[BobbleHead]

My G42 is one of the earlier models. It's been back to the factory recently for refurbishment. That fixed all the problems except one; feed failures.
As expected the factory can't replace the barrel.
Has anyone fixed this problem on their own?
What did you do to fix it?
I'm considering the following:
• a new 3rd party drop in barrel
• Polishing the standard barrel ramp
For defense I use a particular bullet because of the consistent performance in the .380 caliber. Not willing to change that. It fails to feed 1/50 times.
I love this gun, despite the problems, and would really like to find a solution.

 

[lawyer69]

Polish the feed ramp. After doing that I couldn't find a single type of ammo the gun would not fire.

 

[FrontierTCB]

My G42 is one of the earlier models. It's been back to the factory recently for refurbishment. That fixed all the problems except one; feed failures.
As expected the factory can't replace the barrel.
Has anyone fixed this problem on their own?
What did you do to fix it?
I'm considering the following:
• a new 3rd party drop in barrel
• Polishing the standard barrel ramp
For defense I use a particular bullet because of the consistent performance in the .380 caliber. Not willing to change that. It fails to feed 1/50 times.
I love this gun, despite the problems, and would really like to find a solution.

Hornady? If so you are not the first to report problems with feeding the 42 so researching some past threads may give you a solution.
Polishing the feed ramp can't hurt. I would give that a try first. Good luck

Sent from my iPhone

 

[BobbleHead]

Lawyer69,
Can you tell me exactly how you polished the ramp?
I appreciate the help.

 

[rbbeers]

I'm not a lawyer... and never played one on TV.

That acknowledged, this video How To Polish Your Semi-auto Pistol Feed Ramp may be helpful.

Best regards,

Bob

 

[SccyPilot]

Get #33249-03 generation mags and install Magguts springs and their metal followers and your problems should go away!

 

[lawyer69]

Personally, I don't trust a Dremel so I used 600 grit Auto sandpaper hand the pencil eraser method. Worked fine and you just have to polish until you get a nice shiny surface. Rule of thumb is to not polish off any more than the width of a sheet of paper.

 

[BobbleHead]

Thank you all for the great tips.
I'll let you know what I did and how well it worked.

 

[BobbleHead]

Here's what I've done so far:
I purchased a Wolf barrel at a good price.
Dropped it in.
Feed failures were substantially worse. More than half failed.
Bought some Flitz and a bullet shaped polishing bit for my Dremel. (I'm better with that than I am with sandpaper). Took my time and gave it a good polish.
Problem solved!!!!!!!!

The ammo I use is Lehigh Defense - Xtreme Defense . After doing a lot of homework on the .380 round I'm convinced it has more stopping power than any .380 hollow point.
The Underwood brand has more power. But the Lehigh brand works just fine.
The magazines were the -02 model. However, since this is my primary carry I'm upgrading to the -03's.

 

[rbbeers]

Since you have an OEM barrel and an AFM barrel, it may be a good idea to test the muzzle velocity of your SD rounds with each and consider carrying the faster barrel. (Polish the OEM barrel feed ramp, if necessary.)

Just a thought...

Best regards,

Bob

 

[DOS]

Don’t the after-market barrels have tighter tolerances than the factory barrels? If that’s the case, wouldn’t an after-market barrel amplify the problem?

I just polished the feed ramp on mine with a Dremel using the smallest buffing wheel and some mag wheel polish, worked fine.

 

[FrontierTCB]

Glad you got it sorted out.


Sent from my iPhone

 

[BobbleHead]

Rbbeers,
That sounds like a great idea.
I'll have to find someone with a velocity meter.

Do you have any experience with the meters? Is there an inexpensive model good enough to produce a meaningful difference?

 

[BobbleHead]

DOS
I didn't know what to expect with the Wolf barrel other than learning something.

I will be polishing that ramp as well.
After that I'll carry the barrel with the higher velocity.