Hi all. I'm a longtime lurker and Sig owner so I decided to post my recent saga of a new 238. I'll try to date the info so it'll be easier to understand.

Sept 19th 2009
Ok guys i've been researching this little gun for weeks now. My wife could pick one out of a crowd before I even bought one. She called it the "noisy cricket" A little joke from the Men In Black movie. I knew all about mag issues, safety issues and the recall. I also know there is no 380 ammo to be had online or in NE Ohio. I still had to have one and after handing a few in person I bought the "Blackwood" tonight. Not without a little attempt at bait and switch from the dealer. "Sorry sir that version of the gun is sold out you will need to purchase the much more expensive version" We made a deal after my hour drive and I left happy.

Oct 8th 2009
At this point I can buy no 380 ammo so I can't rush to the range to test fire the gun. I did email Sig asking about the gun coming with one magazine when their website clearly stated 2. I also mentioned in my email that my nice blackwood grips were turning orange. Their response on the mags was a pretty simple "it only comes with one mag" so I was nice enough to copy and paste the info from their website and email it back to them. The offered me a shipping label to send the grips in around this time. No response on the mag issue. Not a big deal just annoying.

Oct 15th 2009

I finally secured enough ammo to test out my Sig last night. I was so happy to have a spare 400 rounds to burn I went to the range tonight to do my best to run it through. I currently have a return label from Sig for my grips but I wanted to test the gun before I put it out of service for the next week.

I made it through exactly 1 (one) full magazine without a failure. The gun will not even load the first round of the magazine 90% of the time. I tried everything to get it to work. When it does feed one round it won't feed more than one or 2 after that. It will not work with any WWB or Remington HP ammo. The one magazine it ate all of from load to empty was blazer aluminum. Which figures because I only had a couple rounds of blazer left. I even had a couple FTE problems. The slide even failed to lock open on the last round twice. All these failures happened with the sig factory magazine as I forgot the colt mags at home. I managed to waste about 50 bucks worth of 380 tonight to accomplish nothing.


When it worked it was the nicest 380 i've ever shot. Recoil is non existent. I won't speak on accuracy because I was just trying to get it to work. Too bad it only worked for about 2 shots at a time. The range was packed and everyone loved the gun right up to the moment they heard my first dirty word.

Here is my disclaimer. I bought this gun knowing about the problems and the recall. I'm not mad. I'm sure they will take care of it. I have an email in to them now and will update as the process goes on.


I think I waited about a week after emailing this about the failure to finally call in. They emailed me a label and I sent the gun back on the 23rd.

Oct 29th 2009

I get a call from Sig stating the gun can not be repaired and they will send a new one to the FFL of my choice. They don't know when but they will send one. No information could be given to me as what couldn't be fixed.

Is there anyone I can email at Sig to answer why it couldn't be repaired? Any forum members able to shed some light on this? Sig customer service is out. I've spoken to 2 people there along this trip and while I won't mention any names I will say it seems like I was bothering them anytime I made contact. I had to send follow up emails and call when I received no response. Customer Service should not be used to describe what I got in response. I'll add more info when I get the next 238/

Thanks for listening to my rant.
CD

Take the new one and be happy...

This story about the P238 is getting to be the rule,rather than the exception. Customer service acts like they've never heard this problem before and the simple solution is new mags which by the way I'm still waiting for. The gun handles great when it doesn't have a FTF or FTE or stove pipe. How could Sig loose this jam-o-matic on its customers?

The problem is the damn magazine, I don't know what the deal with CS is, but my P238 is the first and last Sig I will ever purchase. It sounds like they're hiring a bunch of barely-over-18 year olds with "customer service" experience from Wal-Mart to handle their problems.

They sent me a new mag, which I will take photos of. The one that came with my 238 sits at a completely different grip angle than the new one they sent me, and I had to suggest repeatedly over the phone that I was certain the magazine was causing my failure to feed!! The guy then finally agreed to send me a new magazine, and that I would send them my old one. They didn't send me any return shipping box/label, so I guess the old one is mine. I'm not following up with it. My old mag doesn't want to feed JHP, but feeds ball ammo just fine so it will be marked "Range". The new mag feeds my JHPs in just as smooth as butter!

I have a pre recall and has not missed a beat before recall or after I sent it in. Has been great firearm

quote:

Originally posted by concealed_ny:
Take the new one and be happy...

I will do exactly that. As long as it works. What I find hard to believe is my gun couldn't be fixed by replacing the magazine or a little tuning. It doesn't matter to me if they send me a new gun every time. My major concern is wasting ammo trying to break it in and not being able to replace it.

At least i'm not the only one with a problem.

This makes me nervous because I am going to test my P238 tomorrow for the first time. I will shoot American Eagle and Magtech through it. I guess wish me luck.

I get occasional failures to fire with mine. The pin does not strike the primer in each case. I wonder if it is a bad spring (in addition to the bad magazines out there).

I have one of these little pistols too. It's post recall.
I use one Sig factory mag and one new Colt mag.
The first 100 rounds produced 5 failures to feed. Some may call it failure to return to battery. I found two problems.
The extreme lower portion of the barrel ramp had some burrs or nicks on the entry edges. I stoned them off. That didn't help.
I pulled the extractor (same basic design as the Colt 1911) and noticed that the rim ramping bevel at the bottom of the extractor notch was not there. Man -- you gotta have that, all 1911 extractors have that now. The thing was just totally square.
So I put the bevel on it (you can see how to do this on pg. 61 of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book " The Colt 45 Automatic - a shop manual". I also adjusted the extractor tension per his instructions.
That mod alone allowed me to go 100 bangs without a failure.
Then around round 105 or so, another failure to return to battery.
I'm thinking that the recoil spring is just too weak to close the action when the gun gets a little too dirty - because I can close the slide with just slight forward pressure on the back of it.
Wolf Gun Springs offers a recoil spring for the Colt Mustang
rated at 11 pounds. They also have a plus power at 12 pounds.
Does anyone know if the Mustang spring is interchangeable
with the P238?
I think that extra pound may fix my problem.
Does anybody else have any tricks/tweaks they have discovered that may help the overall functioning of the pistol?

quote:

Originally posted by Magnumb:
I pulled the extractor (same basic design as the Colt 1911) and noticed that the rim ramping bevel at the bottom of the extractor notch was not there. Man -- you gotta have that, all 1911 extractors have that now. The thing was just totally square.
So I put the bevel on it (you can see how to do this on pg. 61 of Jerry Kuhnhausen's book " The Colt 45 Automatic - a shop manual". I also adjusted the extractor tension per his instructions.
That mod alone allowed me to go 100 bangs without a failure.
Then around round 105 or so, another failure to return to battery.
I'm thinking that the recoil spring is just too weak to close the action when the gun gets a little too dirty - because I can close the slide with just slight forward pressure on the back of it.
Wolf Gun Springs offers a recoil spring for the Colt Mustang
rated at 11 pounds. They also have a plus power at 12 pounds.
Does anyone know if the Mustang spring is interchangeable
with the P238?
I think that extra pound may fix my problem.
Does anybody else have any tricks/tweaks they have discovered that may help the overall functioning of the pistol?

I noticed the same thing about the extractor in the P238. No bevel on the bottom. I was tempted to put that bevel on there, but was sending my P238 back to Sig for Failire-to-Fires (amoung other things), and didn't want them saying I "altered" the extractor. I think I will go ahead and put that bevel on. Like you said, all 1911 extractors have that bevel, and it should improve feeding.

When I received my gun back from Sig (1 week turn around), Sig stated they "adjusted the extractor, replaced my magazine follower(I had one of the bad ones), and replaced the mainspring". They also obviously polished the feed ramp. I haven't had any problems with it since I've had it back.

If anyone is having Failures-to-Fire, I would either send it back, or try replacing the mainspring. My firing pin was not hitting the primers on mine either.

I just recently replaced my recoil spring with the Wolff Colt Mustang spring, and it works fine. I used the 11 lb, but think I may give the 12 lb a try myself.

It's a great gun, and a blast to shoot. I just wish they had all the bugs worked out before they hit the market.

quote:

Originally posted by mrbumps:
I just recently replaced my recoil spring with the Wolff Colt Mustang spring, and it works fine. I used the 11 lb, but think I may give the 12 lb a try myself.

Thanks for the work around mrbumps.
I just ordered two.

quote:

When it worked it was the nicest 380 i've ever shot.

Sell it and buy a SIG P232. You and your wife's life may depend on it. Function over form, live it. Just my .02.


Ez

I looked at a P238 today for $429 and almost bought it. Then the voice of reason told me to come here and check it out first. Scratch the 238 off the list.

Congrats Sig, you are now behind Taurus in CS.

quote:

Originally posted by Ezra:

quote:

When it worked it was the nicest 380 i've ever shot.

Sell it and buy a SIG P232. You and your wife's life may depend on it. Function over form, live it. Just my .02.
Ez

I owned a 232. I never got used to the mag release. It did go bang very time.


By the way I have not received my replacement but I did speak with my FFL today and he mentioned the last Sig warranty gun he dealt with took the customer A MONTH to get.

quote:

Originally posted by Ezra:

quote:

When it worked it was the nicest 380 i've ever shot.

Sell it and buy a SIG P232. You and your wife's life may depend on it. Function over form, live it. Just my .02.


Ez

What he said. The 232 is a fantastic pistol.

Another great Sig Customer Service story in the works..........they don't care to satisfy an existing customer that has a problem with their gun. Their focus is on that new sale only, and by the way don't bother us........It ain't the same ole SIG anymore. Good luck with your SIG problem. I know how you feel.