[Artsi]

I've shot 1911 based pistol competetively for some years. I've gotten somewhat familiar with all kindsa reasons why a firearm will jam.

I'm new to P08, but I reckon a pistol is a pistol, no matter what make it is. Many reasons for jams are common for all.


One basic thing to check up is ammo fit to chamber. Strip barrel out of gun, and feed ammo into chamber. Does it go all the way in easily, or does it snag just before seating?

I have had a ammo chamber machined to such depth that it worked fine on one brand of brass, and jammed totally with another brand. On a closer look it turned out that this other brass brand had more generous manufacturing tolerances as it came to brass lenght. All what was needed was a slight attention of handheld chambering tool to lenghten my barrel chamber and all problems were gone.


Ammo not seating easily all the way in can for example be caused by bullet shape. Less 'pointy' bullet may contact 'cone' inside barrel, thus jamming the gun.

One way to have some idea how 'crammed' or close to chamber end your 'cone' is, is to make one 0.1" longer cartridge on your reloading press and see how well that will chamber.

On my 1911 based pistol I can load my ammo 0.2" longer and it still chambers without any problems.

Another very common reason on selfloaded ammo jamming is to have a bulge on the side of a case (near extractor groove). Sometimes you cannot get rid of these even if everything is set up correctly on a loading press. Surprisingly enough, switching to another brand of re-sizing die can help to cure the problem.

(I have engineered some parts on my reloading press further, and had my gunsmith to do some machining on them. Now I can load a case with a bulge on the side, and it will come out of press bulge removed - as good as factory made ammo).


Depending on a case, it may jam only occasionally. In such cases what I do (and many other fellow PRACTICAL shooters) is to collect all these problematic ammo in my pocket when shooting. At home I'll give a closer inspection on this jamming ammo, and compare them to ones that work.

If a mere visible inspection will not result to anything, try colouring one cartridge all over with a felt tip pen, chamber it, inspect if colour is brushed off someplace.


In my time I've seen so worrying presentations of self loaded ammo. Such ammo what I'm talking about never has had even a chance to get a firearm to work. Even more saddening fact is that most of these selfloaders curse their guns for not working.

Regardless of how challenging it is to learn to become a good selfloader, I think pros will outweigh cons by a large margin. Since you are making the ammo it gives you possibility to customise the ammunition for your own needs. This becomes ever so handy when loading ammo for P08. It's just so easy to tailor powder charge to be just right, not too little or you get feeding problems, and not too much or something may well break on the old gun.


- Artsi