After cleaning and lubricating the gun, I shot about 125 rounds today. I experienced two types of malfunctions.
The first was a number of failures to feed on the ramp with both magazines when charging the gun from slide lock using the slide stop lever. (Before everyone says that is not correct, page 13 of the manual supplied with the gun indicates that this is one method of loading the gun.) The rounds did not begin to enter the chamber, which I thought was weird for round nose ammo. I thought that possibly it was because I load my 115 grain JRN ammo a bit on the long side, although within SAAMI spec. The same ammo has been 100% reliable over about 1500 rounds when loading my Glock 19 this same way. However, it also occurred with both magazines when using factory 124 grain Speer Gold Dots. There were no issues at all using the slingshot method from slide lock, but I did not check that with the Gold Dots.
The second issue was that the magazine either was not seated or unseated itself a couple of times. During one string of fire the magazine unseated itself and the slide closed on an empty chamber. I cannot recall which magazine or what round in the string. Another time, it occurred with the flat bottom magazine. I loaded from slide lock using the slide stop lever. It chambered the top round and then I saw the magazine unseat itself and drop down slightly. This may have been user error. The magazine catch protrudes substantially in the magazine well, so I have a hard time thinking that has an issue. By the same token, there is no way I hit the magazine release with the same thumb used to trip the slide stop lever.
The gun fired and ejected every round it fed. It appears to be accurate. Once I got the hang of the trigger and sights, and did my customary drifting of the rear sight to the right, it was head shot accurate at 50 feet. I found the recoil to be rather mellow.
When I then shot my G19/3, my first thought was “this gun is fat.”
I am expecting everything to work out. The feeding from slide lock could be a break-in issue. The magazine seating issue could have been my fault. I know where I can find a bunch of firearms instructors tomorrow who will gladly burn through a few hundred Blazers and Gold Dots and assist with break in at no expense to me.
