Soooo, initially I was hoping it was just a magazine issue. The magazine that came with my 250C (marked 16 rounds) would not lock the slide back after the last round was fired, in addition if I put the mag in even remotely hard, the slide would slam forward an chamber a round without me releasing it.

So I got another magazine, this one the 16 is stamped out and it only holds 15, well, this one will keep the slide locked open after the last round, but if I even remotely put the full magazine in with any force, the slide releases and chambers a round.

Called Sig and waited FOREVER, and finally talked to a guy and he is sending a replacement magazine and said try that before I send the 250 back to Sig. I don't think it will help with the slide releaseing when inserting a full mag but I am willing to try. I explained it does it with both magazines as well, but he still wanted me to try the new mag first. I think it is a slide release lever issue. Oh well.

Soooo, I got the P250 back today and guess what???? Yep, still does the same thing. Here is a copy of the e-mail I sent off to them:

Mark,

I just left you a voicemail, I just received my P250C back for the problem of the slide slamming forward and chambering a round by itself when a full magazine is inserted with a little force. Well I opened it and the note says the gunsmith “adjusted slide. Function checked and test fired with no malfunctions.” Well, I loaded a magazine and inserted the magazine, with just a little force, into the 250 with the slide locked back and the slide shot forward and chambered a round by itself. I am 5’ 6” and 115 pounds so it is not like I am some huge guy slamming the magazine in as hard as I can. About the force of any normal combat reload.

I have read reports on Sig Forum.com of Sig QC and customer service going downhill badly and frankly wrote them off. Especially having received the prompt shipping label from you and the very quick turnaround from start to finish of shipping the gun out and getting it back. However, after this experience I am beginning to understand why Sig QC and customer service is starting to get a bad rap so to speak. I fail to see how a gunsmith checked the gun at all, when my daughter & wife can easily replicate the problem. I feel as though the gun wasn’t even checked. It took me 30 seconds to load a magazine and inserted it into the gun and the slide slams forward on its own. How could this be missed by a Sig “gunsmith”????

I have spent thousands of dollars on Sig’s literally, I own quite a few and I am constantly telling co-workers, I work for the local Sheriff’s Department, how much I love Sig’s and how the quality is unsurpassed. Obviously this is not the case anymore. Sigs were previously my CCW gun of choice, I am now seriously re-thinking that. Not only will I probably be posting my experience of this entire problem and horrible handling of it, but I will probably also be telling everyone I know both personally and professionally of my experience and that I will be switching to a firearm which functions both reliably and as it should the first time. My HKs or Glocks for instance. For me to have to send a brand new gun off for repair as it is, is surprising considering Sig’s previous reputation for quality firearms. But then to receive it back STILL not functioning properly is just plain inexcusable considering what Sig’s own motto is: “Reliability, First Time, Everytime” this is obviously not even close to the truth.

To say I am disappointed in Sig is an incredible understatement. Even more-so because I am one of those who kept thinking the poor QC & Customer Service were isolated instances. Obviously my eyes have been opened and it is the norm at Sig now, rather than the exception.

I understand you are not the person who worked on the gun, however I can’t speak with that person or e-mail them, you are who I spoke and dealt with regarding the problem. I hope this can be remedied swiftly and competently. I look forward to hearing from you.

I will keep you guys updated. I really hope it gets sorted because I really enjoy shooting it and carrying it!! The most frustrating thing is that the gunsmith didn't find it. I just don't see how someone who know firearms would not use a little ooomph to make sure the mag is seated in the mag well. I mean if I am in a shooting I am not going to gently push my mag in so it doesn't make the slide slam forward and possibly not seat the mag all the way, nooooo I am going to get the mag in there quickly & firmly, rack the slide and be back on target as quick as possible. And have they never practiced a tap rack drill? All through the academy we were taught to get that mag in there FOR SURE so it doesn't come dropping out on you in a gunfight, and if we had a failure to fire, do the tap rack drill, tap the mag to make sure it is seated and rack the slide.

Sorry, I am ranting, still kind of irked that it was implied I was slamming the mag in too hard. My wife was able to replicate the problem and she is 8 months pregnant lol.

So did anyone get any more info on this topic or resolutions? I recently purchased a Tactical" model and had this happen when slamming the mag in. I was practicing speed drills. I have never had this happen to me on any of my firearms. I have read about it on other forums also. Some people like it and some don't. Under regular mag changes I have no problems at all. I kinda liked it myself to be honest as long as it only does it while inserting it with force.

If anyone is still curious about this, I'll add my experience in here. It seems to be a problem of weak magazine springs in the ones marked for 16 rounds. The 15-round magazine that came with my 250 never fails to securely lock the slide open when it's empty. The two "16-round" magazines I bought later will usually lock the slide open when I'm shooting, but not very securely. A quick reload will cause the slide lock to release, and function checking with an empty magazine after cleaning will usually not lock the slide open. There was apparently a problem with the 16-round magazines in that it was nearly impossible to get 16 rounds into them. I've seen another thread where somebody with the same problem got their magazines replaced by Sig. I'll probably be doing the same thing myself soon.

Ha Ha... OK, so I installed the slide catch. No good.. It is incompatible with my early version 250. It seams the slide catch spring on the early version 250 depended on a prong built into the slide lock catch to keep the spring from falling out. The new one that was sent to me has no such prong or arm so the spring bounces away as the lever is activated. Plus. it does not keep my slide locked any way. So I'll call again and send it back.

BUT

I made a fricken discovery in the meanwhile. I pulled both mags apart and found the real problem. Yes! it is the magazine spring. No the springs both have the same amount of coils. But the one spring is almost an inch shorter then the one that always locks the slide back.


So I'll call SIG, thank them for the mag catch which I'll send back to them and ask them for a replacement MAG spring.

So I received the new mag spring from SIG. Problem solved. The new spring has 12 coils and ir way longer. I locks the slide back on an empty mag now so the problem all along was the mag spring.

I had a S&W that did this. It never bothered me. But from what others posted sounds like a mag thing.

It is a magazine problem - specifically a magazine spring problem. I have two magazines that I bought after I bought my 9mm 250c. The factory original magazine, which has the "16" mark punched out, works great. The other two, which are marked as 16-round magazines, won't lock the slide open on a functional check. They will lock the slide open when I'm shooting, but not very securely. It's often possible to release the slide just by firmly tapping the magazine in place. (That does speed up the reloading process, but it's not really supposed to work that way.) If you look at the slide lock when shooting with one of these magazines, you'll see that it doesn't fully engage the notch in the slide, so it doesn't take much to release it. Using the factory original magazine, which has the correct spring, the lock is fully engaged every time. I called customer service about this problem recently. From reading several posts here and other places, I got the impression that this was a problem that was well-known by Sig customer service. The CS rep I talked to claimed no knowledge and suggested I take them back to the store I bought them from.

Just checked the mags and I've got one with the long spring and two with the short one (all of them marked "15"). Unfortunately, all 3 of them will cause the slide to release when I seat the magazine firmly, even though I've locked the slide back manually so it is fully engaged. I thought maybe it had to do with full vs. partial mags, but I can put 1 round or 15 rounds in the mag and still cause it to release the slide 9 out of 10 times. Yes, I've got to push the mag in rather firmly to do it, but nothing out of the ordinary since it happened several times the first time I shot it.

I talked with Sig CS again. He started out asking me what ammo are you using, which is completely unrelated since I can reproduce it when I'm not shooting and it's not feed related. He didn't have any ideas so they're sending a recoil spring. I don't think that's the problem, but I'll post any results.