Loaded Chamber Indicator causing malfunction

[JoshuaS]

I went to the range today, and shot 150 rds out of my SR45. The last box was some particularly dirty ammo, and I had my first malfunction with the gun (having shot it many times before). It failed to eject the case.

When I examined it, the rim of the cartridge was solidly wedged into the LCI, which had also acquired a good deal of grime that I think caused it to stick open so that when the round was chambered, rather than just pushing the LCI up, it wedged into it.

It cleared easily enough, and the LCI was stuck up until I cleaned it a bit.

The gun was perfectly clean before shooting today, and it was the 147th round of 150.

Before this I just assumed the LCI was an ugly thing that didn't matter. Now I am thinking of removing it.

How does one go about that? Is there a replacement piece to fit in the opening on the slide or do you just leave an opening there?

[flyerq68]

I can't stand the LCI on my Shield and plan to remove it. I am planning to punch the pin and grind the nub down, polish out the wording and paint with a matte black and replace.

[Josh3239]

Flyerq68 beat me to it.

[luckystrike]

I can't stand the LCI on my Shield and plan to remove it. I am planning to punch the pin and grind the nub down, polish out the wording and paint with a matte black and replace.

same here, the LCI really messes with me, the way I practice is to concentrate and focus on the front sight and guess what - I can see the LCI and it throws me off. Dremel and paint time soon.

[JoshuaS]

Hmm... I haven't been able to find another report of a similar malfunction. I mean I see reports of stuck LCI's but none where the case got wedged in it. I wonder if it was partially the cheap ammo (maybe softer brass). Wish I had kept the case or had a camera.

[SkyHawk]

Hmm... I haven't been able to find another report of a similar malfunction. I mean I see reports of stuck LCI's but none where the case got wedged in it. I wonder if it was partially the cheap ammo (maybe softer brass). Wish I had kept the case or had a camera.

There have been other reports of LCI causing pistols malfunctions in this forum. Some XD and XDS users have also reported it.

LCI - wtf were they thinking?

[JoshuaS]

In a way I am glad to hear that, I always get nervous when I have an issue with a mechanical thing that seems mysterious or unheard of (my car comes to mind... old, not well taken care of... things that go wrong go wrong strange rather than normal... like the low oil light that comes on if you don't turn the radio on before starting the ignition [pressure and oil level is actually fine fwiw])

On the other hand, all the more reason to get rid of it. This is my primary HD gun.

[Snoopy47]

I've never had a problem with loaded chamber indicators:

[Old4eyes]

While I am not a fan of a LCI I am not going to state that they always the cause of feed or extraction failures. I thought that was the case with one of my Ruger Mark IIIs. One had failures, the other did not. I removed the LCI in both but the jamomatic still had its problem which I traced to the ejector. Some Dremel work and the problem cleared. But I didn't go back to put them back into the two guns.

I have 4 XD pistols, none have had problems. I peruse the XD talk forum a lot and I don't recall people complaining that the LCI caused feed/extraction failures. I have read where they let the gun get dirty enough that something gets into the LCI making it stick up when in fact the gun is not loaded. That is one of the points that any reasonable gun owner will point to - that you can't trust them. But it seems that reason and common sense are not part of the legislature's tool box.

Who is to say that a LCI is a culprit in all cases? I followed the herd on my Ruger issue and it wasn't the cause - IN THAT CASE.

I am not willing to say they are always the culprit, but I can say that if they were not there, we couldn't blame them.

[CK_32]

Have someone break into your home and have them punch you.

The sue the state of CA for forcing malfunctioning parts for HD weapons

[Dano3467]

Ruger MKIII standard only gun with LCI I have, that thing was remover the first day an replaced with a faux LCI

[riderr]

OP,
Let me guess. Overlubricated gun and extra dirty ammo combo -> gunk all over the gun -> gun malfunctioned.

Here is another extreme stretch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPnbesiEsnc

[saudadeii]

OP,
Let me guess. Overlubricated gun and extra dirty ammo combo -> gunk all over the gun -> gun malfunctioned.

Here is another extreme stretch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPnbesiEsnc

How sad. That guy ruined a perfectly good knife.

[rm1911]

LCI - wtf were they thinking?

fewer handgun purchases, a backdoor handgun ban. and yes, it was well thought out.

there was no market demand for an lci. even law enforcement doesn't want one, otherwise they'd make them on more models. this is oddly enough the reason why I believe we'll begin to see SSE2 models sometime in the near future. there is a large enough market for handgun models in kalifornia, enough so that many manufacturers went out of their way to make kali-compliant models which would only be sold in kalifornia.

[riderr]

fewer handgun purchases, a backdoor handgun ban. and yes, it was well thought out.

there was no market demand for an lci. even law enforcement doesn't want one, otherwise they'd make them on more models. this is oddly enough the reason why I believe we'll begin to see SSE2 models sometime in the near future. there is a large enough market for handgun models in kalifornia, enough so that many manufacturers went out of their way to make kali-compliant models which would only be sold in kalifornia.

The market is irrelevant to LCI. XDS is a good example of the gun with LCI, yet on a high demand. However, the way California compliant LCI looks indeed a turn down for many potential buyers.