Wow, this seems to be an epidemic. I own (5) Sigs and the last one I bought in November. I didn't get around to firing it until last month and at first only occasionally would the slide not lock back. Unfortunately the more rounds I fired the worse it got, until the point where it began to fail 100% of the time. I fired (250) rounds total. I read all the sigforum posts but since I was planning to carry this weapon on a daily basis in my job, I decided to send it back to Sig. They immediately offered free overnight UPS shipping and were most helpful. The rep did not hazard a guess as to what the problem might be but the feeling I got was that they know. Anyway turnaround time was estimated at (2) weeks, so we'll see.

this also happens with my Elite,I may send it back as well.I did order a new recoil spring(orange) and a slide stop spring.This is kind of a bummer.I hope Sig addresses this issue.

Does anybody have a video or pics of them replacing the slide lock spring.If my new recoil spring dont do the trick I may need to swap them out.Ill do a mag spring swap first though.

quote:

Originally posted by sigshooter16:

quote:

Originally posted by ontmark:
I recently bought a new 226 in Calif 10 round mag Law. Slide did not lock open. Looking at Magazines on the SIG Site when enlarged the picture shows the 12 round mag having a protrusion for the Slide Stop Lever, where the 10 round mag has this area rounded off. Called SIG customer service and they shipped me four followers part number off the 12 round mag for free. Installed them and it works fine, No it didn't change the capacity actually has made it easer to load the last round with speed loader. How have room in Mag for 10 and a half rounds.

Hello there,

I'm new to this site and just recently purchased a P226R in .40 S&W. I also live in California and had the same problem with my 10rd magazines not locking the slide back after the last round was fired. I say your post and decided to give this a try. So far I've only function tested the gun and it seems to have solved the problem. I'll get back with more after I take it to the range, hopefully later this week.

Thanks ontmark!!

I advise against that being the only fix. The main problem is the slide catch lever, not the magazine follower.

I compared 10rd and 12 round magazine side by side, and the ones I had did not have any difference as to how much area was contacted by the slide catch lever. Only difference I saw was that normal slide catch lever contacts significantly more area of the magazine follower resulting in more reliable slide lock engagement regardless of magazine capacity. The short arm slide catch lever contacted both 10 and 12 round follower in a very narrow area, and would start eating up the edge of the follower that will eventually result in slide catch lever no longer being pushed up.

The normal slide catch lever works with both 10 and 12 round magazine. So, getting the normal slide catch lever would be a better fix. Why in hell would you want your P226 to only work with a specific 10 or 12 round magazine when it SHOULD work with both?

P226 should be a P226. When I bought my P226, SIG never told me it was a "10 round magazine only" P226, and neither did they gave me a discount for it. So, the P226 I get being any different or inferior than a P226 any other customer would get is unacceptable.

quote:

Originally posted by caneau:
15 minute solution to a problem that has 5 pages of posts:



No need to change your grip from a high thumbs hold.

Great post. This solved my thumb issue too. I just bought a new slide lock lever ground off the tab, and filed a little bevel to match, then applied some Van's bluing. I handed the finished gun to a friend who is not familiar with sigs and he couldn't tell me what might have been modded. The slide lock release is every bit as functional as it was before, without the thumbs forward slide lock problem. 15 minute and $15 solution. I think maybe sig should reconsider this part with the recent popularity of this grip. The grip is not nearly as effective for me if I place my thumb onto my support hand.

quote:

Originally posted by Peetwo Twentee:

quote:

Originally posted by caneau:
15 minute solution to a problem that has 5 pages of posts:



No need to change your grip from a high thumbs hold.

Great post. This solved my thumb issue too. I just bought a new slide lock lever ground off the tab, and filed a little bevel to match, then applied some Van's bluing. I handed the finished gun to a friend who is not familiar with sigs and he couldn't tell me what might have been modded. The slide lock release is every bit as functional as it was before, without the thumbs forward slide lock problem. 15 minute and $15 solution. I think maybe sig should reconsider this part with the recent popularity of this grip. The grip is not nearly as effective for me if I place my thumb onto my support hand.

If your grip obstructs the slide catch lever, and the symptom went away by grinding off about 2mm of it, that means the slide catch lever has cleared your hand by mere 2mm. I won't be comfortable with that margin of error.

actually, grinding off the tab removes .292" or 7.42mm .

I have a new 229 that was malfunctioning today. I had the recoil spring (white) on backwards. Putting in it right fixed the problem.

I went home and check my 220 Carry, and the colored end of the spring was facing the breach, the 229 had the color facing the oposite way. I cannot even reverse the 220 srping and get the gun together so on the Carry, the color is at the base of the rod and on the 229 the color is at the tip of the rod.

Not thrilled that it's not a uniform system, color in or out. I have at least 800 rounds through the Carry so I'm leaving it be.

Sorry for my previous pic going away, here's a new one:



Yes, there's a lot of TW-25B in there. You don't need that much, I just wanted all of my internals coated well. After I dry fired a few times, it spread around nicely. It's also a lot more than 2mm that I lopped off. The 7.42mm that Peetwo says is probably close to how much I took off.

quote:

Originally posted by drmac:
try locking the slide back and keeping it stored that way for a few weeks. the springs on a new sig are very stiff and need to be broken in.

I purchased a new P228R and had this problem. I took your advice and it fixed the problem 100%. Thanks for the tip!

So I have just now found this ailment with my new P226. I bought it in 22lr and just now added the 9mm slide. Never noticed the problem with the 22lr as the magazine is not wide enough to engage the slide catch.

So I took off my 9mm slide and took a close look at the slide catch. It moves up with almost no resistance, and actually does not always even go down on it's own, it catches on the notch that guides it down into place.

With the slide off I can push the mag up and down and the catch moves up and down but sometimes sticks up a bit.

I lubed it all up, no problem with lube.

Unless someone has some ideas I think this pistol is going to make a trip back to Sig. I am not comfortable starting to grind on a new gun (at least not this new gun).

BTW it will lock back 1 out of 10 times with an empty mag in it, more often if you really slam it back.

Any suggestions?

Mike

Maybe this will help.
https://www.collectors-society...pgrade-Parts-*ORDER/

Actually I called MecGar and they are shipping out all new springs and updated base plates.

Will try that first before sending pistol to Sig.

As for the 22 conversion kits I have put them on both my 22lr mags. they do hold open the slide, but not in the typical way. The follow blocks the slide open part way, rather than the slide lock being engaged. Still better than no lock back at all!

Mike

So I was out shooting yesterday and I had this problem. Thing is it doesn't do it every time. Also when I manually pull the slide back it locks back every time. Do you think I'm just limpwristing the gun or not holding it tight enough and its not actually a mechanical issue with the gun?

I just bought a P226 Equinox, but while I was handling it in the shop, I noticed that the slide was not locking back when the empty magazine was in the Sig. The guy behind the counter looked and saw that the follower was rubbed a little bit on the side by the catch lever and determined that the mag was just damaged. Now the Sig is in 10 day jail and I'm just now finding this thread! Given that the slide lock won't even engage when pulling the slide back manually, is it certain that it will need a new slide catch lever?

I have several SIGS and just bought a new 229. The first time I shot it, I noticed the slide was not locking back after last round. Finished the box and then checked to see what the problem might be. Gun was clean (factory, out of the box). I did not use all three mags (two in the box + 1 factory extra I bought at the same time), but the one I did use felt gritty and had a lot of extra packing grease.

I took all three mags apart and cleaned them inside and out. I use a micro fiber rag with Break-Free to wipe all my guns (and parts) down and to apply lube. I find that this method applies plenty of lube for protective purposes and I add the normal drops as recommended by mfg. One drop of BF to the slide rails each side of the SIG and I went back out on the line and shot one and two round strings from each mag, no more problems.

I usually do NOT strip and clean the guns before shooting since some MFGs (Glock specifically) apply a special lube to be left in place for the first X number of rounds. The mags are another item as they are usually packed up for longer term storage and have a heavier "packing grease" on them that has a tendency to be stickier than normal lube and needs to be minimized. Sometimes just a spray of Rem Oil thins it down. On the more heavily coated ones, I take them apart and clean them up. Over the many, many years, I have had few mag problems.

FWIW, I like the older "blued" mag finish better than the newer matte/oxide coated ones. Nor sure there is any difference in operation or maintenance, just like the old ones better.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Big-FED,

I know this isn't supposed to be a discussion thread, but I started having problems with my P229/40 and looked here for guidance, and what I found I have not seen mentioned yet.

I just got the P229 about a month ago, and it was a LEO trade-in in very nice overall condition, especially for $450.00 with two 12-rd mags and case. The very first thing I noticed when I got it was the slide would not lock back on an empty mag, and cleaning and lubing the gun didn't seem to help. I then pulled the mag springs out and stretched them to see if increasing the tension would help, and it did. I immediately ordered new mag springs from Wolff and put them in, and the slide locking issue was gone... at least I thought it was.

After the first few magazines shot through it Saturday it started not locking back again... intermittently at first, then all the time. Tonight I pulled the mags apart and cleaned them thoroughly, and I lubed the mag housing and followers with Rem Dri-Lube, a spray-on Teflon based dry lubricant. Upon reassembly the slide still wouldn't lock back, and that is when I noticed the magazine spring was not pushing the front of the follower all the way up. I could actually see the end of the spring where it fits into the follower, and it was not fitting like it should!

I pulled the mags back apart, confirmed multiple times that I was putting the springs in the right direction, then I decided to bend the top loop of the spring upward so it would apply pressure to the front of the follower and not just the rear. The slide now locks back with a nice solid click of the lever in the slide notch just like it should!

Now I will say this, there is a distinct possibility my followers are both worn out and need to be replaced, though they look fine on visual inspection. But the fact that the nose of the follower was not coming up along with the rest of it was why the slide lock lever was not being pushed up! Reshaping the top loop of the mag spring cured that problem, but I don't feel I should have had to do that to brand new springs! Either way, the problem is cured for now, and it may be something worth looking into for others who are experiencing similar problems.

Edit: I'm still going to order new followers from Sig and put them in ASAP!

Cheers,

Does anyone know where to (reliably) get a long post slide lock lever?

I recently acquired a second (used) P226R SCT and it has the short post lever. I would like to swap it out to make it consisent with my other P226s.



EDITED--------------------------------------

Looks like TGS has me covered. We'll see for sure when it arrives in a week or so.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: skip237,

If anyone is interested, I just posted a write up on the slide lock lever replacement with instructions.

My Blog

I am happy to report that a stout recoil spring on my P226R 40 cal was the culprit. I had to buy a recoil spring calibration pack from Brownell's. After a series of repeated successes, I found out my gun loves the 18 lb spring over the factory 20 lb using both my reloads and factory ammo.

At the same time, I had to re-learn how to grip the weapon properly without my thumb touching the slide lock lever.

It has been a long search for the answer for me. I am glad I found it before really hating this fine and accurate pistol!

-ray