Originally Posted By badkarma56: Dude, I'm sorry to hear about your situation. My EMP has been flawless thus far (just passed 600 rounds down-range today). May I ask what your serial number is? My EMP has a serial number in the low 4000's (it was proofed at the factory in early October). I've heard that early production runs of EMP's had issues similar to yours. Perhaps you should request an exchange from SA for a more-recently manufactured EMP. FWIW, my Sig P226 Navy suffered several FTE/stovepipe malfunctions with Winchester "white box" ammo (Q4172) when it was new. What I learned from that experience is that "white box" ammo is a very sedate load, and really less than ideal for "breaking in" a tight new pistol. Accordingly, I've since decided to stick with my Dad's advice of always starting out with "hot" ammo in new guns. For a new 9mm weapon, that means using 9mm NATO/mil-spec ammo. I started my EMP off with 100 rounds of NATO-spec ammo, and now it'll eat anything that I feed it (Remington UMC, Winchester "white box", Sellier & Bellot, JHP ammo, etc.). In my opinion, UMC is a pretty soft load too, but I prefer it over "white box" in new pistols.

My EMP is in the EMP30xx range.

I found that WWB is quite a bit hotter than UMC. I think the extractor may be too long... IMTO, I think it's not sitting in the extractor groove when in battery, so when I went to a hotter load, it failed more.

I want both cheaper brands to run right in that gun. I'll likely use it in IDPA, and since WWB is the best deal on FMJ ammo around here...

Originally Posted By ikor: Before you send it back again, try a couple more thngs... 1) Field strip it then detail strip the slide assembly and take the grips off the frame. Nect, clean the Hell out of everywhere you can reach with a toothbrush (M16 type) and if possible, and blow it out with compressed air. Relube with a high quality lube or grease (such as TW25, etc) and reassemble. Use goggles or safety glasses...word is the early EMPs were full of metal shavings and grit as delivered. 2) Try some better ammo. Both your UMC and WWB are second tier blasting ammo and the reduced scale 1911s all tend to do better with 'full spec' stuff. You don't have to use +P or such, just a full spec load...standard pressure JHP stuff will do fine. If the good stuff works, my guess is that after a short while you should also find the WWB will work too. The spotty reliability record...so far at least...is the biggest reason I have not made the decision to buy an EMP yet. The price really is not all that high, all things considered, but you don't have to send a $1000 camera back to the camerasmith for it to work correctly, and you certainly should not have to send back a $1000 handgun either. It is doubly frustrating when Glock, for instance, can field a reduced size 9mm at half the price that works 100% out of the box. No matter what, reliability is the #1 requirement for a defensive handgun and the sole reason for the existence of the EMP is for defensive purposes. Here's wishing you the best of luck with your EMP...lots of us are really wanting the little gun to succeed.

I have detail stripped the gun, blasted out both the firing pin channel (heard someone busted a pin because it got stuck) and the extractor channel. It didn't seem to help. I think I just got a bum extractor, and instead of replacing it (what, a $10 part) when it was back at the shop, they just tweaked it.

I do have some good JHP loads... but I don't want to have to break in with 2-300 rounds of ammo that costs damn near $1/round. It should run right on whatever I put in it... which comes to your last point. You're absolutely right, it's meant as a defensive handgun, and a defensive handgun should run 100%. That's what I'm going to emphasize to SA when I call. I'm going to ask them to have a Custom Shop smith work on it, and CALL ME to PERSONALLY assure me that the gun works 100% before they send it back to me... if it doesn't work, I will tell them I want an exchange, and I'll want the new one they send me tested by the Custom Shop.

Well 1911s were not designed to:

1) use 9mm. The extractor tunnel is placed for the .45 and not the 9mm. and

2) to be that short. Barrel has to tilt at a MUCH more radical angle to function.

All in all, I think the gun seems to work pretty well all things considered; maybe you just need to find a load it really likes and then stick with that load?

Regards,


C

Originally Posted By CBR900: Well 1911s were not designed to: 1) use 9mm. The extractor tunnel is placed for the .45 and not the 9mm. and 2) to be that short. Barrel has to tilt at a MUCH more radical angle to function. All in all, I think the gun seems to work pretty well all things considered; maybe you just need to find a load it really likes and then stick with that load? Regards, C

The EMP is not just a 9mm 1911. It was built from the ground up to be a 9mm 1911 "STYLE" handgun.

Originally Posted By Dano523: Originally Posted By SkagSig40: FWIW I have a Ultra Compact 45 that has tip up jams. Springfield replaced the barrel and a few other parts and it is better but it still does it with the stock mags but not with Wilson mags. I'm going to have a local smith look at it and hopefully get it 100% reliable or it will be sold. I will not own an unreliable firearm! That is like owning a car that fails to start 1 or 2 times out of 8. I think I told you this once, but order Wilson Type 47 rebuild kits (266,45C cup follower and springs) for the welded bottom factory mags to solve the problem. www.wilsoncombat.com/a_springs_followers.asp

Hi Dano,
Yes you did tell me that...good memory!
I bought some Wilson mags and it still does it. Not nearly as much though. I have not had a chance to test it again after a really good cleaning but I was thinking having my local gun smith polish the ramp.

Tag for resolution

Originally Posted By MisterWilson: Originally Posted By CBR900: Well 1911s were not designed to: 1) use 9mm. The extractor tunnel is placed for the .45 and not the 9mm. and 2) to be that short. Barrel has to tilt at a MUCH more radical angle to function. All in all, I think the gun seems to work pretty well all things considered; maybe you just need to find a load it really likes and then stick with that load? Regards, C You are so wrong. You are wronger than wrong. You are as wrong as wrong can be. A gun is supposed to work. Period. Would you rationalize your M4 jamming the same way, since it was origionally designed for the 7.62x51 cartridge? Seriously, reread your post. Wrong wrong wrong.

I agree with Mr.Wilson. A gun is supposed to WORK. And as I mentioned before, I'm not going to go spend $1/round over a couple hundred rounds on the off chance that the gun might have worked OK with one or two particular defensive rounds.

The gun will be at SA tomorrow morning. I'll be following up with the gentleman who's info was posted here. I've already had dialog with him, and he is certain they will get the gun working 100%.

I will post an update. Hopefully I'll have the pistol back soon.

I got the pistol back last night. The guy at SA emailed and said they had replaced the extractor. I can tell it's new. The slide to frame fit seems a bit looser than it was... but that won't bother me as long as the pistol WORKS, and is still as accurate as it was.

I won't get to the range until this weekend, but I will post a range report. I want to put 2-300 rounds through it without problems before I call it fixed.

Originally Posted By crodeo: Originally Posted By Matthew_Q: I got the pistol back last night. The guy at SA emailed and said they had replaced the extractor. I can tell it's new. The slide to frame fit seems a bit looser than it was... but that won't bother me as long as the pistol WORKS, and is still as accurate as it was. I won't get to the range until this weekend, but I will post a range report. I want to put 2-300 rounds through it without problems before I call it fixed. Hopefully everything will be good. Seems like a pretty good turn around time as well. Good luck.

Yep, they take about a week. Hopefully it won't have to go back again. Actually if it has any further problems, I'm going to want them to replace it.

Crap, double tap.

Well, the gentleman that asked his information be sent to me instructed me to mail in the receipts for shipping, and said SA WOULD reimburse me up to $50 shipping each time. Since the shipping was right at $50, I should at least get that back.

But yeah, it sucks that the QC is ME going to the range spending my money on ammo and range time. I will be escalating this if I have ANY failures tomorrow. I will want them to replace the whole gun, and certify that the gun they send WILL WORK.

Here she is, ready to go... along with my other new toy!

I'm sure glad to hear that it's working for you.