P238 Feeding Issues

[chadd925]

Here's what you do:
To reconfirm the perpendicular grooves on the feed ramp, remove the barrel and use a magnifying glass to really see them if in fact they are there. If so, sig did not polish your feed ramp as the grooves are left over from the next to last step in the shaping of the feed ramp. Think about it-you can't cut an elliptical channel and still maintain a flat plane fore and aft if you don't cut it perpendicular.
This has happened too many times on the P238 (including mine). Being the original owner I did send it back to sig on warranty and was returned to me with a bright and shiny mirror smooth feed ramp. The failure to feed problem was cured and now it takes every brand of ammunition I've fed it without one jamb.
I did however before sending it back experimented with a drill bit (using the uncut top section) that was exactly the same diameter as the feed ramp and a piece of oiled wet sand paper. I didn't actually use it but for a stroke or two and yes indeed there was a very small amount of fines on the sandpaper which measured the full half diameter of the feed ramp. Do continue to use the magnifying glass to check your work if sig won't do it. That was my backup polishing solution if sig were to give me a brush off.
Good luck.

This is as good of a shot I could get. To me this looks a little rough. Let me know what you think.

[Tiberius]

As some have noted above, the first batch of 238s had problems, which were later addressed, I think by the recoil spring and perhaps a re-designed follower.

Rocket - i think the 238 manual recommends changing the recoil spring after something like 500 rounds. Maybe 1000? Since yours was working and then developed issues, you might start there.

[chadd925]

Mine is a newer one, as it has the aesthetically pleasing LCI on top

[ronlglock]

What kind of ammo are you using? Ball or hollowpoint? My 238 and 938 will feed anything, but my Springfield EMP will not feed most types of hollowpoint.

[nickel plate]

chadd925,
My after sig repair photo is also a little rough-a better macro setting would be nice. The barrel is resting in the slide ejection port for the photo. I wish I had a before sig repair photo but don't-the grooves were so deep that they would be quite noticeable when running my fingernail across them.
Your feed ramp photo appears overexposed so it's hard to actually see the true depth of the grooves but I have a feeling they are deeper than presented but perhaps not as deep as mine were before polishing but definitely deeper than mine are now after polishing. I say that because there still are minute "shadow" groove markings on my feed ramp but they will not yield to a fingernail.
Another observation is that the lower lip of my feed ramp has a pronounced radius as seen in the photo, I don't know when that was done. I don't think that's a good place for a sharp edge. Check yours.
My P-238 has a born date of September, 2012.

[slomofo]

This is off topic, but... Do you guys have stainless barrels? I noticed your feed ramps are all shiny, but mine is blued and I don't have any machine marks at all, my ramp is as smooth as a shotgun bore.



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[nickel plate]

This is off topic, but... Do you guys have stainless barrels? I noticed your feed ramps are all shiny, but mine is blued and I don't have any machine marks at all, my ramp is as smooth as a shotgun bore.

I do have a stainless model, HDW (W=wood grips). The frame, slide and barrel will make a refrigerator magnet bite-various grades of stainless will do that including my bright stainless Python.
I don't remember if the feed ramp was blue as the rest of the barrel or in white at the time of purchase.
I see no evidence of loss of bluing on your feed ramp. What might be your round count?

[Barang]

This is off topic, but... Do you guys have stainless barrels? I noticed your feed ramps are all shiny, but mine is blued and I don't have any machine marks at all, my ramp is as smooth as a shotgun bore.



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P226 Combat has shiny polished feed ramp and the rest of the barrel is black so I'm guessing it's the same way.

[JTROKS]

Is there any sign of hang ups when you rack the slide and slowly returning to battery? Round nose FMJ ammo should feed properly even with those machine marks on the feed ramp. Does the extractor leave a mark on the rim or web of the rounds that fail to feed?

[Palmaris]

Check your recoil spring. I'll bet the previous owner had it in backwards.

My first 238 came home from the gun shop installed wrong... so maybe someone demo'd it and didn't know what they were doing.

On my brother's 238, he went with a Wolff spring, but had to trim 1.5 coils as it didn't allow the slide to reach back far enough to engage the catch.

Can you elaborate little bit further please? I do not see any guidance on recoil spring ( both ends of recoil spring on my gun has mark of orange paint) or in manual referring to spring direction.