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New Prodigy 4.25” initial problems

HayesGreener said:
So what do you think did they push them out too fast? Substandard materials? Design flaws? I have never held one so I don't have a clue or opinion
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Brand new product and brand new design.

In any industry, first runs are not always 'perfect', but I think SA knows how to tweak them now to get them running right.
Not everyone experiences issues either.
 
Just wanted to follow up on my experience taking it out one more time today.

I spent the morning racking and dry firing it a couple hundred times. Went to the range and bought two boxes of federal. I took the first magazine (the larger capacity one it came with) and loaded 10 rounds at a time till I was done with the box. Not a single issue.

Switched to the smaller magazine and tried to do the same thing with the second magazine. This is the one I felt like was having the issues last time. Sure enough after two shots had a failure to feed. Racked it and got the bullet into place. Shot two more times and 3rd shot failed to feed. This happened consistently through two loads of 10 rounds. Switched back to the extended mag it came with and fired the rest of the box off flawlessly.

So with all that I’m pretty convinced the magazine is at least playing into the problem and I will probably just still send in the gun and the one magazine and see what they say.

I appreciate everyone suggestions.
 
Saviorself said:
Just wanted to follow up on my experience taking it out one more time today.

I spent the morning racking and dry firing it a couple hundred times. Went to the range and bought two boxes of federal. I took the first magazine (the larger capacity one it came with) and loaded 10 rounds at a time till I was done with the box. Not a single issue.

Switched to the smaller magazine and tried to do the same thing with the second magazine. This is the one I felt like was having the issues last time. Sure enough after two shots had a failure to feed. Racked it and got the bullet into place. Shot two more times and 3rd shot failed to feed. This happened consistently through two loads of 10 rounds. Switched back to the extended mag it came with and fired the rest of the box off flawlessly.

So with all that I’m pretty convinced the magazine is at least playing into the problem and I will probably just still send in the gun and the one magazine and see what they say.

I appreciate everyone suggestions.
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I sent all 3 mags I have in just to be sure they were all up to spec and not causing issues.

If they find an issue with any of the mags I'm sure they'd replace them while they're there.
 
I built two 80% 1911's that I cut the rails to the slide measurements, they are tight.
I had initial feed problems like yours. One is a ramped barrel, the other has the standard ramp in the frame.

My feed problems appeared to be slide resistance slowing it down and/or extractor tension.

A couple things I learned, that may or may not apply to your pistol. i.e. can't hurt to check or try....
  • Tight rails, you need to use oil not grease, grease will have more resistance especially if it squeeze between two surfaces of very tight rails. My production pistols I have used grease, my 80% 1911's that I cut the rails myself to be fairly tight, I found oil works much better.
  • There can be high spots on rails creating resistance, especially after I coated mine pistols and added more to the dimensions of the rail, I had to use toothpaste on the rail working the slide back and forth to knock down the high spots and getting the slide moving more easily.
  • Extractor tension, as the round feeds it pushes the extractor back as the back end of the round slides up the breech face as it is feed. Most of my feed problems where but end of the round down with the round half in the chamber, but stopped cause the but end wouldn't come up to slide all the way into the chamber. I had tensioners that were designed to be tuned and came out of the box with a lot more than the best tension. Decreasing tension solved the problem.
  • On my 1911 with a ramped barrel (which yours appears to have a ramped barrel) took multiple attempts of reducing extractor tension to get past the feed problems. i.e. a ramped barrel seems to be more susceptible to high extractor tension, at least in the case of my two 1911 80% builds.

Don't mistake the resistance the disconnector will create as being a high spot on the rail. New pistols not broken in yet, will have more noticeable resistance from the disconnector as you pull the slide.
 
A simple check of the extractor tension. Remove the slide and insert a round in the slide like it would be if the pistol loaded. You can even use the barrel, if you're not sure you have the round in the right spot, just push the barrel over the round and move the barrel into position that it would be in battery, then remove the barrel (it has to move down .030-.040" to clear the locking lugs), push the round up 0.030" of an inch...

You should be able to rotate the slide 360° without the round falling out of the slide, even shake it "lightly" and the round will not fall out of the slide, the extractor should be able to hold it in with just enough force to not fall out. The round might move about a bit, but it doesn't fall out.

If extractor's tension is too high, that round won't even budge as you rotate it or shake it lightly, if you shake it hard and the round doesn't fall out, there may be too much tension.

Push a round into position against the breech face and against the extractor notice how much force it take to slide it up the breech face. It should be only require slightly more force as the extractor is forced back, if it take a noticeable amount, like several times more, to push into position as the extractor is forced back, there may be too much tension.
 
Saviorself said:
My local Scheels finally had one of these in. Picked it up this morning and took it to the range. I did not clean it prior to shooting it. I had a box of blazer 115. I shot 5 rounds no problem. Put another 5 in no problem. However it quickly deteriorated from here. I tried both magazines and started getting a failure to feed every 2-3 shots with one of the magazines the other one not as often but did hang up a couple times.

I took it over to the gun smith and he checked everything over for me. He said it was well oiled and greased. He did make a slight adjustment on something and forgive me I can’t remember what he said it was and I’m pretty new to firearms in general which is why I probably can’t remember.

After he put it back together I took it back out and grabbed a fresh box of ammo. In any case ripped through one magazine no issues. Picked up the second magazine and loaded it. Started jamming again. Started switching back and forth and it would appear the one magazine was causing an issue but I have no idea what. But the other one wasn’t hanging up anymore. Or at least I was getting lucky and it wasn’t.

When racking the slide on the prodigy it seemed soft on the release? I don’t know if that’s the right word but it felt lighter when it snapped back into place.

My experience with handguns prior to this purchase have mostly been with compact handguns I’ve rented at the range and my personal Ruger Mark IV Tactical 22.

So I guess my very long winded question is do I contact Springfield and just send the whole thing back? Should I grab a different brand magazine and give that a try to completely rule that out first. I’ve read some people have had better luck with other mags. I’ve also read the spring might be the issue and a stronger spring is necessary. Overall a bit of a let down to spend that much on a gun and have those kinds of issues. But when it was working with the one magazine I loved it. Just not sure what to do next at this point other than sending it all back to Springfield to have them look at it?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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Congrats on the new gun, sorry to hear your having issue. You should always clean and lube a new gun, the oil that’s on it is usually just for rust protection and preservative, no matter how much is on it, you still should clean and re-lube it with a quality product, plus all 1911’s usually like to run kinda wet, hope you get it straightened out.
 
Saviorself said:
Just wanted to follow up on my experience taking it out one more time today.

I spent the morning racking and dry firing it a couple hundred times. Went to the range and bought two boxes of federal. I took the first magazine (the larger capacity one it came with) and loaded 10 rounds at a time till I was done with the box. Not a single issue.

Switched to the smaller magazine and tried to do the same thing with the second magazine. This is the one I felt like was having the issues last time. Sure enough after two shots had a failure to feed. Racked it and got the bullet into place. Shot two more times and 3rd shot failed to feed. This happened consistently through two loads of 10 rounds. Switched back to the extended mag it came with and fired the rest of the box off flawlessly.

So with all that I’m pretty convinced the magazine is at least playing into the problem and I will probably just still send in the gun and the one magazine and see what they say.

I appreciate everyone suggestions.
Click to expand...
I took all of my mags apart and lightly filed the inside of the feed lips. Also on the follower - the plastic bit at the top of the mag spring - there is a little burr on one side where they snipped it from the plastic tree. I filed that down smooth as well. I did all of this as a precaution, not because I was having issues. I would definitely continue to run ammo through the good make and wear the gun in a bit. Also, it’s usually not a bad idea with new mags to not fill them capacity as you can have problems with them. Or fill them to capacity and let them sit for several days to relax the spring a bit.
 
RickAnderson said:
A simple check of the extractor tension. Remove the slide and insert a round in the slide like it would be if the pistol loaded. You can even use the barrel, if you're not sure you have the round in the right spot, just push the barrel over the round and move the barrel into position that it would be in battery, then remove the barrel (it has to move down .030-.040" to clear the locking lugs), push the round up 0.030" of an inch...

You should be able to rotate the slide 360° without the round falling out of the slide, even shake it "lightly" and the round will not fall out of the slide, the extractor should be able to hold it in with just enough force to not fall out. The round might move about a bit, but it doesn't fall out.

If extractor's tension is too high, that round won't even budge as you rotate it or shake it lightly, if you shake it hard and the round doesn't fall out, there may be too much tension.

Push a round into position against the breech face and against the extractor notice how much force it take to slide it up the breech face. It should be only require slightly more force as the extractor is forced back, if it take a noticeable amount, like several times more, to push into position as the extractor is forced back, there may be too much tension.
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Now that I see it mentioned it was the extractor tension my gunsmith adjusted yesterday and he showed me what you’re describing with putting the round in place and said the tolerance was in spec. A friend of mine who introduced me to the 1911 is gonna help me clean and oil it. I will definitely not listen to anyone anymore who tells me I don’t need to clean it before shooting it. Preciate the pro tip.
 
I have a production 1911 and my own 80% build that are the standard barrel feed ramp in the frame, that is suppose to be much more reliable. Properly lubed and everything fitted, it works perfectly even with higher than extractor tension....

One of my 80% 1911 builds uses a feed ramped barrel, which the photo of your pistol looks like a feed ramped barrel. I found this one of mine the extractor tension and slide free movement was even more critical or I would have feed problems. Polishing the feed ramp doesn't hurt, just remember if you're not a pro, you're not going to get a mirror finish and you don't need a mirror finish, just a light polishing with a dremel and some ruge is all you need.

I test by hand cycling the slide to feed and eject rounds from the magazine, keep your finger off the trigger and the pistol pointed in a safe direction. I kept reducing extractor tension until I could get 3 full magazines to feed eject without a jam while feeding. That seemed to fix it, my tensioner still passes the test and I have yet to suffer an ejection issue.
 
RickAnderson said:
I have a production 1911 and my own 80% build that are the standard barrel feed ramp in the frame, that is suppose to be much more reliable. Properly lubed and everything fitted, it works perfectly even with higher than extractor tension....

One of my 80% 1911 builds uses a feed ramped barrel, which the photo of your pistol looks like a feed ramped barrel. I found this one of mine the extractor tension and slide free movement was even more critical or I would have feed problems. Polishing the feed ramp doesn't hurt, just remember if you're not a pro, you're not going to get a mirror finish and you don't need a mirror finish, just a light polishing with a dremel and some ruge is all you need.

I test by hand cycling the slide to feed and eject rounds from the magazine, keep your finger off the trigger and the pistol pointed in a safe direction. I kept reducing extractor tension until I could get 3 full magazines to feed eject without a jam while feeding. That seemed to fix it, my tensioner still passes the test and I have yet to suffer an ejection issue.
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I've had a bcg from AP that wouldn't let go at the extractor. The ejector was fine, but had to reduce extractor tension so it would let go.
 
TEXASforLIFE said:
I've had a bcg from AP that wouldn't let go at the extractor. The ejector was fine, but had to reduce extractor tension so it would let go.
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I had a production 1911 that the extractor clocked, when it was clocked out of position it would not let go of the case and failed to eject. I don't know if that was your problem.

It was an Auto-Ordnance 1911A1 replica of the USGI, which Auto-Ordnance reputation for quality took a nose-dive years ago, since they have been purchased as part of the Kahr Group, they supposedly have improved greatly. Still, my AO M1911A1 appears to be quality and hasn't had a problem except the extractor clocked at 250 rounds. Replaced it with a Wilson Combat extractor and firing pin stop plate, and went back to working perfectly, just dropped the parts in, no fitting. So judge that how you will, there is at least a black mark on quality if the extractor goes bad in only 250 rnds.

So of my three 1911's, two are standard barrel/feedramp (meaning the feedramp is in the frame) and one has a ramped barrel (meaning the feedramp is part of the barrel....

The two with standard barrel/feedramp in the frame extractors drop in, or require only an initial tuning of extractor tension to get it less than excessive and they feed perfectly.

The one with a ramped barrel, required multiple tunings of the extractor to get tension down to the point it would finally feed reliably.

True, only a sample size of 3, it is far from a universal truth, but in my limited experience, it seems ramped barrel 1911's need to get that extractor tension just right, or you'll have feed problems. While the standard barrel/feed ramp in the frame you've got some more wiggle room on the extractor tension and still have reliable feeding.
 
RickAnderson said:
I had a production 1911 that the extractor clocked, when it was clocked out of position it would not let go of the case and failed to eject. I don't know if that was your problem.

It was an Auto-Ordnance 1911A1 replica of the USGI, which Auto-Ordnance reputation for quality took a nose-dive years ago, since they have been purchased as part of the Kahr Group, they supposedly have improved greatly. Still, my AO M1911A1 appears to be quality and hasn't had a problem except the extractor clocked at 250 rounds. Replaced it with a Wilson Combat extractor and firing pin stop plate, and went back to working perfectly, just dropped the parts in, no fitting. So judge that how you will, there is at least a black mark on quality if the extractor goes bad in only 250 rnds.

So of my three 1911's, two are standard barrel/feedramp (meaning the feedramp is in the frame) and one has a ramped barrel (meaning the feedramp is part of the barrel....

The two with standard barrel/feedramp in the frame extractors drop in, or require only an initial tuning of extractor tension to get it less than excessive and they feed perfectly.

The one with a ramped barrel, required multiple tunings of the extractor to get tension down to the point it would finally feed reliably.

True, only a sample size of 3, it is far from a universal truth, but in my limited experience, it seems ramped barrel 1911's need to get that extractor tension just right, or you'll have feed problems. While the standard barrel/feed ramp in the frame you've got some more wiggle room on the extractor tension and still have reliable feeding.
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The extractor has O rings instead of a spring or a gasket. Just needed to remove 1 of the 3 for proper fiction. This was on an ar10. Just goes to show it can happen across multiple weapons.
 
Saviorself said:
My local Scheels finally had one of these in. Picked it up this morning and took it to the range. I did not clean it prior to shooting it. I had a box of blazer 115. I shot 5 rounds no problem. Put another 5 in no problem. However it quickly deteriorated from here. I tried both magazines and started getting a failure to feed every 2-3 shots with one of the magazines the other one not as often but did hang up a couple times.

I took it over to the gun smith and he checked everything over for me. He said it was well oiled and greased. He did make a slight adjustment on something and forgive me I can’t remember what he said it was and I’m pretty new to firearms in general which is why I probably can’t remember.

After he put it back together I took it back out and grabbed a fresh box of ammo. In any case ripped through one magazine no issues. Picked up the second magazine and loaded it. Started jamming again. Started switching back and forth and it would appear the one magazine was causing an issue but I have no idea what. But the other one wasn’t hanging up anymore. Or at least I was getting lucky and it wasn’t.

When racking the slide on the prodigy it seemed soft on the release? I don’t know if that’s the right word but it felt lighter when it snapped back into place.

My experience with handguns prior to this purchase have mostly been with compact handguns I’ve rented at the range and my personal Ruger Mark IV Tactical 22.

So I guess my very long winded question is do I contact Springfield and just send the whole thing back? Should I grab a different brand magazine and give that a try to completely rule that out first. I’ve read some people have had better luck with other mags. I’ve also read the spring might be the issue and a stronger spring is necessary. Overall a bit of a let down to spend that much on a gun and have those kinds of issues. But when it was working with the one magazine I loved it. Just not sure what to do next at this point other than sending it all back to Springfield to have them look at it?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
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Wanted to update. I sent it in to Springfield. The guy I talked to on the phone was fast and friendly.

I got it back two days ago. Kind of annoyed they didn’t notify me that they were shipping it. Luckily I just happened to be at home when FedEx came. And they didn’t actually disclose what they repaired/replaced. Just that they repaired it. I ran 100 rounds through each magazine and not a single failure of any kind. So whatever they did fixed the problem.

Thanks again for all the help/suggestions.
 
Saviorself said:
Wanted to update. I sent it in to Springfield. The guy I talked to on the phone was fast and friendly.

I got it back two days ago. Kind of annoyed they didn’t notify me that they were shipping it. Luckily I just happened to be at home when FedEx came. And they didn’t actually disclose what they repaired/replaced. Just that they repaired it. I ran 100 rounds through each magazine and not a single failure of any kind. So whatever they did fixed the problem.

Thanks again for all the help/suggestions.
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Good news!

Sounds like good customer service to me with a crazy quick turn around time.
 
10mmLife said:
Good news!

Sounds like good customer service to me with a crazy quick turn around time.
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Yeah they absolutely got it turned around faster than I thought they would. I should have mentioned that, it was definitely less than 4 weeks including the transit. Impressive considering the holiday season.

And now that it actually works….LOVE this gun. I’d carry it if I could find a solid holster for it.
 
Saviorself said:
Yeah they absolutely got it turned around faster than I thought they would. I should have mentioned that, it was definitely less than 4 weeks including the transit. Impressive considering the holiday season.

And now that it actually works….LOVE this gun. I’d carry it if I could find a solid holster for it.
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I'm pretty sure Springfield has some good holster options on their site for the Prodigy. I haven't gotten a holster for mine yet either.
 
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