P322 light strikes: is there a cure?

December 26, 2022, 10:25 PM

1KPerDay

New gun bought a couple weeks ago as a Christmas present for my daughter who wants to start shooting matches with me. I heard mixed reviews of the P322; some report 10K flawless rounds and some report tons of light strikes. Appears mine is in the latter camp. In four mags of aguila super extra we had about 8 light strikes and a couple weird malfunctions where a live round would stovepipe.

Any info or insight welcome. I got this because my Ruger 22/45 has gotten unreliable after 15K rounds and I’ve tried everything with that one.

No I haven’t tried any other ammo. Only had a few minutes today to shoot. Primer strikes are VERY light even on fired cases.

In positive news, the girl is a heck of a shooter. She’s a natural.

December 27, 2022, 01:02 AM

MoosehornMan

I have not done this to mine yet, still looking for a suitable material. It is not the ammo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VNqR9ltHnk

December 27, 2022, 01:05 AM

MoosehornMan

quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
I have not done this to mine yet, still looking for a suitable material. It is not the ammo. The mags need to be loaded correctly or the failure to feeds will happen. My average light primer strike is about 1 in 40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VNqR9ltHnk

December 27, 2022, 03:12 AM

colt_saa

Congratulations on your daughter's skills.

My God Son has seen too many movies where they spray through ammunition. I have switched him to a bolt action rifle to slow him down

I have several thousand rounds through my P322 so far.

In fact I was shooting it yesterday with some Norma Tac-22 that I just got.

I have had one failure to fire and it was not a light strike, it was a bad round.

I have fired Norma, Federal, Remington, American Eagle, Eley, and Aguilla through it so far. It runs with everything

I have not run any Winchester in it yet

I would send the firearm back to SIG. It has a warranty, take advantage of it

December 27, 2022, 05:01 AM

92fstech

I had similar issues with my P250 .22. I tried something similar to the fix in the video posted by moosehornman, and it did solve my light strike issues. Unfortunately, it also increased the amount of power necessary to cycle the slide, which resulted in short stroking and stovepipes. I'd still give it a try, as the design of the P322 is different and may tolerate that fix better than my P250. It's also completely reversible and costs nothing to attempt it.

What I ultimately ended up doing was polishing the snot out of everything. I polished the firing pin, the firing pin channel in the slide, the ends of the mainspring and most importantly the chamber. I got rid of any hint of carbon in there to make sure that every rim sat completely flush against the mouth of the chamber. I went from 4-5 light strikes per mag to one or two every hundred rounds. No it still doesn't meet the standard of reliability that I'd expect from a defensive handgun, but it's at least usable as a viable training tool.

December 27, 2022, 08:52 AM

1KPerDay

Thanks folks. I’ll take a look.

Yeah I was going to say “slow dow…” but then noticed she was getting all her hits on the steel. Clangclang claclang!

She then asked me if it’s more important to be exactly accurate or go fast. I said both but accuracy is where you should start. Explained about the IDPA scoring target. But for steel, burn it down LOL.

Going to be fun if I can get the gun working.

December 27, 2022, 02:51 PM

1KPerDay

I tried some more ammo:
CCI minimags work fine
Winichester 333 bulk fired but a couple of failures to feed
remington SV from CMP worked fine
Winchester varmint/game loads worked fine but I think one FTF stovepipe thing
Federal Automatch worked fine, mags not pushing rounds up
Aguila super extra LRN misfires

I ran the 13 aguila plated super extra that misfired the first time through back through one mag and all fired but one. I put that one in my ruger 22/45 and it fired (after being struck 2X in the P322).

Why can't things just work right

December 27, 2022, 03:33 PM

92fstech

quote:
Why can't things just work right

Because .22 LR is Satan's caliber. Rimmed cases to jam on each other, heeled bullets, inconsistent priming, inconsistent charge weights, not enough gas or recoil to cycle a locked action, so semi autos have to rely on straight blowback...the list goes on. But they're all kinds of fun to shoot, they're cheap, and I don't have to worry about reloading them, so I tolerate the sadism and keep buying more

December 27, 2022, 03:58 PM

pedropcola

I have a 322 and it hasn’t been perfect.

I don’t shoot Aguila because the last case I had was perhaps the worst malfunctioning ammo I have ever shot. That includes Remington Golden’s which prior to the case of Aguila was undisputed champ.

I have had the weird live round stovepipe. Not even sure I understand the dynamics of that one.

Not saying this is what happened to you but this is what works for me. The mags, I use 5, are wildly particular about loading. I have always been cognizant of this but I still look at the stacks and find one of them is not like the others. If I shoot that mag I get a malfunction. Nowadays I load my 5 mags and then look at them side by side. If one stack is off, I just unload it and do it over.

I find you really have to load carefully to avoid the rims crossing or whatever gets the stack jacked up.

I don’t really get light strikes. I get the normal amount of no priming compound in the rim nonsense but I don’t attribute those to light strikes. They have good indents just no primer.

December 27, 2022, 06:37 PM

1KPerDay

Thanks for your experience. Are you able to get 20 rounds in your mags? I can only get 16-18 in mine. I’m using the loading tool and only pressing down the follower enough to get the next round in and pushing the rim back as it says in the manual.

December 27, 2022, 06:40 PM

1KPerDay

quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
I have not done this to mine yet, still looking for a suitable material. It is not the ammo. The mags need to be loaded correctly or the failure to feeds will happen. My average light primer strike is about 1 in 40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VNqR9ltHnk

Thank you. Any tips on loading the mags correctly? At this point it seems totally random to me.

December 27, 2022, 06:53 PM

Rick_Perry

I have a P322 that had nothing but issues when I first got it. Light strikes, stove piping, Failure to eject & feed.

After about 5 mags of these issues, I stripped the gun gave it a good cleaning. After that I have run 1000's of flawless rounds through it. That's all it took. At least in my situation.

December 27, 2022, 07:13 PM

pedropcola

I can get the full 20 in. I go slow and really make sure I push down only enough to get the next round in. I haven’t had malfunctions the last couple trips but that also corresponds with me visually checking the stack after loading.

If you messed up the load the stack clearly looks “off”.

True confession. I haven’t cleaned it a single time. It looked clean and dry when I got it so I added a couple drops of lube but I have yet to clean it. I think the mags are really finicky. Maybe I will go clean mine too. (I am a notorious wipe down and lube not clean guy)

December 27, 2022, 07:48 PM

EunosFD

quote:
Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
I have not done this to mine yet, still looking for a suitable material. It is not the ammo. The mags need to be loaded correctly or the failure to feeds will happen. My average light primer strike is about 1 in 40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VNqR9ltHnk

Thank you. Any tips on loading the mags correctly? At this point it seems totally random to me.

Sig has a vid on their YT channel demonstrating proper loading technique for the P322 mags:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzNScc8yBVo

I've followed this general method from the get go and so far I haven't had a single issue with my P322 feeding. As others mentioned you can see that they're loaded properly when the rounds are evenly spaced/offset. I love this thing it's an absolute riot to shoot.

December 27, 2022, 08:35 PM

colt_saa

quote:
Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
Thanks for your experience. Are you able to get 20 rounds in your mags? I can only get 16-18 in mine. I’m using the loading tool and only pressing down the follower enough to get the next round in and pushing the rim back as it says in the manual.

I have four 20 round magazines and 2 of the 25 round mags

All hold their full capacity without too much effort

December 28, 2022, 04:38 AM

sigarms229

quote:
Are you able to get 20 rounds in your mags?

Once they broke in after a few uses, I can now get 22 rounds into the 20rd mags. I didn't try it till I heard about it on this forum.

December 28, 2022, 06:34 AM

Pete K

quote:
Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
New gun bought a couple weeks ago as a Christmas present for my daughter who wants to start shooting matches with me. I heard mixed reviews of the P322; some report 10K flawless rounds and some report tons of light strikes. Appears mine is in the latter camp. In four mags of aguila super extra we had about 8 light strikes and a couple weird malfunctions where a live round would stovepipe.

Any info or insight welcome. I got this because my Ruger 22/45 has gotten unreliable after 15K rounds and I’ve tried everything with that one.

No I haven’t tried any other ammo. Only had a few minutes today to shoot. Primer strikes are VERY light even on fired cases.

In positive news, the girl is a heck of a shooter. She’s a natural.

I stacked four 6mm OD stainless washers (combined thickness of 2mm) and installed them under the hammer mainspring in the grip module. That fixed the light primer strikes.

December 28, 2022, 10:31 AM

MoosehornMan

I do believe the light strikes are caused by inconsistent hammer springs, in 600 rounds all but 1 LPS has fired the second time, it was an Aguila

I use the loader but push the round in against spring pressure and inspect after full, if any are not the same angle as top round I redo

I have tried many different brands of ammo with the same results

Also some people have had barrel leading issues, I always use plated bullets and I take enough time to aim my next shot not just fire 20 as fast as possible, I think that problem is LRN ammo and super hot barrel. I have not had that issue.

I love the pistol, it is fun to shoot, mine was dead on accurate out of the box, (like every Sig I have bought)

December 28, 2022, 10:55 AM

1KPerDay

quote:
Originally posted by EunosFD:
quote:
Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
quote:
Originally posted by MoosehornMan:
I have not done this to mine yet, still looking for a suitable material. It is not the ammo. The mags need to be loaded correctly or the failure to feeds will happen. My average light primer strike is about 1 in 40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VNqR9ltHnk

Thank you. Any tips on loading the mags correctly? At this point it seems totally random to me.

Sig has a vid on their YT channel demonstrating proper loading technique for the P322 mags:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzNScc8yBVo

I've followed this general method from the get go and so far I haven't had a single issue with my P322 feeding. As others mentioned you can see that they're loaded properly when the rounds are evenly spaced/offset. I love this thing it's an absolute riot to shoot.

Thanks! I was just coming here to post that. I wish it said that in the manual. About having to force the last couple of rounds in with your thumb. That would have been very helpful to know.

I’ll try again today. Thanks all!

December 28, 2022, 10:58 AM

1KPerDay

quote:
Originally posted by Pete K:
quote:
Originally posted by 1KPerDay:
New gun bought a couple weeks ago as a Christmas present for my daughter who wants to start shooting matches with me. I heard mixed reviews of the P322; some report 10K flawless rounds and some report tons of light strikes. Appears mine is in the latter camp. In four mags of aguila super extra we had about 8 light strikes and a couple weird malfunctions where a live round would stovepipe.

Any info or insight welcome. I got this because my Ruger 22/45 has gotten unreliable after 15K rounds and I’ve tried everything with that one.

No I haven’t tried any other ammo. Only had a few minutes today to shoot. Primer strikes are VERY light even on fired cases.

In positive news, the girl is a heck of a shooter. She’s a natural.

I stacked four 6mm OD stainless washers (combined thickness of 2mm) and installed them under the hammer mainspring in the grip module. That fixed the light primer strikes.

I think I’m going to try this. Even the ones that go off still look super light to me.

Does anyone here run a red dot and if so how has it worked out for you on this gun? My kids really like red dots on pistols but I’m worried about reliability particularly if I have to shim the mainspring.