Sorry for the long post. Just skip it if you get bored easy or don’t GAF.
So, I got a great deal on a Salient Strike One Tier One a my lgs.
I got the deal largely (at first it seemed) because it was just the gun. No mags, case, manual etc.
I purchased 2 original factory mags from APF. I took the gun directly to the range to try it and some other guns I needed to test as I have been on a bit of a buying spree 😁.
I was instantly disappointed. 2 rounds through, I had a failure to feed. Next round ok… Then constant failures. Round after round. My heart sank. Then the mag would drop out with every shot. What the heck!?
Down the rabbit hole I went.
I’m no gunsmith by any stretch, but I am a locksmith and I’m familiar with diagnosing mechanical issues.
1st Step was diagnosis of the magazine’s constant attempts to flee the scene.
A quick search on the Google led me to this super helpful video by Rain6
https://www.rain6.com/
https://youtu.be/YM40KAQEaD0?si=pbif0OypzN7mZqrP
I knew right away this was the fix for the mag drop issue. However, I did notice the mag was sitting pretty low in the gun. I discovered the prongs that retain the mag were sitting low and leaving the mag loose. The fitting of the spring has to be very precise. Extremely small changes were like pulling a sweater string. Every change make a huge impact on a number of functions. Magazine retention, mag ejection button pressure and depth and magazine height. Many hours later, I got things working smoothly.
Time to visit the range again…. It was better. But not by much. I could get 2 to 3 rounds through and it would nosedive again. I went through 4+/- different types of ammo. All brass fmj. All with the same results.
I looked at the tip of one of the stuffed rounds and determined it had to be the feed ramp portion of the barrel. The round was getting caught between the frame portion of the ramp and the barrel part as well.
Sorry, I can’t figure out how to attach photos.
After a call to the very helpful
rain6. He referred me back to APF to see if they would support the Salient warranty. He also said he would try and help me out if I didn’t get any love from APF. While very nice, APF was unable to provide any assistance.
I was still convinced it was an issue with the barrel and I was determined to find a solution.
After a search on gunbroker, I found a threaded barrel for sale. When I received it, I matched it up with the SAI barrel. The feed ramp profiles were indeed very different.
Now, I don’t recommend doing this if you don’t have experience working with this type of stuff. It can go bad really quick. I wouldn’t have done it without having the new barrel to work with and the ability to purchase another if needed. So, with nothing really to loose, I proceeded to reshape the SAI feedramp by hand. Not just polishing but reshaping to match the threaded barrel.
Another trip to the range. I started with the threaded barrel. 10 rounds 0 failures! Another 10, no failures. Hallelujah!
Now on to the original SAI reshaped barrel. 0 failures with about 50 rounds through!
At the moment, I’m feeling successful. I have yet to try any JHP ammo. I’ll give it a shot next time and report back. So if you have an out of warranty Strike One that isn’t working, there is hope. Find a good gunsmith or if you have nothing to loose and don’t mind possibly making an expensive doorstop, you can try it yourself. Also, I think there are still some threaded barrels still available on GB.
In case anyone is wondering, I’m in this for about $1k. I think I still got a good deal.
If you are experiencing any similar issues, I’m happy to answer any questions I can.
Thanks for reading!
Brian