M&P 9 won't eject live rounds

[Rick Finsta]

First post - I'm getting serious about my pistol training, as I'll be getting my instructor cert coming up in a few months and want to be squared away. Anyways...

M&P 9 full size (my EDC gun) firing WWB 115gr. I had two failures to fire (good primer strike, no ignition - one rechambered and fired, the other would not fire upon rechambering twice) this past weekend when running drills, and upon performing immediate action, the live round would eject partially and stovepipe, bullet upwards. The weight of the cartridge precluded the normal swipe to clear, and I'm worried about this happening when it matters, as I had to perform remedial action to clear.

Is this an extractor issue? Would the Apex unit fix this? Other thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[JDM]

Did you have a magazine in the gun when this happened?

[Rick Finsta]

Yes - this was during a string of fire; malfunction occured, immediate action caused stovepipe, then remedial action corrected the problem, back into my string of fire. Two different magazines were in use during the two failures to fire.

I think it might be a problem with the thin rim on the WWB, given that it will eject aluminum snap-cap type dummy rounds smartly.

[Mikey]

Have you removed and cleaned your extractor? Is your ejector in good shape?

After about 10K with my M&P pro I started having issues so I bough the APEX extractor. When I installed it I was very suprised by the amount of crap built up in there. I have not had any issues with the APEX but if I were a betting man I would say all I really needed to do was clean the extractor really well.

[Rick Finsta]

Ejector looks good, no crap under the extractor and spring tension feels fine. I've got less than 1K rounds through this gun. I tried it with a few rounds of my carry ammo I retired but haven't pulled down yet (chambered a few times) and they eject just fine...

I'm thinking it might just be the thin rim on the WWB, but I'd hate to find out I'm wrong while someone is shooting at me...

[DocGKR]

One of the reasons the Apex M&P extractor was developed was for 115 gr WWB...

[Rick Finsta]

Alright - I've got some 1911 work to do this week anyways, so I'll order up the Apex part and dedicate some bench time.

Thanks, gentlemen.

[Rick Finsta]

I got the APEX injector tested this weekend - fail to fire on WWB and it cleared upon immediate action no problem. I cycled a few live rounds through afterwards just to be sure. Thanks for the help, gents!

[JBP55]

Try some better ammunition, I have seen this with 9mm WWB more than all other brands combined.

[Mikey]

The only times I have had FTFs is when the striker channel was dirty or when the striker spring was worn out. Since you have a new gun perhaps there is some extra gunk from the factory in your striker channel giving you issues. It takes 5 minutes to clean it out and even if it doesn't help its a good idea every couple thousand rounds anyway.