What causes this jam?

[E150GT]

Sorry for the bad cell phone pics, but I was curious as to why my gun cant eject a live round with a magazine in. I cant tell if its and extractor/ejector issue or a magazine issue or a design flaw in the lenght of the barrel or slide? What do you guys think?

[A-R]

You see in your second photo above where it says "Taurus"? Well there's your problem right there ....



TOTALLY KIDDING!

was just too hard to resist the zinger .... and I truly am joking, no offense to Taurus owners. They are good firearms.

no idea why it's doing that, by the way.

[MoJo]

Factory loads or handloads? If factory try another brand if handloads try a shorter OAL. It may need to take a trip back to Taurus to have the ejection port tweaked.

[jester]

Did you put 9mm ammo in a .380?

[LarryH]

From the pictures, it appears that you are trying to eject an unfired round by racking the slide by hand. Is that the case, or does the gun fail to eject a fired round?

[dcphoto]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like it's jammed on the barrel hood and not the ejection port.

I used to have the same problem with my 24/7, then I started using grease on the locking lugs of the barrel instead of oil. Turns out the oil I was using migrated quite quickly, and the nearly dry lugs didn't allow the barrel to pivot down in time to get out of the way of the loaded round. My personal grease recommendation is Slide Glide Lite.

If that doesn't solve the problem it probably needs a trip to Miami for some attention.

Edit: Forgot to ask, how many round have you fired from this gun? Have you had any issues ejecting fired brass? When you brought it home new, how (details please) did you clean it? New Taurus guns often have problems because of the protective goo they drown them in for the trip from Brazil. If you didn't use a bunch (often an entire can) of gun scrubber (synthetic safe!) to clean out all the goo then it can cause all kinds of problems.

[smyrna]

Believe it or not, that is a common issue with semi autos. They are designed to reliably extract and eject empty brass. So, I would guess that it is not a flaw with your extractor or ejector. Does it extract and eject reliably when firing live ammo? If you rack the slide with the magazine in place, the bullet hangs just inside the slide as it tries to pivot out the port. Without the magazine in place it probably hangs up and then falls out the magazine well or manages to have just enough clearance to clear the port.

Reliability of ejecting a live round will be dependent on overall cartridge length as MOJO pointed out. If it concerns you, the fix is to relieve the inside of the ejection port or possibly lengthen the front of the port to allow enough clearance for ejection with your carry ammo. This is a common modification on milspec 1911s (lowering and lengthening the ejection port).

[texjames]

Believe it or not, that is a common issue with semi autos. They are designed to reliably extract and eject empty brass. So, I would guess that it is not a flaw with your extractor or ejector. Does it extract and eject reliably when firing live ammo? If you rack the slide with the magazine in place, the bullet hangs just inside the slide as it tries to pivot out the port. Without the magazine in place it probably hangs up and then falls out the magazine well or manages to have just enough clearance to clear the port.

Reliability of ejecting a live round will be dependent on overall cartridge length as MOJO pointed out. If it concerns you, the fix is to relieve the inside of the ejection port or possibly lengthen the front of the port to allow enough clearance for ejection with your carry ammo. This is a common modification on milspec 1911s (lowering and lengthening the ejection port).

And i would add that your owners manual probably says remove magazine and open slide to remove the chambered round.
I can't think of a reason to want to unload a chambered live round with the magizine installed.....

[E150GT]

The ammo is factory Corbon JHP. I thought at first my Hornady critical defense rounds were too long, so I tried corbon and still had the issue. I bought the gun new in Feb and it has about 500 rounds through it. It feeds and ejects empties reliably now that it is broken in. That was not the case when it was new. Its intersting that this is a common problem. My brother's LCP does not have this problem. My P238 will do this only when the magazine is out, but ejects normally when the mag is in. MY glock will eject normally with or without a magazine. I have been using Hoppes oil in all my guns, but I will try that grease. Thanks

[E150GT]

A live round, perhaps not - but what about a dud? Bit of a problem if you have a misfire during a fight... you don't want to have to remove your mag just to get the dud cleared.

As the guys have already said, the easiest fix is to choose different ammo of a shorter OAL.

To the OP - you're not using 9mm ammo, by any chance, instead of .380? Just checking... I'm curious as to exactly what ammo you are using.

This is exactly why I want to figure this out. Its .380, not 9mm. I dont even have any 9mm rounds in my house right now because I lent my brother my PT111 with all the ammo I had, which was only a magazine's worth. It is also winchester, so it is distinguishable from my .380 rounds. A dud in a firefight would be very bad! NOt only do I have to drop the mag, the round gets stuck. I have to use both hands to force it out. Also, when I drop the mag, it requires force also so that it takes two hands to get it out and it forces the next round that was in the mag to come out. I realize the chances of this all happening are slim, but I'd like to fix it.

[Kevinf2349]

My Bersa was doing the same thing....it is now on vacation in Colorado visiting the gunsmith. Once it returns (which is hopefully very soon) I am hoping the issue is gone. I was told that I could be 'limp wristing' the weapon but I am not 100% convinced this is the case. Two different shooters had the same issue with this gun, but not with any other gun. Sure it could be a 'picky' gun, but if it is that picky I doubt I would trust my life to it. I want a gun that just goes when I pull the trigger.

[bdickens]

I used to have the same problem with my 24/7, then I started using grease on the locking lugs of the barrel instead of oil. Turns out the oil I was using migrated quite quickly, and the nearly dry lugs didn't allow the barrel to pivot down in time to get out of the way of the loaded round. My personal grease recommendation is Slide Glide Lite.

Thus illustrating why you should follow the maufacturer's reccomendations for lubrication. Engineers usually specify specific types of lubricants for specific applications for a reason.

[The Annoyed Man]

Believe it or not, that is a common issue with semi autos. They are designed to reliably extract and eject empty brass. So, I would guess that it is not a flaw with your extractor or ejector.

Beat me to it. Remember, the bulk of the weight in a live pistol cartridge is in the bullet. When the live case is yanked backwards by the extractor and the rim hits the ejector post, you're essentially trying to swing a heavy object in an arc at some distance from the point of pivot - kind of like trying to swing a rock glued onto the end of a short stick, as opposed to just pivoting the stick itself. With a live cartridge, you're changing the physics.

My "live round drill"....

1. point gun in safe direction.
2. eject magazine.
3. hold gun over some surface like a table (still pointed in safe direction).
4. invert gun so ejection port is facing down.
5. rack slide slowly.

The live round should drop right out without any difficulty. If your pistol has grasping grooves on the front of the slide, as do my 5" Springfield and my M&P45, then you can grab those grooves to rack the slide with the gun inverted, and the live round will drop right into your hand.

[dcphoto]

I used to have the same problem with my 24/7, then I started using grease on the locking lugs of the barrel instead of oil. Turns out the oil I was using migrated quite quickly, and the nearly dry lugs didn't allow the barrel to pivot down in time to get out of the way of the loaded round. My personal grease recommendation is Slide Glide Lite.

Thus illustrating why you should follow the maufacturer's reccomendations for lubrication. Engineers usually specify specific types of lubricants for specific applications for a reason.

The Taurus manual doesn't say to use grease, nor does it mention that you should lubricate the locking lugs. In fact, the manual doesn't give any information about how to clean or lubricate the gun, except to say you should remove oil from the chamber before firing. The manual doesn't give any recommendations about what kind of oil to use either.

I had sent the gun to Taurus TWICE to have the problem fixed, to no avail. I didn't figure the problem out until I noticed the barrel having a tough time pivoting during a dry fire practice session. I re-oiled and the problem went away for a little while. After a little troubleshooting I figured out the source of the problem, and the solution. Taurus, and their engineers, had nothing to do with the solution.