Hammerli X Esse Sport not locking slide issue

[Eduardo]

Hi guys, first of all thank you all for your help, I am new to the forum and this is my first post, my name is Eduardo and I am from Spain, so sorry for my english at first point

The thing is I have bought a Hammerli X Essse Sport and after the last shot, the slide does not stop after ejecting the brass and consequently the chamber is closed instead of open

The model is this one



I have checked, rechecked, cleaned, lubricated, tried with magazines from other pistol, etc, no way... If you do it manually, this is, you put an empty magazine and rack the slide, it keeps in rear position and the slide release button works perfectly.

Which is strange is that the first couple of shots after having cleaned and lubricated the gun, it works, but that's all, the following shots it does not work.

Any idea ¿?

Thanks in advance!

[Gwhite]

The slide probably has to travel rearward just a little further to lock open than it does to feed the next round from the magazine. If your ammo is right on the edge of having enough recoil, you can get the symptoms you described.

When it is freshly cleaned & oiled, the reason it works is that there is a little less drag on the slide, and it can recoil back far enough. Add a little dirt & rub off some of the oil, and the added friction makes it malfunction.

It may behave better once it is "broken in". The sliding surfaces will smooth up a little with the first 500 to 1000 rounds.

You can experiment with adding a bit of oil to the slide rails to see if that fixes it. Also, try other ammo, and make sure you have a good firm grip. If you hold the pistol at all loosely, you can absorb some of the energy required by the mechanism to cycle reliably. One check for this is to have an experienced shooter try it & see if it messes up for them as well.

One last thing: when cleaning, if you run a standard .22 caliber bore brush through the barrel, it may not be cleaning all of the crud out of the chamber, which is a little larger than the bore. Check out:

http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php ... sh#p232791

[slofyr]

...the slide does not stop after ejecting the brass and consequently the chamber is closed instead of open...

That was one of the problems with the original SIG Trailside version. SIG fixed mine by tightening up the rivet that retained the slide stop lever. If you don't fix it, the lever will chew into the slide. Seek a warranty repair. After the fix my pistol functioned flawlessly.

[Sa-tevo]

What ammo is this happening with? I have shot some brands of ammo that were a bit soft in recoil and had no lock back in my X-esse. Some would also have feed jams due to soft recoil. Eley Club and CCI SV have always been reliable for me. SK Standard Plus and Eley Target were not reliable in my X-esse. (Granted, it may have been the lot, and a different production batch may have worked)

[Eduardo]

Thank you all for your explanations, I forgot to mention that the gun is used, but not much, it is in perfect conditions, at least cosmetically, only some common signs of use

I had not thought about dirt after some shots... the ammo I use (the one that sells in the range, and in Spain, unfortunately we have limited the ammo we can have access...) is really dirty, it leaves my fingers in yellow colour and greasy, I have to discard this as well..

Thank you all again partners, what a nightmare!! :)

[Eduardo]

Amazingly, after cleaning in depth the chamber, it works perfectly... I can not believe that it was matter of cleaning, the issue was that the chamber was so dirty that the slide was not able to extract properly the brass and therefore it had not enough energy to do all the travel and engage with the slide locker...

Thank you all ! without your advice I had not got it!!