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What causes a hundgun to "stove pipe"?

TritonTR21
Just wondering what causes this problem. The gun, ammo or what?

Thanks....
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • Tailgunner1954
    Could be the gun, the ammo or the shooter.
    Gun, recoil spring is to strong for the ammo. Could also be a fit/maintenance issue.
    Ammo, to weak for the recoil spring.
    Shooter, wrist is loose (limp wristing) allowing the frame to move excessivly (relitive to the slide movement).
    Solutions, 1) have someone else (thats experanced with that model of pistol) try shooting your gun/ammo, does the failure continue for them? If not, it's the shooter. If yes, have that person do a clean/lube on the pistol and re-test to see if it's now cured. 2) if it's target ammo (low powered) and that's what you prefer to shoot, get a lighter spring. 3) change the type/brand of ammo to one the pistol prefers.
    Some guys like a mag full of lead, I still prefer one round to the head.
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  • TritonTR21
    Thanks for the replay. I will give it a try at the range this week.
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  • 3gunner
    From my experience, someone that has that problem consistently, is a victum of the limp wrist syndrome as tailgunner mentioned.




    "Have a gun that works every time. All skill is in vein when an Angel pisses in the flintlock of your musket."
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  • captkirk3@dslextreme.com
    9 times out of 10...its caused by leaving Magazine loaded to capacity...which causes the Ears of Magazine expand...allowing the round to Stove Pipe......Best....

    Captain Kirk, Tech Staff
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  • TritonTR21
    Had it happen twice in 9 clips (45 rounds). It was a 7 shot clip with 5 rounds. Clip 7 & 9 "piped" on the last round in the clip. Thought it was odd.

    Thanks
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  • Nighthawk
    I 100% agree with Captain Kirk,it seems people do not take this seriously.I teach and instruct our Officers to switch all of their Mags when the time changes in the Spring and in the fall.This type of rotation gives your Mags a much needed break.Then also its caused by Limp wristing as well.



    Best!!

    Rugster


    "Toujours Pret"
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  • mpolans
    Tailgunner is correct. The solution varies depending on what you want to do. If you want to keep shooting light loads for less recoil, go to a lower resistance recoil spring. Or you could just increase your charge (if you reload) or buy ammo with a little more oomph.

    A couple other possibilities not yet mentioned are a broken/short ejector or weak extractor tension.

    I've never seen a gun stove pipe jam (fired brass half stuck in the ejection port) caused by expansion of magazine lips. As a matter of fact, I don't recall ever seeing a failure to feed caused by expanded magazine lips from just leaving magazines full...usually it took dropping them or someone trying to "tune" them and not quite getting it right. In any case, if it's a failure to feed caused by this, just get out your handy-dandy needle nose pliers and carefully bend the feed lips as needed.
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  • TritonTR21
    mpolans, thanks for your thoughts. I was shooting UMC 71 gr "off the shelf" ammo. As for modifying anything, this gun was NIB. Bought one day and range the next with no modifications. I did notice the clip spring felt like it had a bit of a grind to it. Not sure if it was my imagination or what. It felt stiff unlike my Browning hi-power's clip. Either way, I'm headed back to the range in the morning with some different ammo and more lubrication. When I cleaned the gun it was a bit dry. I'll report the results tomorrow.

    Thanks
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  • mpolans
    Oh, that brings up one other factor. If the gun is NIB, especially if it's particularly tight, will sometimes need a little breaking in of a couple hundred rounds before they're really reliable. I've noticed Ruger Mk IIs that I've had recently tended to be this way.

    quote:Originally posted by TritonTR21
    mpolans, thanks for your thoughts. I was shooting UMC 71 gr "off the shelf" ammo. As for modifying anything, this gun was NIB. Bought one day and range the next with no modifications. I did notice the clip spring felt like it had a bit of a grind to it. Not sure if it was my imagination or what. It felt stiff unlike my Browning hi-power's clip. Either way, I'm headed back to the range in the morning with some different ammo and more lubrication. When I cleaned the gun it was a bit dry. I'll report the results tomorrow.

    Thanks
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  • competentone
    quote:Originally posted by captkirk3@dslextreme.com
    9 times out of 10...its caused by leaving Magazine loaded to capacity...which causes the Ears of Magazine expand...allowing the round to Stove Pipe...


    I agree with what mpolans said--the magazine "ears" would have little to do with stove piping.

    I'll also comment that if the lips of the magazine physically expand from long-term storage, you have a problem with the magazine itself. Just as "spring set" is only a problem if you have really cheap springs, so to would "ear"/feedlip expansion only be a problem if the magazine was poor quality.

    A magazine, properly designed and construct of the proper steels/polymers should not have any problems caused by long-term storage.
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