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JC_68Westy

New HK VP9SK Issue

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I just bought a VP9SK this weekend and shot it yesterday. I have had more FTE with this gun than any I have ever shot. I started with some 124g ammo I reloaded this summer. This ammo cycles every 9mm I own. I had regular FTE at times every shot and every other. It did cycle Speer 124g +p Gold Dot and reloaded 147g HST. I did clean the gun prior to shooting it. Very disappointed at this point. This was the first HK I have purchased and I am not impressed. It is very accurate and has a good trigger, but still not impressed. New had this type of issue with and gun before. I am not going to shoot 200 Gold Dots through it to break it in. Does HK normally require a break in?

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I have a few HKs, never had to break them in. The only problem I have ever had was with my USP45, FTF on every round. The cause was user error. I cleaned the gun with hoppes and forgot to oil it, it was bone dry.

I just got a P30SK myself, hopefully taking it to the range this weekend, i'll see how it goes.

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30 minutes ago, Mr.Stu said:

What's the nature of the FTE? Is the brass still in the breech? Is it stove piping?

Yes, and yes to both. Worst case of FTE I have ever seen. I will continue to shoot to see if this situation changes. The recoil spring assembly has red paint markings on it. Not sure what weight the spring assembly is, not that it should matter for a brand new gun...

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My P30L did the same thing.I was using 115gn but HK said the gun needed to be shot with 124gn to break it in first.I just ran a whole box of 124 today with no issues.I switched back to 115 and got the FTE.You might want to reach out to James at https://www.teufelshundtactical.com/.He is one of  if not thee best HK armorer and great guy, and should be able to get you straight.Good luck.

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Just got home from work and went to the back yard and fired 7 rounds. Shot one fired fine, ejected very close to me and loaded rd 2. Rd 2 fired and ejected straight up about 8 inches, failure to feed rd 3. Rd 3 fired and ejected very short, loaded rd 4. Rd 4 fired, stovepipe. Rd 5 fired and ejected with failure to feed. rd 6 fired cycled fully (ejected brass and loaded rd 7). Rd 7 fired and ejected, slide did not lock on last rd. 

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6 minutes ago, winmag45 said:

My P30L did the same thing.I was using 115gn but HK said the gun needed to be shot with 124gn to break it in first.I just ran a whole box of 124 today with no issues.I switched back to 115 and got he FTE.You might want to reach out to James at https://www.teufelshundtactical.com/.He is one of  if not thee best HK armorer and great guy, and should be able to get you straight.Good luck.

I was just shooting 124g. My Stacatto and Wilson eat anything I feed them along with the Glocks, Sig, Walther, Kahr, etc. I have a lot of guns and this is the first one that has been like this for me over the years. 

I appreciate the link and will reach out if this doesn't clear up soon.

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The very first pistol I bought (Colt Government circa 1980 when I knew very little about firearms) behaved in the same way. Contacted Colt, who directed me to a 'local' FFL factory armorer. Sent the gun to him, came back a week later, and has shot fine ever since.

I've had zero issues with all my H&K pistols, including a VP9SK and P30SK. But manufacturing is an imperfect process and mistakes are made.

H&K stands behind what they make. Contact them for direction.

Warranty - Heckler & Koch (hk-usa.com)

 

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Did you clean it?  Some guns come fine with factory lube but HK may put it in packing grease.  I know Beretta does that - definitely had to clean all of my Berettas before shooting.  The IWI Jericho 941 I got looks like it had regular lube but I cleaned it as well.  I definitely FTF/FTE issues with my Kimber 1911 LW Stainless 9mm until I cleaned it and lubed the heck out of it.

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7 minutes ago, Krdshrk said:

Did you clean it?  Some guns come fine with factory lube but HK may put it in packing grease.  I know Beretta does that - definitely had to clean all of my Berettas before shooting.  The IWI Jericho 941 I got looks like it had regular lube but I cleaned it as well.  I definitely FTF/FTE issues with my Kimber 1911 LW Stainless 9mm until I cleaned it and lubed the heck out of it.

Yes, I did clean and lube it. This is not a dry gun issue. It seems to me that the recoil spring is too stiff. I looked for info on the red paint markings on the spring but didn't come up with anything for the VP9SK.

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3 minutes ago, JC_68Westy said:

Yes, I did clean and lube it. This is not a dry gun issue. It seems to me that the recoil spring is too stiff. I looked for info on the red paint markings on the spring but didn't come up with anything for the VP9SK.

I just checked mine. Mine is brand new, has 200 rounds through it. No issues with all factory loaded ammo. It has the same red painted recoil spring. Any chance some of the reloads were light since it cycled factory speer?

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47 minutes ago, Cheflife15 said:

I just checked mine. Mine is brand new, has 200 rounds through it. No issues with all factory loaded ammo. It has the same red painted recoil spring. Any chance some of the reloads were light since it cycled factory speer?

Light is a relative term. The Speer GD were +p. I measure my reloads with a chronograph and they are not light.

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I just shot 10rds and it seems to be getting a bit better. No FTE and 3 Failure to Feed. One failure was a nose up chamber feed failure and the other two feed failures were round ejected and no round loaded from magazine (empty chamber). This tells me that the slide is not always cycling back far enough to strip a round from the mag. I racked the slide a bunch of times last night and left the slide locked back overnight. One additional observation is that the slide stop was almost impossible to release. I used it a bunch while racking the slide and now it feels like a normal slide release and will release like it should.

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Update, tonight I shot 10rds of reloaded 147gr HSTs and they shot perfectly. I will put another 40rds of the 147 through it and see if the lighter 124gr will work without issue. Definitely a recoil spring issue in my opinion. Racked it a bunch last night and left it locked open all night and day. Will do this again tonight. What a pain in the ass.

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7 minutes ago, Mr.Stu said:

Springs wear through exercise. Maybe just sit watching your show of choice and continuously rack the slide.

I had to do similar with a CZ fairly recently. After a few days, the slide was noticeably smoother.

Doing a quick online search of the issue, it seems that it is not very uncommon in HKs. The recommendation is to use full power NATO loads for break-in, until it gets loosened-up. 

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1 hour ago, JC_68Westy said:

Update, tonight I shot 10rds of reloaded 147gr HSTs and they shot perfectly. I will put another 40rds of the 147 through it and see if the lighter 124gr will work without issue. Definitely a recoil spring issue in my opinion. Racked it a bunch last night and left it locked open all night and day. Will do this again tonight. What a pain in the ass.

@Mr.Stu is right. Unless you extend a spring past its elastic limit, merely keeping it compressed won’t do anything. Only repeated cycles of compression and relaxation will “loosen” the spring.

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40rds of 147gr HST appear to have resolved the FTE/FTF issues. I was able to shoot a mixture of 124gr and 115gr ammo with the exception of the slide not locking back on one magazine. Another thing I noticed is the frame rails have sharp edges on them compared to other polymer guns. My P320 C-Compact has very polished/smooth frame rails. The HK rails were very rough in comparison.

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I just got back from the range, put 250+ rounds of my 115gr reloads thru the new P30SK, not a single failure. I believe the P30SK and VP9SK share a similar dual recoil spring design. So either your springs were a bit too stiff, or my reloads were a little hot. Which is quite possible since I worked them up for the VP9.

 

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4 hours ago, MartyZ said:

I just got back from the range, put 250+ rounds of my 115gr reloads thru the new P30SK, not a single failure. I believe the P30SK and VP9SK share a similar dual recoil spring design. So either your springs were a bit too stiff, or my reloads were a little hot. Which is quite possible since I worked them up for the VP9.

 

I just got done shooting. Put 75rds of mixed 115gr and 124gr reloads with no issues encountered. The gun is very accurate. I was shooting steel at 25yds at it was a bit too easy. I like the trigger way more than the Glock trigger.

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47 minutes ago, JC_68Westy said:

Went to a range this weekend to sight in a rifle and also shot 100rds of reloads (115 and 124). The HK shot flawlessly. I can say that I now trust this gun.

Love that gun , shoots smooth, great trigger, points well. 

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On 10/3/2022 at 2:43 PM, JC_68Westy said:

I just bought a VP9SK this weekend and shot it yesterday. I have had more FTE with this gun than any I have ever shot. I started with some 124g ammo I reloaded this summer. This ammo cycles every 9mm I own. I had regular FTE at times every shot and every other. It did cycle Speer 124g +p Gold Dot and reloaded 147g HST. I did clean the gun prior to shooting it. Very disappointed at this point. This was the first HK I have purchased and I am not impressed. It is very accurate and has a good trigger, but still not impressed. New had this type of issue with and gun before. I am not going to shoot 200 Gold Dots through it to break it in. Does HK normally require a break in?

HK sais to break it in with 124g. I have thousands of rounds through my VP9, brass, steel ,  115, 124, 147 and not one faIL. I only have apx 200 rds of 124g brakss through my p30SK. Did you clean and lube everything 1st. 

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I have a P30SK and my Wife has a VP9SK and neither have had trouble with my reloads, I use 115 gr projectiles with silhouette powder, in fact these are the only rounds both guns have ever seen. That in mind, these loads are at max load and might be teetering on +P start load .

I also have SIG P229 that I started my 9mm loading( it was near the mid range of the load data same powder and projectiles) on and never had an issue then one day I decided it was time change the springs(recoil and all small springs) and sure as shit I started getting lock back issue. This caused me end up the charge have stuck with it ever since.

Have you chronograph the load and what velocity are you getting? You may need to run the gun a bit till it loosens up to run undercharged loads.

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