Rokkyt

Good Day All-
I recently purchased a used P220 (pistol & 2 7rnd factory mags)& have been having a rather odd problem. Right after purchasing the pistol I took it to the range & ran a box of 230 Gr. FMJ (Winchester white box - Wal Mart special) through it. I intermittently had problems with the slide not fully locking forward. In some cases if I "bumped" the rear of the slide with my hand it would lock into battery. In other cases I would have to drop the mag, & pull the slide back & eject the cartridge.
I brought the gun home, thoroughly cleaned & degreased & then lubed with CLP. While cleaning, I had a bunch of crud come out of the slide (Extractor & firing pin area - yeah, I know, I should have cleaned the thing before heading to the range in the first place).
Second trip to the range & I ran another box(Winchester 230 gr. FMJ) through without a hitch.
Went to the range yesterday to test run some JHP through it (Walmart Winchester white box). The pistol would fire fine on the first round but would jam/fail to lock into battery on the second. After clearing it would run fine through the remaining 5 rounds. It did this consistently throuout the entire box - 7 mag fulls alternating between the 2 mags.
Any body got any ideas? I would be inclined to think its a mag problem given the odd nature of the failure - always the second round of the mag. Quite honestly it may have been doing the same thing on the first trip & I just wasn't paying close enough attention.
What about recoil spring? The one which was on the gun when I bought it had green paint on it. Could it be a lighter weight or worn spring which does not have quite enough"oomph" to lock the slide forward. If so why only the second round?
Any help you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks-
Bill

Dave Berryhill

I see a pattern here - Winchester "White Box" ammo. Try another brand before you make any other changes.

Rokkyt

Thanks Dave -
Yeah, I toyed with the idea that it could be ammo, but I figured if I were using plain jane off the shelf ammo I couldn't go wrong.... (do I hear you old timers out there chuckling....).
No doubt it's the cheapest & quickest fix I could try... In fact, now that you mention it, I remember that the second batch (No problems) wasn't Winchester, but was CCI Blazer (Now I know I hear chuckling...). But yeah, I'll have to go out & try a few different brands.
Have you heard of other people having problems with the Winchester stuff?
Thanks Again-
Bill

buddy_fuentes

Follow Dave Berryhill's suggestion first, he is a gunsmith. I just change parts until I am flustrated and then take it to a gunsmith.

The spring you described is probably the original recoil spring and more than likely needs to be replaced.

Good Luck, Buddy

Dave Berryhill

WW white box ammo can be a bit inconsistent, at least some lots of it (threre is a reason that it is cheap). I'd try some "regular" Winchester, Federal or Remington ammo.

Also, if your pistol is used but not "factory refurbished" it would probably be a good idea to replace the springs and have a complete cleaning. Sig makes an overhaul kit that contains most of the springs and pins. Since the pistol needs to be completely stripped down for this, it would be a good time for a thorough cleaning of all the internals including the extractor and firing pin.

You noticed that the recoil spring was painted green. There are a couple of different recoil springs and Sig uses paint to identify them. IIRC the green spring is the heaviest recoil spring for the P220.

Stephen A. Camp

Hello. Yes, the green-painted spring is the heavy one.

Best.

scattergun

I've only had 2 issues with my P220SAO, both involving the mags. The feed lips on all 4 of my mags are on the narrow side and can be finicky about bullet shape. It won't feed Corbon JHP's, but it will feed Winchester JHP's, Glazers and every ball I've tried so far. The second is a failure to strip rounds properly with the mag springs in upside down - oops. Other than that, I keep it wet and let it eat.