Another new Member / Ammo question

[fireproofneo]

Hello Everyone!

Thank you all for all of the great information on this site. Picked up my p-64 last week. Its a great little gun, and you cant beat the price!

Experienced quite a few jams today while on the range. I am using cheap Blazer ammo, and i think that might be the culprit. The casings are made of aluminum and not brass or steel. The gun doesnt seem to jam at all with that ammo when I only put 5 rounds in each magazine. (I have two magazines)

Anyone else have experience with this ammo?

-Paul

[Weasel640]

Welcome, and enjoy your new P-64.

I've never had a function issue with Blazer. But years (2005ish) ago when I got my first P-64, I ran all the 9x18 Mak I could find in the area through it. I found that Blazer and anything marked Speer or CCI on the box shot very dirty. So dirty I noticed little black speckles on my arms after shooting it.

I would change ammo to see if it solves the problem. Again, switch to anything NOT Speer or CCI. I also stay away from Wolf ammo. Wolf seems to get the most reports of squibs, and hot primers that would burn up the firing pins. I'm wary Prvi Partizan and Buffalo Bore being to hot of a load. My favorite is Sellier & Bellot, Fiocchi, Silver Bear, Brown Bear, even Norinco shoots well. Also there is the pricy stuff; Hornady that is very good, and Winchester comparable to S&B. Any others I haven't tried or really heard much about.

Additionally, before you got back out you'd want to check your P-64. Some of these came caked in Cosmoline. You want to make sure you thoroughly clean out any gunk. Also disassemble and clean you magazines. There are all kinds of suggestions for getting out Cosmoline. I find an overnight soak in Mineral Spirits, scrubbing, and good oiling works well.

Lastly; Is there any possibility that someone could have put in a wrong aftermarket recoil spring? If everything above fails to solve the problem, you might want to try getting a Wolff Gunsprings Recoil Calibration Pak for the P-64 and see if one of the three springs will fix the problem.

[Curly1]

Welcome to the forum Paul.

Let us know how you make out.

[badgerjfr]

ive shot blazer with no problems however it seems to kick more to me than other ammo. brown and silver bear seem good, and despite some of the issues ive heard, i havent had a problem with PPU. i havent tried wolf yet and i don't think im going to try it.

the only problem ive had with any ammo was LVE and im not sure if it was the ammos fault. The ammo seems pretty dirty while shooting( but most mak stuff seems that way to me) and after about 200 rounds the bullets werent sliding completely into the chamber. i would have to give the slide a little nudge to get it all the way in. not every round, one out of 15-20. i think curly suggested really cleaning the chamber good and then clean it again, that fixed my problem. the ammo is coated with something to prevent rusting, and i think that was building up in the chamber. maybe give that a try.

good luck and let us know how things work out.

[PA-Joe]

One question would be did you really clean the pistol and mags good? Inside and outside?

[maue]

What kind of jam are you experiencing. loading jam, smoke stack, double feed. it could be a noumber of difrent things all the way down to the spring tension in the mag. The biggest thing for a brand new gun is to cleen it as PA-Joe asked. it sounds stupid sometimes but when a gun sits even if it hasnt ben fired it gets dirty, and if your the first owner it will be extremly dirty. I suggest giving it a really thourogh cleaning and see if it happens again.

I hope this works for you.

Also if you are purchasing an older or new gun it is lickly to be covered in cosmoline. some gun cleaners dont work well with removing that. i suggest using charcoal fluid, I have herd many outher techecs. as alwase do a little recherch you will be suprised what you find.


Welcom to the forum

[wlockridge]

My p 64 has been re-sprung and polished and meticulously cleaned. I was in never shot condition when I bought it. I've shot every kind of ammo that I am aware of, hell I've even shot .380 "zombi killer" ammo through it though I wouldn't make a habit of it, and the only ammo that it ever choked on were those frigging Blazers. Oh it will chamber them most of the time but on occasion the slide will fail to completely go to breech requiring me to give it a nudge with the heel of my hand. My recoil spring is 22lb. I've never bothered to look up the ballistics of a Blazer but it's possible that the round isn't quite powerful enough to blow the slide back fully and, if that occurs, it won't go to breech. My workaround for the situation was to simply leave them on the shelf for someone else to buy. They're cheap for a reason. If that is the only type of ammo that you can find in your area try a lighter recoil spring. A good way to test the theory is to load a magazine with some Blazers and simply pull your slid as far to the rear as it will go and let loose of it. If it slams to breech the recoil spring might indeed be your problem. Next, with an empty chamber, pull the slide back about 3/4 of the way and let go. If it fails to fully go to breech more than likely you have found your problem, the recoil spring is too stiff and the ammo too weak. If you've got like a truckload of the stuff order the wolf spring package and choose the lightest spring of the three. It takes about 10 seconds to change the recoil spring. One note: If you go to more powerful ammo when the ammo fever dies down, put the heaver recoil spring back in otherwise it accelerates the wear on the pistol. These are great guns, have fun with it and welcome to the forum.
Bill

[Curly1]

You shot .380 in a P64?

That is highly unrecommended at any time folks.

[wlockridge]

Yep Curly, I did it, like I said, I wouldn’t recommend it but I fail to see how it would hurt the weapon. The.380 is a less powerful load, that particular ammo is a 90 grain projectile, and the overall length of the "zombi killer" as they are called, is exactly the same length of a Horandy PD round. Yes the case is shorter, but the projectile is somewhat longer. They feed and eject perfectly. I guess the point I should have made is, that should you find yourself unable to obtain any 9x18 ammo for a period of time, and there are a lot of places right now where that's just a fact of life given the current run on all types of ammo, you CAN make due with that round though I DO NOT recommend using it at all unless you're in a life or death situation and that's all you have, It WILL work in a pinch.