Sorting out a bad gun

[Ganderite]

I bought a FMK gen 2 pistol on EE. It misfired 20% to 80% of the time, depending on the brand of ammo (brand of primer). Federal was the best, but still not good enough.

I contacted the Canadian distributor (an outfit in BC whose name escapes me) and was told that because I had used handloads, the warranty was void. That p!ssed me off. The warranty does not say that at all. It says it does not cover problems caused by handloads.

I phoned FMK in the USA and discussed the problem with the gunsmith there. He mailed me a new striker fitted with a stronger spring. I tried 4 primed empty cases, and non fired. The strike was very light.

I took the same 4 cases and fired them in a 1911. They all fired and had a very deep primer hit.

In a belated brain wave, I took the barrel out of my second FMK and tried it in the problem gun. All primers fired perfectly. I put a case in each barrel and noted that in the good barrel, the case head was level with the chamber hood. On the problem barrel, the case set in noticeably deeper. That is why there are light strikes. The round is chambered too far into the barrel.

I phoned the gunsmith with this new information and he immediately said he would put a new barrel in the mail for me.

Great service! And a nice little pistol, too. A clone of a Glock 19, but much more comfortable in the hand.

 

[Rugerman]

Clever the way you figured it out. Lucky to have had a second barrel to compare things. Interesting.

 

[Gnome75]

Keep us updated. I hear a lot of hate towards the FMK but I liked and shot one better than an M&P. Would be great to hear first hand experience of how well it does.

I also really like the price.

 

[Ganderite]

I have two. The other one shoots just fine. Very comfortable in the hand. It was designed as a carry gun and I would say it would be very good for that, so long as it is reliable.

It has some excellent features. It is comfortable in the hand. It comes with an assortment of front and rear sights, so you can make it shoot POA in your hand with your ammo.

Other than the problem caused by the poor chamber, my problem gun was fine. I expect to soon have two 100% pistols.

One of them is pink (was on sale for $179). I am about to drop it in a vat of dark brown dye. Hope to cure the colour issue.

 

[baldabe]

Good job Sherlock! Your posts are always informative and educative. Simple solutions to problems with a bit of creative thinking.
Great service by FMK USA to mail you parts as well as a barrel, and boo to the Canadian outfit who abandoned you.

 

[josquin]

Good sleuthing! And good that you were able to get the proper information and service rght from the horse's mouth, rather than a load of BS from the horse's other end out here in B.C. (I wonder how the local yokels will explain how your handloads caused an over-bored chamber?)


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There's a strange anatomical oddity going around.
There are more horses' asses than there are horses.

 

[vagrant]

Just a small note, You cannot compare primer strike that didn't went off to primer strike that did, While your first picture the strike look mediocre, its does not take much more than this to actuallyset them off. When a round actually fire, the primer will move backyard on the firing pin and exagerate the indentation. You can clearly see on the fisrt casing in your second picture that the primer is outside of the casing, much more than the non fired one. While the casing in the first picture did,Nt went off, comparing it with some that did, eill not help a gunsmith to find the problem. Probably had an headspace issue.

On a unrelated note, i rented a car while in Florida and the plate was FMK 556, lets say it was easy to remember

 

[BCRider]

Vagrant is right on the depth of the strike being deepened by the firing of the primer.

But that's a good find on spotting the too deeply chambered barrel. It's a good thing you had another one to compare it to.

And kudos to FMK USA that responded so well to that find.