Sig P232 .380 not firing on first trigger pull.

[ezthumper]

Just got back from a gun range lunch, and my buddy was having issues with his Sig P232. He would load the mag, jack a round, de-cock it and then pull the trigger from the double action position and then nothing. Pull the trigger again, and it would fire smoothly through the rest of the magazine.

Back story: He is finding out which ammo type fires well as his carry. Thus he carries the P232 and of course it is de-cocked. He would have to fire from using double action.

Any Ideas?

[taadski]

I'm no expert on the 232 platform, but...

Is it new? Has he or anyone else tried to lighten the DA via messing with the main (hammer) spring? If it were mine, I'd start looking there and would probably put a factory weight replacement back in and see if that corrects the issue. They're cheap and it's relatively easy (at least on other P series pistols).


t

[NEPAKevin]

The only thing that I can think of would be if for some reason the slide is out of battery during the first DA pull enough such that the firing pin block is not being disengaged and the hammer fall is pushing it forward so that it is for the second strike. On my 230, the hammer breaks during the DA pull with maybe ten degrees less travel than from SA but that doe not explain why the second strike would be any more effective than the first other than possibly high/hard primer or as taadski already suggested a weak hammer spring. Not sure about the 232 but my 230 has a captured hammer spring.

[ezthumper]

taadski
I'm no expert on the 232 platform, but...

Is it new? Has he or anyone else tried to lighten the DA via messing with the main (hammer) spring? If it were mine, I'd start looking there and would probably put a factory weight replacement back in and see if that corrects the issue. They're cheap and it's relatively easy (at least on other P series pistols).


My buddy told me it was used, never messed with the DA, and it fired properly before.


NEPAKevin
The only thing that I can think of would be if for some reason the slide is out of battery during the first DA pull enough such that the firing pin block is not being disengaged and the hammer fall is pushing it forward so that it is for the second strike. On my 230, the hammer breaks during the DA pull with maybe ten degrees less travel than from SA but that doe not explain why the second strike would be any more effective than the first other than possibly high/hard primer or as taadski already suggested a weak hammer spring. Not sure about the 232 but my 230 has a captured hammer spring.


I was thinking about what you said as far as the hammer block not disengaging on the first strike. I guess I was trying to relate to it with some of my wheel guns that have that hammer block.

I suggested to him to work with Sig, of fly out to NH to see our customer and visit the site.

[jetfire]

What kind of ammo is he using? Some of that off-brand .380 ammo has primers that would make S&B look doughy by comparison.

[NEPAKevin]

I was thinking about what you said as far as the hammer block not disengaging on the first strike. I guess I was trying to relate to it with some of my wheel guns that have that hammer block.


The classic p-series SIGs have a firing pin block that is basically a spring loaded metal plunger in the slide with a cut out that when operating correctly will block the forward movement of the firing pin until the "lever" on the trigger bar pushes it in opening the firing pin channel.

The only thing I would suggest prior to sending it to an Armorer or Gunsmith would be to thoroughly clean and lube the gun and make sure the problem occurs regularly using quality factory ammunition.

[ezthumper]

Thank you everyone for your help.

After we went through the steps, he called sig, and they said, ship to it, us. It is not supposed to do that.

I will let you all know what they come up with to give some insight to some unfortunate soul that runs into this.

Thanks again.

[Vaclav]

I am having the same issue on my P230. In SA everything OK but in DA from time to time not fires when i pull trigger. Then i pull again and it works. I am using S&B and Magtech and it happens with both.

[NEPAKevin]

Sounds like the same problem. The only other thought I have along the lines of troubleshooting would be to measure the trigger pull to see how it compares to the factory spec. To eliminate the primers as a variable, you could use Federal as their primers are reputedly the most sensitive. I puled my 230 out of the safe and the only thing that should happen after the first DA is the hammer falls past the "half cock" where it would be after decocking, but the fall of the hammer should be the same, either way. HTH