# P290 hammer light?



## chieninhouston (Aug 12, 2011)

Went to the range yesterday with a couple boxes of old ammo. Not able to fire from my P290, the hammer dropped, but not fired. Checked with the rounds, the pin did hit the prime, created a light indentation, but not a bang that I was expected. I put the same round into my Beretta Nano, it fired. In fact, all 100 rounds were fired in my Nano without any problems. 

That got me worry, had about 15 rounds of 115G JHP with me, put them in the P290, they were all shot well. I guess, the pin just not hit hard enough on those old ammo. However, would like to know if there is a way to make the firing pin hit harder? 

---
James


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Not familiar with this weapon, I need to ask a few questions:
• Does it have a floating firing pin, which is kept away from a cartridge primer (until the hammer hits it) by a spring? Maybe the firing-pin tunnel, or the spring, is either dirty or packed with grease, which binds-up the firing pin. (This is the most likely culprit.)
• When you push on the firing pin, and its nose comes through its hole, is it smooth and rounded? Maybe the firing pin is broken, and won't reach all the way to the cartridge's primer. Maybe the rear end of the firing pin is broken, rather than its nose.
• Do the rounds which did not fire pass the "chamber-check" test? Maybe the rounds which did not fire are just a little short, or are crimped a little too deeply to meet headspace criteria. Compare head-to-case-mouth lengths: unfired samples of rounds which fired, to unfired rounds which did not.

There is a house in the historical part of Providence, RI, which bears on its gate the following signs:
"_Attention: Chien Bizarre_"
"_Chien Fort Méchant et Peu Nourri_"
"_Chien Lunatique_"
and, finally
"_Oubliez Le Chien. Attention au Maître!_"
Could your home in Houston use one or more of these?


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## TGS2 (May 6, 2006)

Call Sig Customer Service, explain the issue and request a call atg to send it in for warranty repair.


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## chieninhouston (Aug 12, 2011)

Steve M1911A1 said:


> Not familiar with this weapon, I need to ask a few questions:
> • Does it have a floating firing pin, which is kept away from a cartridge primer (until the hammer hits it) by a spring? Maybe the firing-pin tunnel, or the spring, is either dirty or packed with grease, which binds-up the firing pin. (This is the most likely culprit.)
> • When you push on the firing pin, and its nose comes through its hole, is it smooth and rounded? Maybe the firing pin is broken, and won't reach all the way to the cartridge's primer. Maybe the rear end of the firing pin is broken, rather than its nose.
> • Do the rounds which did not fire pass the "chamber-check" test? Maybe the rounds which did not fire are just a little short, or are crimped a little too deeply to meet headspace criteria. Compare head-to-case-mouth lengths: unfired samples of rounds which fired, to unfired rounds which did not.
> ...


I guess it is the floating firing pin. Because, that's just a hole, the pin is hidden behind. When I pushed where the hammer hit, the pin is not even shown. So, it must be some sort of blocking design that you have to pull the trigger to activate. 
Also, those rounds in question, were fired without any problems in my other gun. So, the light striker must be the reason. I thought the gun should have the double strike ability like my other gun with hammer. Well, it's DAO, once the chambered round not fired, you have to rack the slide and take the round out.... so much for DAO..

Those signs are Greek to me. (I believe they are in French). Not able to understand any of them. So, Thanks and no thanks.

Thank you for your quick response. I maybe calling Sig to see what they say about this next week. 
---
James


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

chieninhouston said:


> ...Those signs are Greek to me. (I believe they are in French). Not able to understand any of them...


Oh, well...
I guess that I've misinterpreted your forum name, *chien*_inhouston_.

Sorry 'bout that.


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## chieninhouston (Aug 12, 2011)

An update:
Called Sig this morning. The rep verified the SN of my P290. Assured me it was newly built in February. And my problem most likely was ammo issue. I'll take his word for it for now. Will try different types of ammo to see if that happened again. Right now it will be taken away from my CC rotation. We'll see when I put few hundred more rounds through the pipe. BTW, the CS service was pretty good. No complaints in that department. 
--
James


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## 030201_sig (Apr 5, 2014)

How are you doing now ?


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