[rufous]

Greetings all. This is my first post.

I have a SIG P938 that was made in October of 2014. I bought it new and initially experienced some problems with feeding. I sent it to SIG shortly after I bought it and they said that there were no malfunctions yet the feed ramp was polished and they upgraded the mag catch and mainspring housing so my gun does have the newer design main spring housing per this thread:

https://sigtalk.com/p238-p938-pisto...l-old-vs-revised-new-main-spring-housing.html

I had not done any shooting for about 2 years due to surgery on both thumbs last year. A couple weeks ago I did some shooting with my P938 and my T-series Browning Hi Power. I had some occasional failure to fire incidences with the SIG. When those occurred I cocked the hammer and pulled the trigger again and it then fired. At the time I did not think to inspect the primer for evidence of a light strike but if it happens again I will check for that.

Also I discovered that my 2 piece guide rod was unscrewed. Does SIG now provide a 1 piece guide rod? I have seen that some folks are using loktite to deal with this but I think I would rather just get a 1 piece guide rod.

As things stand I do not trust this gun as a carry gun which is why I bought it. I talked to a customer service rep at SIG last week and they said that since it is no longer under warranty I would have to pay shipping both ways in order for them to inspect it. I am not sure it is worth it to send it back to them. I have read of many instances where folks send their gun back and SIG says nothing is wrong and returns the faulty gun. I am thinking I might just send it to a gunsmith that knows SIG pistols better than SIG apparently does.

The question is who do you all recommend? SIG or another quality gunsmith?

I need to get this failure to fire issue solved for sure and I would like a lighter and smoother trigger.

I have unfortunately dealt with hack gunsmiths in the past and know that a good one is hard to find but the hacks are everywhere.

 

[Herbw]

When you had these recent fails to fire, which ammo were you using? Sounds like the fail to fire is a recent issue by your description, are you using different ammo now than you used in the past? Could very well be caused by hard primers, which doesn't seem to be a consideration here.

As to someone to work on your SIG, Robert Burke, the SIG Armorer is my recommendation.

As to the guide rod, some red loctite or rock set should do the job for you.

Good luck!

 

[sigsrok]

Welcome......SIG Sauer guns have a LifeTime Warranty, on a new gun, for the original owner.....not sure why SIG rep told you that you do not have a warranty.....I would call them back to clarify............

 

[Silversides]

Don't know what to tell you on the FTF issue other than the gunsmith that was recommended. Sig CS doesn't seem to be functional right now in reading other threads here.

I use a P938 for EDC because it is reliable and I just like it. It never has had problems once broken in. They do need to be broken in more than any other gun I've owned. Because of this, I won't have another Sig. What it really means is that they don't control their processes therefore, they have too much variability in their product. Controlling variability is what makes for good quality in anything.

On the guide rod, just go ahead and get a SS guide rod and get it over with. I did it for peace of mind. It works 100% of the time and I've had no problems with it. The Sig guide rod is junk as far as I'm concerned. Loctite to me is a band aid. I don't want a band aid. Everyone is different so I don't criticize anyone for what they do about this issue.

I would use a loctited guide rod while the gunsmith is working on it. No point in spending more money on it than necessary until the FTF work is finished on it.

 

[Herbw]

Welcome......SIG Sauer guns have a LifeTime Warranty, on a new gun, for the original owner.....not sure why SIG rep told you that you do not have a warranty.....I would call them back to clarify............

True - Lifetime warranty to original owner. However, free shipping both ways for only one year from date of purchase. Yes, they'll fix it but after a year you have to get it to them.

 

[Busykngt]

Welcome......SIG Sauer guns have a LifeTime Warranty, on a new gun, for the original owner.....not sure why SIG rep told you that you do not have a warranty.....I would call them back to clarify............

Does a Lifetime Warranty cover the cost of shipping?

 

[Firearms Collector]

Does a Lifetime Warranty cover the cost of shipping?

No just for the first year.

 

[Firearms Collector]

Welcome from texas.
What brand of ammo were You using ?

 

[Topgun1953]

Greetings from NC! It wouldn't hurt to remove the firing pin and inspect it and the spring. While you're at it, clean it all and make sure it is oil free when you put it back in. I use chlorine free brake cleaner. I've had two instances where the firing pin spring had broken off a couple of coils. There are any number of decent videos on youtube on disassembly, just pick one. As for the guide rod, at first I just had sig send me replacements. I finally put the unthreaded rod in the freezer (contract), heated up the base (expand) and used red loctite when all was ready. Hasn't come apart since. I'm comfortable carrying it. I figure in a gun fight, the rod will take more than 7 rounds to unscrew. If you're uneasy though, by all means purchase the one piece. Peace of mind is important!

 

[rufous]

I am using Winchester 115 grain fully jacketed round nose ammo. It fires every times so far in our 3 other 9mms.

 

[ThnkFrst]

In your situation, I would remove the firing pin and spring for a good cleaning and inspection to include the firing pin channel in the slide.

When first removing the firing pin spring from the slide, make note of the orientation of the spring; one end of the spring has a smaller diameter coil than the other. The small coil end goes on to the firing pin first, in other words, the small coil goes to the rear. Reinstall it that way.

 

[rufous]

I did pull the firing pin. Nothing looked out of order to me.

 

[Poppastar]

Have you fired the gun again with the guide rod put back together (maybe red loctite it for now while waiting on a one piece or returning to Sig if you go that route)? That's the 1st thing I'd do just to know if the two issues are related.

 

[Jerrysea]

Have you considered that since your guide rod was loose, that the gun was not going into battery. On the occasions you had the ftfs. After your first attempt to fire failed, it may have had the force to have pushed the slide into battery. That may be the reason it fired, on second strike.

 

[Jack#9]

My experience with SIG warranty is, if the product is defective in some way, they will repair at no charge.

If you say the accuracy is poor, or, in your case, you're getting failures to fire, and SIG determines that there is nothing wrong with the pistol, they will charge you for the inspection.

If your pistol fires everything but Winchester 115 grain (white box?), you might be better off switching to another brand for your P938.

 

[rufous]

Yesterday I fired 20 shots with no problems (after screwing the 2 piece guide rod back together). This morning I used blue loftier which is what I had already and fired 40 more shots with no problems but the loktite did not hold. The guide rod had unscrewed a bit. I still don't know what was causing the occasional failures to fire but for now I think I will buy a 1 piece guide rod.

 

[Plunker]

It should set up over night without shooting. also remove all oil on threads. Gun scrubber works great. contact cleaner probably will too.

 

[ThnkFrst]

Re. your FTF

Just to be clear, the hammer falls but the round doesn't fire? How often? Happens with more than one brand of ammo?

 

[rufous]

To answer the previous question (copied below)- yes sometimes the hammer falls but the round does not fire. It has happened a few times with the Winchester ammo and with my handloads. But it has not happened in the most recent 60 shots fired (which were all handloads). I do not know if the gun was slightly out of battery and I do not know if I had light primer strikes.

"Just to be clear, the hammer falls but the round doesn't fire? How often? Happens with more than one brand of ammo?"

 

[louchia]

Next time the FTF happens, check to see what the position of the hammer is. Is the hammer fully forward.? or is it in a 1/2 cock position. If in the 1/2 position, you may have experienced a hammer drop after the previous round was fired. Manually racking the slide then over comes the issue.