Put couple hundred rounds of 124 gr Nato down the pipe. The newer VP9's have a stiffer RSA than the original. I would hold off on the SS rod assembly, spend that money on the ammo.

 

Put couple hundred rounds of 124 gr Nato down the pipe.

+1 I'm sure that'll solve your problem. That's the advice I've heard for all new VP9's. Enjoy shooting that new beauty!!

 

European firearms are tested with Euro pressure rounds, which are of higher pressure than the merican kitten fart stuff we have here.

Yes' use NATO rounds, problem solved.

This question pops up every week it seems. It’s not reliability issues.
Glock, HK, Walther, etc need +P rounds, as they are close to the European pressures.
All of my HD rounds are either +P or +P+ — lots of rounds, nary any issues what so ever. Plain low pressure crappola will cause a FTE once in a while. Which is why I don’t waste hard earned money on it.

Once you hammer a hundred rounds of higher pressure rounds at paper, u will b able to shoot anything.

I still use what was intended for European pistols. NATO or +P

 

Heyas maddogg! Sorry that you had problems with the new pistol, right out the gate!
One thing that I want to mention is Federal's "cheap" ammo. It's cheap for a reason. The powder they use in it to cut the cost isn't as good quality, it burns unevenly and burns dirty.
That could have been what was causing the problem, aside from yeah, they use the. 40 recoil spring in all the VP series full size now.
Try some 124 blazer brass or something after you clean her out, and see how that goes.
Hoping for better luck next time!

 

Good advise above. You might lock the slide open and leave it like that for an extended time to help reduce the spring force.

 

Mine is about 2 months old. It choked on Federal Champion ammo 10 times out of 50. Put 300 124 grain Win NATO through it and then tried a box of S&B 115s. Choked once in a while. Another 200 rounds of NATO and it will now eat anything. Bought 2 cases of Blazer Brass for Black Friday sale at 14 cents a round yesterday and it ate it up. 200 rounds without a hiccup. It just has to be loosened up.

 

Thank you everyone for your advice. I appreciate it. It’s also comforting to hear you all be very optimistic that the gun will loosen up and work just fine. I was going to ask forgiveness for my ignorance and ask about the 9mm NATO rounds but I googled it and found at least one offering in from Winchester (white box).
https://palmettostatearmory.com/winchester-usa-9mm-nato-124gr-fmj-ammunition-50rds-q4318.html

The Winchester white box I always buy at Walmart is the 9mm Luger stuff.
https://www.academy.com/shop/pdp/wi...pdp/winchester-usa-full-metal-jacket-9mm-100-round-115-grain-handgun-ammunition

I’ll have to see if Walmart carries the NATO version but even in Luger the Winchester faired much better then the Federal. You all already mentioned it directly or indirectly but it IS okay to fire +p ammo thru it? The manual doesn’t mentioned it so I wasn’t sure.

I have one other concern. Before I bought mine I rented one at a range and shot it. With the slide locked open once I inserted a fresh mag it automatically closed the slide. I liked this feature and it did it on EVERY mag on the rental. On my purchased Vp9 it did it only if I really slammed the mag in. Do you think this will improve once loosened up as well?

Okay one more question. This is my first striker fired pistol. All my other pistols were hammer fired. HK parts.net has this enhanced sleeve part.
https://www.hkparts.net/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=18691

1) Is this part really one that would benefit from being aluminum vs poly and 2) how often do you guys really breakdown to that level and clean those parts? The manual doesn’t even cover breaking it down that far, I just saw it in a youTube video.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

My local Walmart carries Winchester NATO 9mm for a very nice price.

 

sgammo had cases on Q4318 (1k rounds) for about $180 shipped, might have some left.

All my VP9s shoot anything, after a little break-in period when new using NATO or +P rounds.

 

Welcome and congrats on a great pistol. As stated, the vp9 now comes with the same recoil spring as the vp40, so it will take a while to loosen up. You can run stronger ammo through it, or just shoot about 250 rounds of anything through it and it will be fine. I have 2 vp9's and they are awesome

 

+1 to weak light powder-puff ammo in a brand new gun.
Run a some boxes of 124 NATO and the gun will run fine.
Quality 147 gr seems to work fine out of the box as well.

There's nothing wrong with the gun friend :biggrin:

 

On your question about inserting a mag and the slide closing on the rental pistol. On that pistol the release for the slide was engaged when you inserted the mag. I have done that with some of my Glocks over some time of using them. It is not the best way to close the slide and I would not slam a magazine in the pistol to do that. Doing this is going to cause some wear on the magazine or frame/slide release. You are best served grabbing the slide with your left hand (if right handed) and pulling it back and letting it release and chamber the round. Another method is to use the slide release but in a stressful situation the first method is probably better suited.

Sorry I cannot help you on the enhanced sleeve question.

Enjoy your HK pistol!

 

just adding one more confirmation to what has already been said. First hand experience with my own VP9, which I've had for about 1.5 years. I just kept shooting regular, boring range ammo, got some practice in clearing malfunctions, and it hasn't malfunctioned once after it got broken in. So, have not experienced even the slightest hiccup since.

BTW, anyone know if the same general rule applies to the sk? I got one recently and haven't shot it too much yet (I always seem to end up shooting the VP9 despite my best intentions : ) Seems like a great gun though. I'm sure i'll find out soon though

 

just adding one more confirmation to what has already been said. First hand experience with my own VP9, which I've had for about 1.5 years. I just kept shooting regular, boring range ammo, got some practice in clearing malfunctions, and it hasn't malfunctioned once after it got broken in. So, have not experienced even the slightest hiccup since.

BTW, anyone know if the same general rule applies to the sk? I got one recently and haven't shot it too much yet (I always seem to end up shooting the VP9 despite my best intentions : ) Seems like a great gun though. I'm sure i'll find out soon though

Both my SKs (VP9 and P30) run anything. The RSA is a bit different which might be part of it. Have couple thousand down each, flawless operation. Anything from Blazer Brass 115 to 147 +P HSTs, even ran about 100 Federal LE 115 +P+ (Illinois State Police load) through each, no problems.

The 115 +P+ is as easy as any to shoot, feels great and darn accurate. Won't be daily range fodder but a box of 50 now and then is fun.

 

Alright just bought a 150rd box at Walmart for $29. Hope to go shoot Friday and see how it goes.

 

Try Fiocchi. I never seen Fiocchi failed in any of pistols, so far. 115, 124, 147, they all worked on my VP9 and all the pistols that my buddies and I shot.

 

Well happy to say I went to the range yesterday (Friday) and completed the range portion of the NRA Basic Pistol Course. I not only passed completing L4 but also used my VP9 and had ZERO malfunction. I brought a 150 rounds of 9mm NATO and it ran great.

I wanted to thank you all for the advice and reassurance that I made a wise choice on the overall purchase...now I need your help with my grip. Everything I shoot hits lower right.

 

Grip configuration you will just have to experiment with. I spent a day just goofing around with different combinations and ended up switching just the left side to large.

The sights was my only complaint. The VP9 was the first pistol I've bought in years. I was consistently 2 inches lower from seemingly every distance. The manual mentions the sight picture which I tried to follow, but I never could get used to that or was doing something wrong. I never tried shooting from a fixed position at 25 meters, so I don't know if the thing was sighted true to begin with. I just assume it was. I had others shoot it and they had the same result.

I went through the Dawson's sight program and have it zero'd in now. I did notice the HK parts website was sold out of some front sights, so I'm thinking others switched as well.

Conversely, I didn't have this experience with my USP. That gun sighted fine.

 

Glad to hear it’s working out! I feel a little lucky. I just recently got me a VP9 and a VP9SK and have fed about 250-300 rounds of 115g American eagle through them with no issues.

 

Hey again. Maddog. GLAD to hear the next range trip went so much better! And congrats!

The shooting low part is easy. And it's not your fault. Raise the sights up a bit higher on the target. These pistols are sighted in using the euro sighting system. Unlike us old farmer raised shooters who line up the sights right under the target, they sight them putting the dot over the target. And it's sighted in at 25 yards. So at less than 25 yards (who the hell uses a pistol in a gunfight at 25 yards??) aim high. Again, it's not you, it's the way they sighted the pistol in over in Germany.

To the right. I'm still doing that too, so I dunno what to tell ya Other than watch somebody else shoot the gun, and watch how the barrel jerks. To the right.

 

Thanks DarkeWolf for the sighting info. The instructor did mention that some guns are sighted one way and some the way you described it. It makes sense now that you said that because even he said my gun was angled down when he was looking at it from the side. I didn’t know why because I know I had my sights lined up but that makes sense now. I also put the large grips on the back and side straps. I don’t have monster hands but think maybe the medium was not enough and that might be attributing to me shooting right. I’m hopping to go Saturday morning again and we’ll test it out with the new grips and knowledge of my low sights. Thanks again.

 

Heyas! No problem at all! They've actually got a name, for the sight picture to use.
I dunno if their site will let me hot link the image or not.
https://www.realgunreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Sight-Image.jpg
https://www.realgunreviews.com/sig-sauer-sight-heights-sight-numbers/ if it doesnt let me direct link it, it's about the middle of the page, where it's got three targets, with different sight positions. #3 is what what you want to use with pistols that are euro sighted. #2 is what most of us more experienced gunners are used to, and probly what you're using so far. (Sorry, I shoulda posted that originally, but I was using my phone, lol.
If you want to go the route of getting a new front sight to adjust your POA, so that you don't have to retrain, there's definitely members that can recommend good ones for you
Happy shooting! And congrats again on the exam!

I missed something from earlier in the thread, as well. Somebody mentioned about being able to release the slide by inserting a loaded mag.
Yes, HK Does make their pistols so that they do that. Whether or not, they actually DO it or not, a lot depends on well....sometimes, blind luck. The mag lips have to make contact with that release Juuuuuust right, in order for the slide to automagically snap forward. It take practice. And figuring out what angle to slide (NOT SLAM!!) that mag in.
I've noticed that it's more of a crapshoot as to whethor or not you can get it to work on the smaller gripsized SK pistols.

 

Another question DarkeWolf. How important is it to clean the firing pin and those components that are inside the slide. I watched a video of a guy taking those parts apart to install a few upgrades. He used a Glock tool of some sort to disassemble the slide pieces. So, how important is it that i really get in there and clean those parts and also do you see value from those aluminum sleeve pieces inside the firing pin areas?

And ya if I hit my mags just right it automatically closes the slide when it’s locked. Thanks again

 

I read reports of this too, but it appears everything traced back to lower grade ammo initially. I've never used anything other than 124 grain and never had a problem. I also heard cheaper casing material can cause a problem too.

 

Maddog- to be honest, my answer is: it depends on your ammo. That lower grade federal ammo Might necessitate taking the slide apart, to clean the internals. Due to how bad I've seen that stuff gunk up other guns. Other than that, maaaaybe when you reach the 10k ammo count mark, maybe not.
If you torture test the gun, dragging it through concrete or sandy mud, or any of that kind of nonsense, it would be a smart move to do it.
Some people are ocd about very throughly cleaning their weapons. That's OK for them. But it's not really required. I mean, some pistols I've seen have run over 10k rounds, and haven't had anything more than the occasional field cleaning. My Vp9 went 600 rounds, like a champ, and I didn't even clean out the barrel.
Mags I wiped the lips down some, and wiped the powder off the end of the barrel. But other than that it was just a drop or two of oil on the reciprocating parts.
The sleeve you are talking about. Honest ***** here... And this goes back to what we were talking about, stripping the frame.
That's about all that sleeve upgrade is good for. The plastic one has cases where people have broken it, taking the striker out, or putting it back in. Other than that, it's really just more of an optional personal mod. They do look better, but don't upgrade any operation of the pistol. 😉

 

has the VP9 historically had problems with stove pipes and spring pressure? im thinking about buying one and would like to know. thanks

 

Not mine, I deliberately shoot different types of ammo when I get a new pistol no matter the brand just to see what happens. I have 2 VP9's and both of them have never had a problem.
After 200rds of zero malfunctions I consider it ready for carry. I also shoot mine supressed which again functions flawlessly. Obviously some new pistols need more break in than others.

 

I haven't had any of these problems - all I did was clean my VP9 when I first got it, and used 124 grain ammunition for the first 200 or so rounds.

 

Never had a problem shooting Gold Dots 124+; feed w/o issue