[jvelez1331]

Hi All, new to site. I have a stainless steel double action Viking ODI that I am having feed problems with. I have polished the ramp, replaced the magazine, replaced the ejector and the springs. The weapon continues to have the same issue. I took it to a gunsmith who charged me 165.00 and told me the problem was fixed but it continues to have the same issue. I use ball ammo, and hollow points and both jam.

 

[spwenger]

It's Hard to Make...

...online diagnoses but, assuming that the pistol functioned reliably in the hands of the gunsmith, there is a possibility that the issue may be one of your shooting technique. I know nothing of your background so please don't take offense if these suggestions don't apply:

1. Make sure that the web of your shooting hand is pressed as far up into the grip tang of the pistol as possible.
2. Press (or roll) the trigger back into the frame of the gun to fire and keep the finger pressed back until the pistol returns from recoil. At that time, let the trigger forward only to the point where you feel (and, possibly, hear) the sear reset. If this practice is new to you, as you develop the habit, you will be able to start "resetting the trigger" in this manner as the pistols is on its way down from recoil.

I'll be interested to hear if this helps.

 

[Snake45]

I have one that also gave mysterious "jamming" problems that nothing conventional would fix. It turns out the source of the problem was, believe it or not, improperly machined locking lugs in the slide, which were letting the barrel start rising before it should have and jam against the underside of the slide. No amount of polishing of the affected areas of barrel or slide would fix it--in fact, it seemed to make it worse. I finally cured it by replacing the slide completely with a non-ODI unit from somewhere. (Today the gun lives as a semi-dedicated .22 conversion.)

To find out if this is your problem, clear/empty the gun, hold it upside down, and run the slide back and forth several times at various speed from ultra-slow to fast. If it EVER hangs up or hesitates, congratulations, you've got the problem. (It will never show this symptom empty right-side up, but will loaded, or empty upside-down.)

 

[spwenger]

And If This...

To find out if this is your problem, clear/empty the gun, hold it upside down, and run the slide back and forth several times at various speed from ultra-slow to fast. If it EVER hangs up or hesitates, congratulations, you've got the problem. (It will never show this symptom empty right-side up, but will loaded, or empty upside-down.)

...turns out to be the issue, it would not speak well for your local gunsmith.

 

[Charlie Petty]

It is totally worthless to say a gun "jams". We need an accurate description of the malfunction and a picture would help.

Sadly, the Viking wasn't very high up the quality scale. I have one simply to fill a hole in my collection, but never tried to shoot it. I'll take a look and see if there is anyhting obvious.

 

[Snake45]

Charlie, run the test I describe above on yours. Interested to see what happens.

 

[Snake45]

...turns out to be the issue, it would not speak well for your local gunsmith.

I dunno about that. Most gunsmiths have probably never seen this problem, or heard it, or read about it. I never have, and have never seen anything like it in any other 1911.

 

[spwenger]

But Wouldn't You Expect...

I dunno about that. Most gunsmiths have probably never seen this problem, or heard it, or read about it. I never have, and have never seen anything like it in any other 1911.

...that a gunsmith who had "fixed" a malfunction issue to have test-fired the gun to verify that the problem was resolved?

That was my point, not that the gunsmith may have lacked your relatively rare insight into that particular pistol. In fact, that was why my initial reaction was to rule out operator error.

 

[Charlie Petty]

I'd be willing to bet that most gunsmith have never even SEEN a Viking.

It was a knockoff of the Seecamp DA 1911 conversion and I don't think many were made.

 

[jvelez1331]

Hi All thanks for the feedback no offense taken to any of the suggestion, appreciate you guys taking time to respond. For background, I was a Law Enforcement Officer for almost 40 years distinguished expert shooter, SWAT team leader, shot on pistol teams for years etc. I have a number of 45's that I shoot regularly.

The rounds are stove-piping, I tried all types of ammo. The Viking is an original made by ODI Not one of the kits that were sold. Tried holding the weapon upside down and racked the silde, does not hang up while pulling the slide back and forth fast or slow.

I want to thank you all for the advice much appreciated.

 

[Snake45]

By stovepiping, I assume you mean after firing. That's a fairly easily cured extractor/ejector problem, and if your gunsmith didn't fix it, he owes you your money back.

 

[Charlie Petty]

Snake mine cycles just fine any way I hold it.

Stovepipe stoppages are usually the result of a gun being too tight (unlikely here) or underpowered ammo (also unlikely) but when I got mine out and took it apart I found that it has a really stout recoil spring... much moreso than any of my other Commander size guns. I'd almost be willing to bet mine will stovepipe too and now I'll have to drag it out to the range next week and find out.

sigh

 

[jvelez1331]

Hi Guys, thanks again for the comments, much appreciated. I think I am going to take a hammer to the thing, does me no good as it is. Many thanks.

 

[jvelez1331]

Going to take the gun back to the gunsmith that charged me 165.00 for repairs that did not fix the issue to see what he has to say and what he can do to try to fix the problem before I take a hammer to the gun. Thanks again.

 

[phantom4570]

Let's make sure we're all speaking the same language here. Stove piping should be easy enough to fix, but is inconsistent with your first comment about polishing the feed ramp and replacing the magazine. In my circle of shooters stove piping means the gun closes on a partially ejected case trapping it like a stove pipe in the ejection port. No amount of feed ramp polishing will fix this problem.

I have heard a shooter describe a feed failure as a stove pipe where a live round was trapped in a vertical orientation between the breechface and the barrel. I suspect your usage corresponds to this.

Does this happen on a full, half full or nearly empty magazine or is there no correlation?

Watch the gun chamber a round slowly. Does the round feed off the breech face or the tip of the extractor?

More thoughts when I'm clear on what kind of jam we're dealing with.

 

[jvelez1331]

Hi Phantom, it does not matter if the mag is full or half empty. The weapon fires one maybe two rounds with no problem then the next fired round stove pipes and the new round only partially feeds. I will take it to the range tomorrow and take some pics and a video to share. Thanks for the comments, Is there is a way to upload pictures to share or a video?

 

[Charlie Petty]

So the empty case is trapped between the slide and barrel. That it what I call a stovepipe and would conform with what I said about tight, spring or ammo...

 

[jvelez1331]

Thanks Again guys,

Julio

 

[Charlie Petty]

Well, we shot it today with both factory and handloaded ammo with no stoppages. Accuracy left much to be desired, but it worked just fine.

 

[spwenger]

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