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I'm new to handguns and don't know quite what to do with this problem.

The last 3 trips to the range, we have experienced malfunctions and I don't know whether or not to blame the gun, the ammo, or the operator.

Problem 1: The most recent trip, we had 2 failures to fire. My wife alerted me that her Sig P938 did not fire. I removed the magazine and ejected an intact round. There was no firing pin strike on the round. I then inserted the magazine and on the second round, the hammer went forward without a bang. I pulled the hammer back, pulled the trigger, and the round in the chamber fired. We proceeded to run over 50 rounds through the gun without a repeat of this problem. We had this problem a couple of times when the gun was brand new but I attributed it to cheap ammo and/or a break-in period. We have run over 450 rounds through the gun. We are using MagTech 115g brass. My CZ 75 Compact has eaten over 1,000 rounds of this same ammo with absolutely no problems. I had just cleaned the Sig before this trip.

Problem 2: Also today's trip. When my wife was done and put the Sig away, I did the routine safety check and ejected a spent cartridge. My wife swears the gun locked open on the empty magazine and she released the slide lock to store the gun. This problem may be related to problems in the previous 2 trips to the range. For today's trip, we tried 2 things to eliminate this problem. First, I cleaned the gun and used my pocket knife to scrape the inside of the extractor. Second, I worked with my wife on racking the slide for the first round, thinking she may not have released it correctly resulting in the extractor not catching the rim of the round.

Problem 3: On 2 previous trips to the range, the Sig failed to extract the expended first round.

This gun was purchased to be my wife's EDC. I'm having trouble trusting it at this point. Do we contact Sig Sauer, or do we take it to a local gunsmith (we had planned to have a local gunsmith install an aftermarket trigger because the original equipment trigger pinches my wife's finger)?

Sig Sauer?

Gunsmith?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I was gonna say "call Sig" but if you're going to see a gunsmith anyway, well he might have an opinion about it.

I have a friend who had problems with his P938 OOB and sent it in right away to Sig and they fixed it no problemo.

Is this new or preowned?

If preowned, its popular in this gun to install a colt mustang .380 mainspring... Some have reported light strikes from that mod.

Call Sig. You don't want any alterations done if you have to send it back. When you had the first failure to even leave a mark on the primer I would have been calling Sig.

Call Sig.

This is a brand new gun - never even on display before we bought it. Looks like I will call Sig in the morning.

Definitely call Sig. Too many problems to address locally.

Light primer strike can be due to a number or things.

The expended case still in the chamber was a failure to extract and the slide probably did lock back. Your wife just didn't see the case still in the chamber. Have her ALWAYS look into the chamber when making the weapon safe to put away.

I was surprised to see Sig put an external extractor on the 938. Not that they can't/don't work correctly...but a little bit of 'crud' in the wrong spot can cause problems with them.

Sig should be able to get things sorted out for you.

I had the same issues with my 938. Called SIG they authorized a shipping label and off it went. Six days later it was back with 100% reliability in over 300 rounds. DO NOT go to a local gunsmith unless SIG advises you to.

flintknapper wrote:Definitely call Sig. Too many problems to address locally.

Light primer strike can be due to a number or things.

The expended case still in the chamber was a failure to extract and the slide probably did lock back. Your wife just didn't see the case still in the chamber. Have her ALWAYS look into the chamber when making the weapon safe to put away.

I was surprised to see Sig put an external extractor on the 938. Not that they can't/don't work correctly...but a little bit of 'crud' in the wrong spot can cause problems with them.

Sig should be able to get things sorted out for you.

Thank you all for the help.
I called Sig and they created an RMA and a shipping label.

Sig will make it right. My father has a 938, despite the popularity of the gun among many, I've never been taken with it.

Couple follow up questions. When you are cleaning the gun have you ever put oil on the firing pin or firing pin channel? If so don't, it will attract crud where you don't want it to be. If not then obviously something else going on.

Also, just as best practice, always drop the mag when done shooting before releasing the slide. This doesn't mean you shouldn't check the chamber, but would almost certainly avoid the issue you experienced above.

SigM4 wrote:...Couple follow up questions. When you are cleaning the gun have you ever put oil on the firing pin or firing pin channel? If so don't, it will attract crud where you don't want it to be. If not then obviously something else going on.

No - and when not being fired or cleaned, we keep the Sig in a zipped pistol pouch.

Also, just as best practice, always drop the mag when done shooting before releasing the slide. This doesn't mean you shouldn't check the chamber, but would almost certainly avoid the issue you experienced above.

Pretty sure the wife drops the magazine before releasing the slide. The slide release is very difficult to push so we both just pull the slide back, either without a magazine or with a loaded magazine.
I talked to the wife about being sure the weapon is clear before putting it away. I'll probably check it anyway before putting it in the range bag anyhow -- just my way.

Gun-tests, Mar 2013 tested this gun and had many similar problems that you described. They gave it a "D" grade. They found a broken extractor and primer material blocking the firing pin hole on the breech face. Their problems with the no primer strike were with Cor-Bons ammo. FYI. GunTests is well worth subscribing to.

The pistol is back from Sig. Very quick turn around. The cleaned the firing pin channel, replaced the mainspring, and upgraded the magazine latch. They reported test firing with ball and hollow-point with no malfunctions. Here's hoping my wife and I can get to the range in the next few days and run a 100 rounds or so.

FCH wrote:The pistol is back from Sig. Very quick turn around. The cleaned the firing pin channel, replaced the mainspring, and upgraded the magazine latch. They reported test firing with ball and hollow-point with no malfunctions. Here's hoping my wife and I can get to the range in the next few days and run a 100 rounds or so.

Very fast turnaround indeed!

Please give us a range report ASAP.