Major FTF. Probs with G20 and LWD Barrel

[Hohn]

Awhile ago, I acquired a Lone Wolf barrel for my G20 to shoot .40SW. I ran 150 rounds or so through it with no problems.

I may not have cleaned it after my last shoot (at least, not well enough).

Last Saturday I want to go shoot up some cheap (and DIRTY) Aguila 180gr. This ammo had previously run OK in the LWD barrel.

The very first shot: FTF. Tap. Rack. FTF.

Amidst abject frustration, I managed to squeeze our 25 rounds or so before I retired this insanity. Probably 10 FTFs or more in those few rounds.


I took the gun home and disassembled. Autopsy at home showed that a round would barely enter the chamber by hand. What's worse, the case was very difficult to extract.

Curious. I sort of chalked it up as a lesson in the importance of cleaning.


But I noticed something-- the gun was hesitating to go into battery with the LWD barrel, even with an empty chamber. I noticed upon disassembly that the RSA was in the wrong slot on the barrel. Instead of down on the arched cutout, it was on the next shelf up. I reassembled it to the proper location. I cycled the slide several times empty, then disassembled again.

Again, the RSA was not down in the arch, it was on the next step up. Very curious now, I swapped in the original G20 barrel. After several slide cycles, I noticed the same thing: the RSA was not in the arch. However, with the G20 barrel, the gun didn't hesitate at all to go into battery. The LWD would pause as the recoil lug on the top of the barrel found its home in the slide cutout.

Questions:

1) is it normal for the RSA to jump out of that arch? Does it even matter?
2) Is it reasonable that merely being sooty would cause the FTFs and extraction difficulties on the LWD barrel? The manual insertion of a round into the dirty barrel was difficult and very gritty.
3) Can this be chalked up to crappy ammo? (Aguila)
4) Is my cleaning technique that bad? Right now I'm just using Rem solvent on some patches, let is soak for a bit, then chase with dry patches until they come out clean.
5) Could my ramp polishing have somehow made this LWD worse? My polishing was likely changing the lay of the surface finish, even as it improved it.


Thanks.

 

[Romero Zombie]

I can answer question 1. It is fairly common for the RSA to come out of the recess after assembly. That is there just to hold the spring in place during reassembly. As to the rest if it's not going into battery without a round the LWD barrel may be a bit out of spec.

 

[22rssix]

I also have a G20 with a LW barrel in 40SW. It has been flawless so far with Federal and WWB ammo.

I also added a 22lb recoil spring from I think LW as well. However with the stock recoil spring and the gun runs great in 40SW.

I would try different ammo.
Clean the chamber with more than solvent and a patch.
If you got aggressive with the feed ramp that could have caused issues but it is hard to tell.

 

[Hohn]

The only thing I did that was "aggressive" on the feed ramp was polishing with q-tips and mag wheel polish. I even made sure to polish only in the direction of friction from the bullet nose.

I think I need to go back and run it again after a good cleaning and see how it does.

 

[shibumiseeker]

A tight chamber, which the LWD has, dramatically can increase ammo sensitivity. Without mic-ing the critical dimensions on your barrel it can be hard to tell why it may not like to fully return to battery. Your RSA may be old enough to need replacing, the outer surfaces of the barrel maybe just a couple thou larger than the stock bbl, etc etc.

There are reasons the tolerances on the stock assembly are as loose as they are: to ensure dead-reliable feeding under less than perfect conditions.

I do know I love my LWD barrels on all my Glock 10mms, but I also know I've had to tweak all of them in some way.

 

[amboy49]

Acronyms

Awhile ago, I acquired a Long Wolf barrel for my G20 to shoot .40SW. I ran 150 rounds or so through it with no problems.

I may not have cleaned it after my last shoot (at least, not well enough).

Last Saturday I want to go shoot up some cheap (and DIRTY) Aguila 180gr. This ammo had previously run OK in the LWD barrel.

The very first shot: FTF. Tap. Rack. FTF.

Amidst abject frustration, I managed to squeeze our 25 rounds or so before I retired this insanity. Probably 10 FTFs or more in those few rounds.


I took the gun home and disassembled. Autopsy at home showed that a round would barely enter the chamber by hand. What's worse, the case was very difficult to extract.

Curious. I sort of chalked it up as a lesson in the importance of cleaning.


But I noticed something-- the gun was hesitating to go into battery with the LWD barrel, even with an empty chamber. I noticed upon disassembly that the RSA was in the wrong slot on the barrel. Instead of down on the arched cutout, it was on the next shelf up. I reassembled it to the proper location. I cycled the slide several times empty, then disassembled again.

Again, the RSA was not down in the arch, it was on the next step up. Very curious now, I swapped in the original G20 barrel. After several slide cycles, I noticed the same thing: the RSA was not in the arch. However, with the G20 barrel, the gun didn't hesitate at all to go into battery. The LWD would pause as the recoil lug on the top of the barrel found its home in the slide cutout.

Questions:

1) is it normal for the RSA to jump out of that arch? Does it even matter?
2) Is it reasonable that merely being sooty would cause the FTFs and extraction difficulties on the LWD barrel? The manual insertion of a round into the dirty barrel was difficult and very gritty.
3) Can this be chalked up to crappy ammo? (Aguila)
4) Is my cleaning technique that bad? Right now I'm just using Rem solvent on some patches, let is soak for a bit, then chase with dry patches until they come out clean.
5) Could my ramp polishing have somehow made this LWD worse? My polishing was likely changing the lay of the surface finish, even as it improved it.


Thanks.

This won't have anything to do with addressing the original poster's question. With that disclaimer - I'll admit I haven't been around guns much. Been trap shooting since the mid-60's and rifle and pistol shooting since the mid 70's. i have been on this sight for few months now. Maybe it is a generational thing. I note it is very common to use acronyms in the various posts that come up. Here the acronym is RSA. I have absolutely no idea what that is ! I googled RSA and didn't get much information related to guns or gun barrels. Is there just a certain knowledgeable gun fraternity that is familiar with these acronyms ? Is the poster too lazy to type the letters - or assumes the common reader will know what he is referring to ?

There have been other instances of acronym use - some I have figured out - some I have not. Perhaps this should have been a separate thread/post. My apologies to the OP for this - hopefully someone with an understanding of the RSA acronym and gun knowledge can help him.

YMMV - me (before someone else beats me to it)

(Now emoticons I like)

 

[Hohn]

Recoil Spring Assembly, Amboy.

Hope this helps.

 

[iceman4226]

Recoil Spring Assembly, Amboy.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Amboy i didn't know what the hell he was talking about either

 

[USMC-Johnson]

Ok, could be several things but my guess is the barrel fits tighter in the locking lug (idk what else to call it but how the barrel moves up into the slide and locks into place with the slide fully forward) so it just takes some more force. If the new barrel doesnt quite fit my guess is that is the reason and has nothing to do with the ammo. But if its super cheap bargain bin ammo take out a set of calipers and measure the rounds against a round that you know chambers.

 

[shibumiseeker]

Is there just a certain knowledgeable gun fraternity that is familiar with these acronyms ? Is the poster too lazy to type the letters - or assumes the common reader will know what he is referring to ?

It took me a second to realize he was talking about the RSA (see what I did there?), but generally speaking if one is asking for some advanced advice about a particular problem with a particular gun, then it's reasonably likely that someone who knows the answer will also understand the initialization (RSA is not an acronym...). I was able to figure it out through context. Personally, I prefer to be clear in my communications and will generally only use initialization or acronyms if they are very widely accepted. Even so, I prefer it to text-speak or some of the completely unreadable spelling, sentence structure, and grammar some folks have. A mistake once in a while is normal, but I completely pass by some posts I see because they are so bad.

 

[Hohn]

So, you're going to tell us what IWTFM stands for?

 

[shibumiseeker]

So, you're going to tell us what IWTFM stands for?

"I Wrote the ****ing Manual." And it is deliberately undefined as it is a nerd-joke play on "RTFM" (Read the ****ing Manual).

And it's true as I am editor and contributing author for a rescue manual.

 

[Hohn]

Ok- quick update.

It it turns out that I really did a poor job cleaning the LW barrel. I got a good jag, and a bronze brush and cleaned it for real. Now the same ammo that would barely drop into the bbl by hand actually glides right in.

So the answer to my OP is that I can't clean a pistol worth a lick.

The LWD barrel is much tighter than the Glock OEM piece. So when really dirty, the LW barrel has function probs where the Glock piece will keep on chugging along.

I'd like to add the .357 sig conversion also because I'm told the tapered cartridge feeds very well even dirty.


eta: I'll also be going stiffer on the spring just to get a little more insurance. I've seen even weak factory .40 and .357 run fine in a g20 with a spring as stiff as a Wolff 24#