4 FTE's on M&P pro 5 Inch

[c.a.willard]

Thought i would post here and see what everyones thoughts for possible causes are.  Took my M&P Pro out for the first time today to MCTS for thier steel match.  Had 3 FTE's with winchester white box out of about 100 rounds and 1 FTE out of about 50 124grn reloads.  Round isn't extracting all the way out of the chamber.  Needles to say that this didnt help my times any today not that it really would have mattered much as i had plenty of bad strings not attributed to any failures other that failure to hit the target in a timely manner.   

 

I got the gun used with around 300 ran through it by the previous owner.  Todays the first day ive shot it.  Doing some research ive found some have had burrs in the chamber due to uneven finish.  Im gonna check it out more tonight to see if i can identify the problem.  Just thought i would ask your opinions.  If i cant figure it out relatively soon i'll just take advantage of S&W outstanding customer service.

[Raoul]

Have you shot this pistol much before today?

[jhc77]

After the info you had on mine, I sent my M&P back Friday. Should get to S&W Tuesday. I'll let you know about turnaround time.

[c.a.willard]

Nope today is the first day i have shot it.  All 4 may have been from the white box, but i think 1 was oneof the reloads.  I thought about sending it in this week but i just talked my wife into letting me go shoot saturdays intro to competitive shooting match.  So im gonna try and narrow the problem down before then.  If i cant ill just shoot the match with my full size M&P 9 but i'd like to get it running right before then.

Edited January 28, 2013 by c.a.willard

[Raoul]

No disrespect, but is it possible that it was a problem with the way you're holding the weapon? Maybe get it to the range and shoot it a bit. Certainly if it continues to FTE I'd get it looked at.

[c.a.willard]

No disrespect taken, normally the first thing i try to rule out is shooter error, thankfully i had several very experienced shooters beside me and they didnt think i was limp wristing.  I just finished disassembly and cleaning it then took a peace of freashly polished brass put it in the chamber and rotated it about 5 or 6 times, pulled it back out.  There were several scoring marks on the brass from some small burrs.  Dremel on its lowest speed felt wheel little bit of polishing compound and the scoring has all but completely disappeared. So im hopeful that my problem is solved.   

[CatsEye]

I was working SO when it happened and it wasn't anything he was doing. A couple of times it happened the spent brass never left the chamber. The brass wasn't really stuck because he could quickly clear it. First time I've seen an M&P act quite like that.

[timcar86]

I've put about 3K rounds through mine and I can honestly say I've never had a FTE. I'd probably have that checked out.

[TexasAggie]

Winchester White Box isn't high quality ammo (I consider it a cheap target load). I've had issues with FTE on my PPS including one FTF oversize round that kept the handgun from positioning in battery. Try some different ammo brands. Bottom line - you could have a bad batch of WWB ammo.

 

I don't own a M&P, but with your gun being new, it may have a break-in period and the clearances may be "tight". Try running it a little "wet" with the lubrication and shoot the handgun more to "loosen" it up. I had to do that with my PPS. Also, I would stick with commercial loads during the break-in period (my opinion).

Edited January 28, 2013 by mcrichar

[TMF]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the M&P was an out-of-the-box shooter, and didn't require any break in period to function normal.  Also, that pistol should eat just about anything you feed it.  The score marks on your brass is an indicator.  If it functions after smoothing it out then you know what it was.  I'd still probably take that barrel to a gunsmith to get a set of educated eyes on that chamber.  Sorry to hear about the FTE issue... I can imagine how frustrating that was.

[timcalhoun]

Personally, there are certain malfunctions I can dismiss as a "break-in" issue and malfunctions that I would first assume are not. Failure to extract is one that I would first look at the gun. If you see abnormal marks in the chamber then I would guess that is your culprit more than likely. An M&P should not require a break-in IMO. 

Edited January 28, 2013 by timcalhoun

[Spiffy]

Id try different ammo and see. With the rush to load more and more ammo weak stuff gets out the door. Get with a few guys you shoot with who chrono their ammo and try some of their reloads.  Try 2 or 3 different factory loads and see. If I remember right (might not) WWB is one of the weakest if not the weakest commercial loads out there.

[peejman]

I suspect you found the culprit with the scratches on the brass.  But you might check the extractor itself.  I'm not real familiar with the M&P but it sounds like the extractor is slipping off the rim.  Is there any tension adjustment for it, or is the tip of it worn or deformed at all?  I would guess that FTE's from the extractor slipping off the rim would be a "snowball effect" failure.  The first one damages it a little bit, the 2nd one a little more, etc.

[Dave Shooter]

I was working SO when it happened and it wasn't anything he was doing. A couple of times it happened the spent brass never left the chamber. The brass wasn't really stuck because he could quickly clear it. First time I've seen an M&P act quite like that.

I also saw him shooting and didn't see anything wrong, other than a spent case coming out of the chamber when he racked the slide.

We looked at the extractor and didn't see any problems, seemed to have right amount of tension with no chips or other flaws.

 

C.A., did you finish the match the WWB or the ammo I gave you without any problems?

[c.a.willard]

Dave The ammo you gave me shot fine no issues with that.  Ended up still finishing the match with the WWB  due to my missing so much.  Some of those strings were humbling especially the polish plate rack.  Im taking it back out for saturdays match but no WWB this time.  If it still does it ill send it to S&W for servicing, if not ill just stay away from WWB for anything other than flat range time.