Sig P238 Picky about ammo?

[Twmaster]

Just picked up a used Sig P238 Nitride (2009 vintage).

Neat little baby 1911-ish poodle shooter.

Seems to shoot well enough for such a tiny gun with short sight radius etc.

While I have few data points on ammo I got a handful of stovepipe extraction jams with Magtech 95 grain FMJ.

According to the gun shop it recently got a new recoil spring. (makes ya wonder...)

Just to cover all bases, the extractor holds correctly and is clean under the hook, the rest of the gun is clean and lubed the way I like them lubed.

Further, the slide does not take too awful much effort to rack with a pinching grip.

Anyhow, so before I get too irritated, how picky has your P238 been about ammo?

Tomorrow I'm going to try some handloads that are at the high end of the load range with 100 grain JFP pills.

Can't afford any SD type ammo until Payday.

 

[CNobbe]

I owned a few P238s and none of them were picky on ammo. I cannot recall a single malfunction with any of them in fact.

Mine were made in 2011-12 though.

 

[Old Dog]

Our P-238 Extreme eats everything. Probably about fifteen varieties of FMJs and JHPs through it, from WWB to Buffalo Bore. Not one malfunction.

 

[weblance]

My P238 would not FEED Federal Hydra-Shok. It would jam the nose into the feed ramp every time. Sold it.

 

[JamieC]

While she doesn't have a lot of ammo through it yet, my wife's P238 has shot everything so far. Including my reloads. Haven't tried the Hydra-Shok, have shot Hornady Custom. Want to try some Liberty Deep Penetrator ammo, (when they will sell me more than one box).

 

[cfullgraf]

J

According to the gun shop it recently got a new recoil spring. (makes ya wonder...)

Early P238 had some serious reliability issues. They would work for a while and then tear up the recoil springs.

What fixed mine was when Sig came out with a flat wire spring. I am not sure if they have updated the spring since but if you do not have a flat wire spring, I doubt the gun shop is telling you the truth.

The magazine went through several iterations as well. Colt Mustang magazines work sort of, some of the time. The main differences is in the follower.

I have not shot mine in a while, but I remember it shot anything. but, I usually shoot FMJ in it most of the time.

 

[barnett]

Never a problem with mine.

 

[Snowdog]

I have similar (probably identical) failures but only with seriously hot ammo, such as those from Underwood. Which is a shame because Underwood makes good ammunition.

Anything else, regardless of bullet profile be it FMJ, wide meplate JHP and FMJ-FP, no problem. It's just hot stuff it dislikes a bunch, perhaps once a magazine.

I think a heavier recoil springs with help with the hotter loads.

I'm having a hell of a time finding a heavier recoil spring, so I don't think the 102gr Golden Saber Underwood ammunition is in this pistol's future.

On the bright side, it loves everything else including my carry load, Hornady's 90gr Critical Defense (actually Zombie Max which I bought in bulk at an awesome discount).

 

[Twmaster]

Thank you all for the info. I think a new 'flat' style recoil spring is in order.

 

[WardenWolf]

My P238 would not FEED Federal Hydra-Shok. It would jam the nose into the feed ramp every time. Sold it.

I'd have just found a round it liked better than give up on a pistol because it dislikes a single (and heavily obsolete) type of ammo. Hydra-Shoks were okay in the 90's, but they haven't really been a solid contender for more than a decade.

 

[kokapelli]

mine has not had any problems with any of the ammo I have tried and I do not have the flat recoil spring.

 

[Ironicaintit]

Im tickled to report that mine digests anything i feed it, no problems.

 

[rskent]

WardenWolf

Hydra-Shoks were okay in the 90's, but they haven't really been a solid contender for more than a decade.

At the risk of derailing this thread. What's so bad about Hydra-Shoks? Should I just flush the things right now or what.
Seriously, I am no expert on bullet design. I'm just asking. What about them makes them non-effective?

For the record I have a 238 that I think is great. I shoot XTPs out of it. It runs great.
I guess XTPs are probably pretty much obsolete as well.

 

[sauer1911]

Got a new P238, this year. Have shot Blazer 95g ball ammo with the aluminum "brass". All shots very accurate and no problems whatsoever.

Went to a match to shoot the BUG, and had some commercial reloads at 100grs. I had several failures to load during shooting. The first shot I racked and it shot, then somewhere in the magazine the load was weak and didn't feed the next round.

Got some Lehigh Self Defense rounds, shot a few they were perfect!

Need full powder loads to make it work.

be safe

 

[Twmaster]

Thanks again everyone. I'm going to order a box of those Lehigh Defense or Underwood Ammo. Also going to replace the springs just as a matter of good measure too. Just need to wait for PayDay to roll around.

 

[kokapelli]

WardenWolf


At the risk of derailing this thread. What's so bad about Hydra-Shoks? Should I just flush the things right now or what.
Seriously, I am no expert on bullet design. I'm just asking. What about them makes them non-effective?

For the record I have a 238 that I think is great. I shoot XTPs out of it. It runs great.
I guess XTPs are probably pretty much obsolete as well.

I don't think there is a better source for380performance than you can see here....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNtPHYwcDts

 

[jimbo555]

Mine was fine except for s&b fmj primers. Had some ftf's . stopped using s&b ammo except for practice.

 

[jhb]

Got two first gens.....never an ammo issue. They did have spring issues. ..mag issues.....and my first gen hd has a soft slide not heat treated properly design issue. No ammo issues. never seen one that did that wasn't mag related.

 

[Capt. Obvious]

Sadly, my P238 gave me problems as well. I also bought mine used. I probably experienced more ejection problems than feeding problems by a margin of around 3:1. It was a great looking little pistol but it had to go. I traded it for something else. I ran several factory brands of ammo, stuff I considered to be quality ammo as well. Didn't seem to make any difference.

 

[11c2v]

The wife's shoots fmj, cast, and hollow point just fine. The ejection is fairly soft though. Three to four feet tops.

 

[kokapelli]

The wife's shoots fmj, cast, and hollow point just fine. The ejection is fairly soft though. Three to four feet tops.

I always thought short ejection distance was a sign that the recoil spring was good and long ejection meant the recoil spring was getting weak. Am I wrong?

 

[WardenWolf]

WardenWolf


At the risk of derailing this thread. What's so bad about Hydra-Shoks? Should I just flush the things right now or what.
Seriously, I am no expert on bullet design. I'm just asking. What about them makes them non-effective?

For the record I have a 238 that I think is great. I shoot XTPs out of it. It runs great.
I guess XTPs are probably pretty much obsolete as well.

They just don't expand nearly as well or as reliably as newer ammunition like Speer Gold Dots, especially through clothing. They've been obsolete for a very long time and honestly no one should be using them at this point. But lots of people haven't kept up with modern ammunition and keep using what they remember. Yes, there have been minor improvements to the design since then, but their performance is still grossly inferior. Get yourself some better ammo.

Re:Kokapelli

It depends. Hotter ammo ejects farther. Also, some ammo just behaves differently on ejection than others. Additionally, each gun is a little different. There's just too many variables to say for certain without trying several different types of ammunition. Overly violent ejection often is a sign of a weakened recoil spring, though.

 

[kokapelli]

The federal Premium Hydra-Shok was one of the better performing rounds in the Shooting The Bull testing and the XTP was the top performing round.

He did later test the Lehigh round and was very impressed with it, but some people have had feeding problems with the Lehigh round.

All the specifics on the tests are at..........

http://shootingthebull.net/blog/final-results-of-the-380-acp-ammo-quest/