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HK USP Tactical .45 Auto - Jammed Out of Battery

8K views 30 replies 11 participants last post by  H&K 4 LIFE 
#1 · (Edited)
I was at the range today and experienced two FTFeeds with some commercially reloaded ammo (I think I had two FTFeeds with the same round but it might have been two FTFeeds with two rounds). The first FTFeed didn't matter much because I could still pull the slide back, eject the problem round, and continue shooting.

At the end of my shooting session, I wanted to see if one of my FTFeed rounds would feed so I loaded the single round in a mag, pulled the slide back, and let it fly forward. The round still wouldn't feed and the slide was out of battery around a 1/4". However, this time I could only pull the slide back a 1/4", the slide was completely jammed up, and I could not eject the round.

The only way I could fix this problem was ejecting the magazine and slowly pushing the back of the slide against the front edge of the shooting table (muzzle pointed down range). The slide returned to battery, and the round fed and fired.

I'm interested in the mechanics of what happened and I have a few questions. However, I'm a fairly new pistol shooter so please don't flame me :)

Why was it so hard to pull the slide back, in other words, what was happening internally that prevented the slide from being pulled back?
Was the slide out of battery because the FTFeed round was not engaged by the extractor and thus, the round could not be extracted from the chamber?
Could I have damaged something inside my USP by pulling the slide back extremely hard to try to clear the FTFeed? I know USPs are tough but I had to pull extremely hard to no avail.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Please use FTFire and FTFeed, I have a very hard time deciphering your problems based on that. :)
How many rounds have you shot through this gun? How much of this malfunctioning ammo have you shout through this gun? Were you using factory HK mags? Did that malfunctions happen in the last few rounds of the mag? Has the gun been cleaned/lubed in the last 1000 rounds?
Reloaded ammo is full of issues, even commercial. Go buy some factory Federal, Winchester, Speer and I bet a mag of ammo you don't have any more problems.

To me and I'm sure others on here that looks like a sole ammo problem. I'm guessing the bullet was not set deep enough or the case was too long. Or it was a primer set too deep or bad primer. This all depends on what malfunctions were FTFires and FTFeeds.


Edit: No you didn't hurt your gun. If you're really nervous just look at the extractor to make sure it still moves.
The slide might have been stuck forward becasue the round was connecting with the rifling already due to it not being recessed in the case correctly, or the case might have been too long/had a bad burr and this caused a static friction hold.

On another note, never try and force a round that doesn't want to feed into your gun. The round is obviously out of spec and could cause a catastrophic issue like the brass blowing out, bullet stuck in the bore, Ka-Boom, etc. (or Glock Nuclear meltdown)
Thankfully with the USP it'd probably survive it anyway but no need to push luck.


sorry I get kind of long winded at these hours. ;)
 
#4 ·
As for the mechanics of the second malfunction: the round gets stuck under/against the barrel - doesn´t realy matter where exactly, but prevents the barrel to fully unlock (USP is fully unlocked when the slide is approximately 1/2" backwards) > not-unlocked barrel then stops the slide.
 
#5 ·
A couple of "rules" I follow.

1. While it's completely impracticable to do with training ammo, I check every round of my carry ammo by dropping it into the barrel of my pistol, insuring it fits properly, tipping it over, and letting it fall out.

While you can buy a die or gauge that does this (probably designed for hand loading) l found the chamber in my (non-HK) P6 9mm pistol to be non-spec as far as one type of 147gr JHP bullets were concerned. The leade wasn't deep enough. This same ammo fit the gauge and fed perfectly in every other 9mm I tried,

2. Once I eject a round and it hits the ground it's a "range round." I never load a range round into the pistol or magazine. I was going to shoot it anyway and leave the case. Besides I've seen .40S&W rounds end up in .45ACP pistols this way.

-- Chuck
 
#6 ·
I recently had some issues with factory Magtech 230 grain FMJ where it would occasionally - once every 150-200 rds - prevent the slide from fully going into battery. Out of spec factory ammo - not a problem that can be attributed to the USP itself. Since then i've fired 1000 rds of other brands of factory ammo and no problems arose.
 
#7 ·
Ammo related malfunction. Had one in my G17 when it was almost brand new using WWB. Slide looked closed but failed to completely return to battery. Tapped it, racked it, and ejected the round. Later I went back a reloaded the same round into the chamber. Same problem.

Threw the defective round in the hot bin. End of story. :)
 
#8 · (Edited)
Thanks for all the responses :)

I edited my first post for clarification.

None of the rounds FTFire. Only one or two rounds wouldn't feed. I was using HK factory mags. I clean and lube my gun after every shooting session. I'm guessing I've put around 1000 rounds through it by now. It's still fairly new. One FTFeed happened when it was the first round in the mag (with a full mag) and the other FTFeed happened when it was the only round in the mag. I haven't had any FTFeeds or FTFires (with factory ammo) until I used remanufactured ammo yesterday. I tested many rounds randomly to see if they fit the chamber before shooting yesterday and they all fit perfect. I will check all of them from now on.

I definitely knew the problem was the ammo and not the gun :)

I never want to do what I did to fix the slide being jammed out of battery like that again. It probably won't happen this bad again because I won't re-chamber a suspect round. If this does happen again, what can I do to fix this problem?
 
#9 · (Edited)
I never want to do what I did to fix the slide being jammed out of battery like that again. If this happens again, what can I do to fix this problem?
Unfortunately short of forcing the slide into battery or manhandling it back open, there really isn't anything else you can do, at least not that I know of. I'm not going to go so far as to say don't shoot reloaded ammo, but I would take into account that you are more likely to have issues with remanufactured ammo then with factory ammo (not saying that you won't have issues with factory ammo ever though). It probably wouldn't hurt to inspect them a little more closely to make sure they look right, or even get calipers and measure them.
 
#11 ·
I had 2 of those simliar instances happen with BVAC reloads. (2 out of 100). Both times the bullet was seated too far into the casing. I had to use all of my strength to pull it back. Which was not fun, I thought I broke my gun. But my USP 45 being the beast that it is, after unloading the bad round finally, it fired 3 mags with Authority, at a fast pace.

So it wasn't the gun or the mags, it was the reloads. And I have learned not to use reloads in my weapons at all if I want them to work correctly 100% of the time. I now use RWS at the range, for that reason.
 
#12 ·
I had 2 of those simliar instances happen with BVAC reloads. (2 out of 100). Both times the bullet was seated too far into the casing. I had to use all of my strength to pull it back. Which was not fun, I thought I broke my gun. But my USP 45 being the beast that it is, after unloading the bad round finally, it fired 3 mags with Authority, at a fast pace.

So it wasn't the gun or the mags, it was the reloads. And I have learned not to use reloads in my weapons at all if I want them to work correctly 100% of the time. I now use RWS at the range, for that reason.
Are you generalizing that all reloads are bad? Reloads are essentially custom hand fitted rounds that can be taylored to any particular handgun.. Or are you just saying gun show reloads/white box or anything thing that you can't trust is bad? Curious.
 
#13 · (Edited)
Now I don't trust anything that my uncle doesn't reload because his are spot on. Anytime I have used bought reloads they have failed me in some way. The BVAC over all had a 2% failure (2 out of 100) in my USP 45. But prior to using the reloads, my usp had never had an issue. After about 2000 rounds. (I don't get to shoot it that much)

Over all the BVAC loads were not that bad, but if I had used their ball ammo for anything other than target practice then I would have had a life ending malfunction. And I look at it that way because I know I maintain my guns and they won't fail me. And I need to know that the ammo I use will do that for me too. (for the most part, I know anything can fail, but I am taking as many variables away as I can.) And a bullet seating is pretty bad. It jammed the sh*t out of my gun.

The long and short of it is, I don't use reloads anymore. I use sealed, and well performing ammo.

Are reloads bad? no. Do I use them anymore? no.
 
#16 ·
Always, always, always, closely inspect each round of your carry ammo. This is a brand new Winchester PDX1 that I had loaded in my P2KSK a few months ago. I was walking around with it in the magazine for several weeks before I randomly decided to switch out my ammo and I noticed it. Scary stuff.



 
#24 ·
eh don't worry about it. Manufactures make mistakes. If it makes you feel better I bought 800 rounds and only one round was like this. It's actually more common for high quality self defense ammo to occasionally have these case mouth fold overs because the nickle coating is so slick that it can jam in the reloading dies and cause this.



Edit: my round also came like that from the factory, my pistol didn't do it. It just reinforces the idea that check every round before it goes in the gun.
 
#23 ·
Mine never entered the chamber, only the magazine, so it was definitely a mistake at Winchester. I actually called them about it and they apologized and gave me a a free box of PDX1's.
 
#31 ·
In all the rounds of WWB I've shot I have seen more then a few curled case mouths. My uncle pulled one out of a 100rnd. Value Pack just last week. Never had it happen with premium self-defense ammunition, but anything is possible.

In addition to visual inspection, I weigh all my carry ammo. Too light weight and there may not be enough powder in the round (squib load).
 
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