Thursty

It definitely sounds like the round is not going all the way into the chamber, which is causing the slide to stay slightly out of battery. Could be that you've had a few rounds that were loaded long, but if they fit in the mag then they should fit in the chamber. On the round that got stuck, if you noticed rifling marks, then you don't have enough freebore, as Ken pointed out. Although, on bulk round nose ammo without a roll crimp I would think the bullet would just push back into the case... I'd try to clean the chamber really well, in case there is something stuck on the chamber that is preventing the round from properly head spacing on the case mouth. I will also add in my vote for greasing the rails. I've got a few RIAs and some nicer 1911s. A liberal coating of grease smooths out the slide and makes it feel like a more expensive gun.

I've gotten some Anderson lowers at Outpost Armory for $40, wish I bought more, last I saw they were $49-59. Nashville Gun and Knife has closed trigger guard Anderson lowers for $60, which isn't a terrible deal, if you like the closed trigger guard. Royal Range has Spikes lowers for less than $100, Noreen lowers for $70, and I think I saw Aero lowers for $60-70. I would prefer cheap Anderson lowers, but their prices are creeping up to that of higher quality brands.

I would highly recommend Vortex if you can swing it for what you are looking for. I've got Nikon, Leupold, Bushnell, Sightron, and Vortex scopes on various guns. You really can't beat the value for the money on Vortex products. I have used Swarvoski and NightForce scopes on friends guns. Are they better than a Vortex? Yea, but marginally, and no where near worth it in my opinion. I have a Strike Eagle on my AR and love it, the 1-6 Strike Eagle is around $300, my dad runs the 1-8 Strike Eagle and he really likes that version, but it is pricier. Depending on what you do with your gun that you need the optic to be tough (traversing the woods, hunting, run-n-gun) I prefer the lack of a large objective lens, like on the Strike Eagle, if you are doing a lot of early morning or late evening hunts you may need a larger objective lens.

I run at least 200 rounds through a gun before I consider it fit for carry, and I want the last 100 rounds to function flawlessly. I will keep shooting until I get a solid 100 rounds down range with no failures. I actually prefer 500 dirty rounds, I feel like that round count really helps smooth out all of the internals and does a sort of de-burr job. I don't know that I wan't to pay for 500 rounds of .380, so I would probably just shoot until I got 100 rounds straight with no failures.