JP Sauer 38H- Failure To Feed Issue

[Jamesk16]

Hello-
New to this forum but not firearms. Among my cache I have some WW2 bring-back pistols including the subject Sauer. Really like it a lot. I believe its the Type 4 Military Accepted with One Eagle 37 and 2 Eagle N Nitro proofs with serial # 467XXX. It has CAL. 7.65 only on the slide and possibly a zinc trigger. Unfortunately it has recently experienced some jamming. I have been using Remington and Aquila 32 acp.

The spent casings are ejected fine but the new cartridge appears to stick on it's point (FMJ RN) against the top edge of the chamber while the rear of the casing is still being pushed upwards. With a little finessing you can get it to chamber but not very safely. It may go 3-4 rounds w/o a Failure To Feed but it will happen soon enough.

Finally, and this may or not be related, the single action function quits and the trigger goes limp but the cartridge has chambered correctly and should be ready to fire. You can 'de-cock' it into DA (long pull) and it fires fine but then cock it back to SA(short pull) and it still goes limp and will not fire.

I've thoroughly cleaned the pistol several times and cannot see anything out of the ordinary but I have read that weak magazine springs could certainly be the FTF cause, however the mechanical failure of the single action mode is puzzling when the gun does appear to feed and chamber properly.

Any thoughts or advise are always appreciated.
Cheers

[Willi Z.]

Your FTF malfunction could be caused by the lips of the magazine being too open. The round might ride too high in the mag, and instead of a smooth chambering the round starts to point upward when the slide comes forward. This happens with numerous older mags. Sometimes just a little adjustment at the front of the mag with some needle nose pliers can solve the problem.

.32ACP handguns and ammo can be pretty finicky.

Does the single action mode ever function properly? Meaning if cocked does the trigger ever release the hammer? In double action the hammer generally does not go back as far. Hard for me to visualize what the hammer is doing after pulling the trigger. Might be a spring issue. I had a P38 from a vet which would never hold a cocked hammer, and it turned out is was not reassembled properly.

[Gary Cain]

I agree with Willi. The most common failure to feed issues with Sauers are magazine related. I am reworking a magazine for a friend right now. It is a fairly common issue.

[Barry G]

Your slide may not be going back far enough to completely cock the hammer. Can you hold back the hammer partway and see if the trigger feels the same? As far as ftf Willis suggestion is good. I'd cut a slot in an allen wrench or small diameter bolt to bend the mag.

[Jamesk16]

Thank you very much for the comments. I did tweek the mags and the FTF situation may be fixed but the SA mode now is completely N/A. It seems that a pin or spring may have broke however I gave it a pretty decent look-over with the slide and grip panels off and could not see anything out of place, broke, snapped, etc. Can see the trigger spring and it looks intact. I stretched the slide/recoil spring out a bit but no change in function.

It does fire fine after de-cocking to DA, but no SA at all. Unfortunately I don't have 32 dummies or I could play with it more.

Crum....

Afraid I may have to find a good gunsmith. I have a good write-up on detailed disassembly/re-assembly in which there are apparent quirks you must pay attention to if one is not familiar with this Sauer.

[Jamesk16]

Update on SA trigger issue.
Still have same problem under fire but when I cycle the slide manually and w/o ammo, SA works fine.
That does lead me to believe that the slide is not coming back far enough to rotate the hammer back and lock it in place.
Not enough recoil to push the slide and block back firm enough against the hammer?

[Barry G]

Maybe if you cut a coil off the spring it might help. Or you can probably get a new spring from Wolff.

[herd118]

Please don't start cutting springs. It sounds like the issue is with the sear assembly not engaging the hammer's full cock notch with either depressing the cocking lever ot by cycling the action. Disassemble and clean it first, see if there's some gunk on the sear and sear disconnector, or the hammer's full cock notch.

[Jamesk16]

Don't worry I'm not going to cut anything but speaking of springs I do notice that the slide spring is smaller on one end. I have tried several times to invert it just to make sure but the only way the slide can be re-installed is with the spring's small diameter end sliding over the barrel against the frame. Otherwise the barrel cannot pass through the slide opening and the spring tries to come out as well.

I will re-check the sear assembly and maybe spray some Blaster through that area. Not prepared to be punching out pins on this gun. Will keep results posted and thanks again for the help.

[juoneen]

if you get a exploded view for this 38H you might see better how it works. I owned one and found they tended to have more trouble with the side cocking mechanism than the double action feature. I'm sure it may need re tuned by someone who knows this model well enough to repair it professionally...in the meantime I would not shoot it .
This may be why it did not win out to be accepted when they had the pocket pistol tests . Nice guns , but should have been reworked from the start, IMO.

[Jamesk16]

I do have an exploded view and fully agree that the side mechanism looks complicated which is why I would never attempt any serious work on it. Also I notice how the one side lever scraps on the inside of another and it isn't a very smooth operation.

For some reason though it seems the hammer isn't getting fully reset after fire. Can only do it by manual racking of the slide. I could post pictures but it seems everyone who has responded understands this gun.