   #5
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Sounds like they named it right.

There is no way I would ever trust that one or even keep it. Sig would now be a dirty word to me. There is no excuse for selling something especially a gun with those kinds of problems. I would officially write Sig off in the future. That is just me though. I have a low tolerance for low quality.
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Old August 21, 2012, 08:34 AM   #6
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Sorry to hear your problems, I have the nightmare and its been 100%.
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Old August 21, 2012, 09:04 AM   #7
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I've taken my 938 Extreme to the range twice now. So far, it's been perfect with 124gr FMJ (PMC Bronze and S&B), 124gr Speer Gold Dot GDHP, and 135gr Hornady Critical Duty JHP. I had a few FTEs with 115gr WWB. With about 350 flawless rounds of the 124 and 135gr, I'll just stick with that and not try 115gr anymore. I'm very happy with the P938.
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Old August 21, 2012, 05:19 PM   #8
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I did a little Googling and it seems that most who have had FTE issues with the 938 involved 115 grain bullets. Mine did have a perfect run with the 124 grain Gold Dots. On the other hand, one of the boxes of 115 gr. Silvertips ran without a FTE also.

I'm wondering why bullet weight would have anything to do with FTE. Do they have lighter charges that fail to bring the slide back far enough?

A couple of suggestions I have heard for correcting it were polishing the chamber (non abrasive so as to polish, not grind) and using grease rather than oil on the slide rails to avoid the lube from running off.

I'm going to pick up a few brands of heavier bullets and see what happens. It would suck if it won't run 115 grain for practice, as most of the cheaper stuff is of that weight.

Quote:
There is no way I would ever trust that one or even keep it. Sig would now be a dirty word to me. There is no excuse for selling something especially a gun with those kinds of problems. I would officially write Sig off in the future. That is just me though. I have a low tolerance for low quality.
Yeah, this being my first Sig, it doesn't make me want to run right out and buy another. I don't get why QC seems to be so poor these days. I'm not ready to give up on this one yet, though. If it runs 100% on 124 grain and up, it would still be a great CC piece. Just not as good as it SHOULD be.

coop 2564 said:
Quote:
Sorry to hear your problems, I have the nightmare and its been 100%.
Does yours choke on 115 grain cartridges?

Last edited by JN01; August 21, 2012 at 05:29 PM.
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Old August 21, 2012, 07:15 PM   #9
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I have tried almost all the micro nines that are out there and have found that they are all more finicky about what ammo they like. I found that my P938 runs 100% with Federal 115 JHP and Remington 124 gr Golden Saber. I picked up 20 boxes of the Federal classic 115 gr JHP from Walmart at $15.99 a box. I tried a box of 115 gr Winchester white box and got a FTF about every third magazine. the heavier weight bullets generaly develop more pressure and drive the slide back faster, so use either use hotter 115 gr bullets or heavier weight bullets.
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Old August 21, 2012, 07:27 PM   #10
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Almost all pocket autos start out with teething problems.

They'll debug them after awhile. No reason to be the guinea pig about it.
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Old August 21, 2012, 07:31 PM   #11
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I am looking at getting one, but I saw a bunch of bad reviews/range videos of it FTF and FTE. Theres some bugs with it being a new gun. There has been complaints about it shooting low, but it looks like operator errors.


The best thing to do when getting a new[9mm] gun is using good ammo, like 124g and not 115g to get the springs moving harder.



Quote:
I don't get why QC seems to be so poor these days
Work easy not hard, paid by hour.

People get lazy on the line etc... ??
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Old August 23, 2012, 07:22 PM   #12
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Update-2nd range trip

Well, I went ahead and polished the chamber, lubed the slide with some Tetra grease, and headed for the range.

Ammo was 50 rounds of Federal 115 grain FMJ, 50 rounds of Federal 115 grain HiShok JHP, and 50 rounds of American Eagle 147 grain total metal jacket.

Number of failures to extract out of 150 rounds fired: 0

Blue Locktite held the grip screws just fine.

I had discovered a couple of sharp points on the bottom rear edge of the grips which a jewelers file took care of, my hand felt much better after this session.

Shooting today was more informal, 7 yards shooting at chunks of clay pigeons. Did some point shooting drills, double taps, and emptied a few magazines as fast as I could pull the trigger just to check for reliability. The 938 zipped right though it all.

It still shoots a bit to the left, but at 7 yards, it is pretty minimal. I still need to get a hold of a sight pusher to correct that.

It bites that I needed to tinker with a brand new gun to get it to work like it should, but I am relieved that the fixes were pretty simple.

Next, I'm going to see if the dreaded WWB will run in it, and run a few hundred more rounds down range. If it continues to operate the way it did today, I'll call it good to go.
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Old September 22, 2012, 05:02 PM   #13
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3rd trip to the range

50 rounds of Winchester NATO rounds, 50 Winchester 115 gr HP, 50 rounds Federal 115 gr FMJ.

NATO rounds shot fine.

5 FTE with the 115 grainers.

Crap.

Guess I'll be contacting Sig. Works great with heavier bullets, but dang it, I want to be able to use any of them.
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Old October 6, 2012, 07:57 PM   #14
JN01
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Finally got around to calling Sig on Thursday. They asked what type of lube I use on the slide, and if it had been shot from a bench. They then e-mailed me a FedEx label to send it back on their dime. Went out Friday.

Perusing the Sig forums, some of the low serial number 938s (mine is in the 3000 range) have had similar issues and the extractor was redesigned. Having the factory replace it solves the problem. I'm hoping so, as I really like this pistol otherwise.
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Old October 6, 2012, 08:14 PM   #15
9mm
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Has Sig fixed this problem? what are the # numbers they are up to now? I am about to buy one, but going to have to run 400-600 rounds to trust it. I heard the 115gains don't work well.
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Old October 6, 2012, 09:57 PM   #16
JN01
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I don't know about serial number ranges, but the newer ones seem to be trouble free (going by forum chatter). Sig also seems to be stepping up and correcting the bad ones as needed. Perhaps a recall might be in order though.
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Old October 7, 2012, 11:17 AM   #17
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Keep us in the loop JN.

I love shooting my Mustang Pocketlite, so I always figured that I would eventually pick up a 938. It is a shame Sig is having these problems, but I might pick one up next year if they can fix these ammo feed problems.
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Old October 7, 2012, 12:06 PM   #18
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It seems like most pocket 9mms take some time to get the bugs worked out. I plan on picking up a 938 but I want to wait for them to get the kinks all worked out and for the price to come down.

We've all heard the grumblings about Sig's QC going downhill. I think it's downright shameful. Sig has built a great reputation for high quality, reliable firearms over the years, I hate even the thought that they're going downhill.

However, maybe there are some extenuating factors at work. I often think that the influx of new gun owners who have largely fueled the pocket pistol craze are not as educated on proper gun care/maintenance/usage, leading to more problems. I'm not at all trying to insinuate the OP falls in the uneducated category; clearly he knows what he's doing. I'm also not trying to talk down on this crowd, as we all had to start somewhere. I just see lots of folks at the LGS and at the range with all the latest and greatest compact and subcompact pistols with lasers and everything else, but they can't shoot them for anything. IMHO, these smaller guns are far the best to learn on. For this crowd, I would say the rate of user induced failures is much higher. All these problems then get posted on the internet, because that's where the world goes to complain these days. Just my $0.02.

Wow, that turned into much more of a rant than I anticipated.

Keep us posted, JN01, and thanks for being thorough in sharing your experience with us. Hopefully Sig fixes the problems, because I really want one of these guns!
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Old October 7, 2012, 03:59 PM   #19
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I always get a chuckle when I read comments about quality in guns.

the 938 is a "new' as in just this year out on the market gun. I don't care what gun it is, if its NEW you going to have a few production bugs to work out.

secondly the folks that comment on quality going down on guns that are HALF the price of the "better" quality control they are complaining about. Folks if you buy a new pistol for 400 bucks and want to compare a mass produced pistol to a 1200-2000 dollar hand fit pistol, you will never be happy with the lower price gun. No fault of its own mind you, its just you are not comparing apples to apples, you are comparing apples to the truck they rode to the market in.

just my .02 cents
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Old October 8, 2012, 06:26 AM   #20
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Quote:
Folks if you buy a new pistol for 400 bucks and want to compare a mass produced pistol to a 1200-2000 dollar hand fit pistol, you will never be happy with the lower price gun.
I'd argue that there are a lot of guns for 400 dollars that you'd be happy with.

I have a 2022 that is flawless after 15000 rounds, that I got for less than 400 bucks. It's accurate, has never broken, hasn't been that well cared for its entire life.

...also NATO rounds in a 938? That's overkill. I doubt that the high powered rounds will make a difference in that short barrel.
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Old October 8, 2012, 02:18 PM   #21
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Quote:
...also NATO rounds in a 938? That's overkill. I doubt that the high powered rounds will make a difference in that short barrel.
I wasn't really concerned about the ballistics. I was trying different brands and bullet weights to see what worked in the gun. The NATO rounds were what WalMart had that day.
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Old October 9, 2012, 06:57 AM   #22
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I have a 938 and have been following this thread closely.

I have 200 rounds through the Nightmare version without a hiccup. Mostly 115g S&B.
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Old October 12, 2012, 10:53 AM   #23
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Another update-

I have read on the forums about other peoples bad experience with Sig regarding malfunctioning P938s, (Sigs being reluctant to make repairs, taking 3 weeks or more to return the gun) but my experience with Sig CS has been excellent so far.

I called them on Thursday, Oct 4th, they e-mailed me a return FedEx label. Shipped it out on Friday afternoon Oct 5. Sig received it Oct 8th (7th was a holiday). I received it back today, October 12th. One week turnaround including a 3 day weekend is pretty good, I think.

The gunsmiths note said "upgraded extractor".

Off today to pick up some ammo, I hope to get to the range tomorrow to test it out.
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Old October 12, 2012, 07:55 PM   #24
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Picked up my second P938 yesterday and took it to the range today. I ran 200 rounds through it. Had a little trouble getting the first round to chamber on the first two magazines but no issues after that. I put 100 rounds of Federal 115 gr FMJs and 100 rounds of 115 gr Federal JHPs through it. My first P938 that I picked when they first came out took 300 rounds and a trip back to Sig before it was 100%. I now have over 1100 rounds through it and it runs like a champ.
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Old October 12, 2012, 08:40 PM   #25
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BS on all of that crap. It aint a toy. If it has any issues get rid of it, You can not bet your life on something that does not work. That includes the GEN4 GLOCK. They dont work right either. I have a Glock GEN3 shot it with all kinds of ammo and never missed a beat. Hell thats one reason you pay $1 a round for defence ammo. GET WHAT WORKS!!!!!
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