Category: battery

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battery CLP failure Grand Power lubrication MAC Military Arms Channel P1

Grand Power P1 & Military Arms Channel

Military Arms Channel (MAC) has reviewed the Grand Power P1. 

The review is here:

I find it interesting that he’s experiencing the same issues that I have with my P11 — failures to return to battery.  He was pretty put-off by that, which is understandable.  What’s weird is that some people experience the issue while others do not.  I know the gun does not like being extremely dirty (it doesn’t take a lot of rounds before it’s deemed dirty, either).  The gun also likes to be wet with lube, which probably isn’t going to help with carbon…it makes for a pasty mix.

He’s also the first major reviewer I’ve ever seen that has experienced such issues.  Or maybe he’s the first that’s bold enough to report about it.  In the past, I’ve stated that I find it weird that no reviewers have ever had negative comments about this gun.  That’s the main reason I did so many videos of the gun…because I felt people were possibly hiding negative experiences of the Grand Power handgun platforms.

One thing that MAC should do is not use CLP.  That’s what I was initially using and it is not enough, as it moves around and will eventually evaporate.  Apparently grease is a no-go as well, as Dave Copping joined in offering guidance to MAC in that video’s comments section (Dave Copping works for Eagle Imports).  He needs a heavy oil — heavy oil will migrate less. I used oil (synthetic motor oil) the last time I took the P11 to the range…I still had FRTBs, although I shot 150 rounds of Wolf, which probably counteracted the motor oil.  As a reminder, Wolf generates a LOT of carbon.

It seems that the only way around the FRTBs would be to do a field strip of the weapon at the range to wipe it down enough to lessen the FRTBs so that the range session could continue.  Or use a clean-burning ammo (depending on the ammo, that could be expensive).

MAC also wants to apply the MAC reliability test to his P1 (it consists of dunking the gun in water, sand, and mud, firing a mag in between each medium).  That gun is going to fail that test.  It’s not that type of gun.  It’s a very tight gun, tolerance-wise…such guns are not typically reliable when it comes to being subjected to such tests.  I left a comment stating that the gun will probably fail the test.  I’m not sure if he’s going to submit it to the test anyways, but I seriously doubt it’ll pass.

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147-grain battery flat-nosed Grand Power lubrication P11 Mk12 Remington

Grand Power P11 – Battery Issues Possibly Resolved

I field-stripped the P11 immediately after a range visit.  If you remember, I described a problem with the gun awhile back.

I’ll take it to the range again with grease applied to areas that didn’t have it prior to my last visit.  To summarize the video, I fired a bit under 300 rounds of various 9mm ammo from it and only had two failures to return to battery.  Both failures were with Remington UMC 147-grain flat-nosed FMJ.  I had no failures with TulAmmo steel-cased or Winchester PP JHP.

And, as usual, the gun was certainly accurate (my trigger discipline aside):

GP P11 – 9 yards out (instead of my normal 7 yards), 24 rounds (2 mags) of Remington UMC flat-nosed 147-grain FMJ

I also spoke awhile back about the lack of a holster for this gun.  Someone who viewed one of my videos gave me a point of contact that could make one.  I was thinking on trying to make one myself.  Either route would be good, I think.  I just need it to be an in-waistband holster.  Once I have that and once I get the battery issues resolved, I may consider carrying this gun.

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ammo battery failure Grand Power P11 Remington sight radius Springfield XD

Range Visit – XD Mod 2 & Grand Power P11

I spent an hour at the range last night and shot 130 rounds out of my XD and 60 rounds out of the Grand Power.

It felt so good to not divide my attention between more than 2 guns, although I did want to shoot one of the 1911s.

I started with the XD first and immediately put 9 of 10 rounds in a close grouping.

7 yards out, using Remington UMC 115-grain JHP

The thing about the Mod 2 is that it shoots extremely well for a subcompact 9mm, as the sight radius of such guns is very small.  This gun still has a small sight radius, but the recoil and snappiness is somewhat negated by the Grip Zone texturing of the grips.  The front fiber optic helps, especially since I’ve problems focusing on the front sight (I wear corrective lenses).

As I shot five different targets, my groupings got progressively worse.  I’m pretty sure it was due to incorrect finger placement on the trigger and not being smooth on the trigger, as I began to impact left of aim.  Still, it was fun to challenge myself.

I also fired the XD better with the shorter magazine (vs. using the longer magazine that has the mag sleeve).  Don’t ask me why that was the case.

The Grand Power was acting wonky.  It didn’t jam or fail to extract, but it may’ve been failing to feed due to a dirty feed ram, as the gun was failing to fully go into battery after expending and ejecting a round.  It was an intermittent issue, though, because it didn’t happen every magazine bu when it did, it was almost back-to-back failures to return to battery.

The weapon was clean when I brought it to the range.  The ammo I was shooting must’ve been extremely dirty to cause issues between 1 and 60 rounds…in fact, the gun was extremely dirty after that range visit…more than I expected for 60 rounds.  The gun was lubed, and I made sure the pivot point on the rotating barrel had lubrication.

I don’t think it was the mags that were the issue.  When I racked the gun slowly, I didn’t notice any binding.  The only thing I can think of is that the feed ramp got dirty quickly and was hampering the feeding of the next round, which would keep the slide from fully going forward.


Possible causes:

  • Ammo that doesn’t have enough powder.
  • Dirty ammo that gets the feed ramp really dirty.
  • Limp wristing (I highly doubt that’s what happened, but I list it anyways, just in case I AM limp wristing).
  • Feed ramp doesn’t like hollow point ammo.
  • Feed ramp needs to be broken in (I doubt this, but read that someone had an issue with a ramp being too polished).

UPDATE:  Well…look at this  –>  http://www.handgunforum.net/beretta/30881-failure-feed-px4-storm-compact-9mm.html.  This looks similar to my bullet list above…looks like I am on the right track.  How does this relate to my P11?  Well, the small Beretta PX4 Storms have rotating barrels as well.  It seems that these type guns might not like lighter ammo and might be prone to limp-wristing as well.

Of the two guns, I fired the XD better.  That wasn’t the case the last time I took the P11 to the range.  Blame the failures to go into battery.

I did not get any video footage, as my camera wasn’t charged before I left for the range.

I fired 100 rounds of Remington UMC 115-grain JHP, 20 rounds of Remington UMC 115-grain FMJ, and 10 rounds of Remington HTP 115-grain +P.

I’m looking forward to the next range visit so I can put more rounds through the XD and become more proficient with it.  I’m not quite looking forward to re-experiencing issues with the P11, though.