Failure to feed

Mornin Irish,
Do you have a picture of it jamming up?

 

When you cleaned your .380 CC, did you remove the grips? If you tightened the grips screws too much it could affect the cycling of the gun causing the problem.

 

These type of failures seem to be happening a lot with newer Thunder 380 & 380CC pistols. It makes me wonder if Bersa ramped up production and cut quality control after Sandy Hook since we have the same problems with both if our 2013 Thunder 380s.

First your slide is not stainless steel, but has a Nickel Finish so do not use any ammonia based cleaners on it like Hoppe's #9.

Second these Failure To Feed and slide not locking back on the last shot are caused by the slide not traveling back all the way.

That is either caused by you or the gun. If your thumb is rubbing on the slide, it may slow to where it fails to cycle properly. Then there is the dreaded and misunderstood limp wristing. If your hand travels back it due to recoil it may take some of the energy away that is needed for the slide to complete its travel back. Keep a firm crush grip and lean your body into the pistol.

Now if it is the guns fault, that could be caused by not enough lube, too strong of a spring, poorly machined or finished parts. To fix try using a Teflon based grease instead of RemOli or CLP which runs all over and does not stay on the rails where you need it. Make sure that the spring is put back on the right direction with the muzzle end at the 12 o clock position. Take an hour with your unloaded Bersa and work the slide several hundred times while watching TV. Since it is a new gun, any imperfections from the factory may loosen up after shooting 200+ rounds through it.

I have noted that these problems are not present when shooting self defense JHP or +P ammo such as Buffalo Bore. So that should give you some confidence about carrying it.

 

My fail to feeds seem to be magazine related. Always the last round. It developed this problem after several hundred rounds fired. I stretched the spring and it got better but did not completely solve the problem. Of course the mags are out of stock. I did find a promag for it. Not fired yet, maybe it will work.

My slide was not locking back due th the notch in the slide peening. A few swipes with a fine file fixed that. Working perfectly now.

 

These are excellent pistols and very accurate.

 

Is it always the same round (like the 7th of 8) or just a round at any time? I ask because my Thunder (not the CC model) had problems with the 7 round mag where round #6 would always malfunction. Five would fire and 6 would jam atop 7 (the thunder uses 7 round mags only) in 3 of 3 mags (one ProMag).

I wondered if the springs were too strong (all new mags and gun) and when the 6th and 7th rounds were all that was left in the mag the spring overpowered them and jammed the pistol. So I forced 8 rds into the 7 rd mags and left them for 2-3 weeks to relax the springs.

I then took the 8th rd out of the mags and went to the range. No more problems! I guess my hunch was correct. The new spring was too much for just 2 rds in the mag and pushed the last 2 up too much so that #6 jammed the slide. After the spring relaxed a bit it was OK and the 6th and 7th rds fed properly so the gun worked like it should. Something to think about ....

 

Failure to feed (new gun and mags)

I recently bought a Thunder 380 and had the same problem as discribed: Jam on the last round. After looking around at other information on this problem with this gun. I decided that it was a magazine issue. I cleaned, buffed and lucubrated the mag spring with a dry lube as suggested but still got the same results with the factory mags and the Pro mags that I have.
I do understand that I haven't put quite 100 rounds through the pistol but I still would have expected to shoot at lease one mag without a failure on the last round! I do believe that the mag spring is not overly strong and the problem is with the speed of the recoil. Upon my last inspection of the slide, it seems that the slide is wearing on the frame on the front most part. Even the gun is lubricated there is a gritty feel when racking the slide.
I'm thinking about buffing the slide and the forward slide, or should I just wait a few hundred more rounds for complete break in. What are your thoughts.

 

You would do best working on one fix at a time. You don't want to be fixing something that ain't broke!

 

Try different ammution. Some pistols just don't like every type of ammunition.

 

I had the same FTF with American Federal ammo. I switched to Fiocchi ammo and have had no problems since. I was getting a FTF every 2-3 rounds with American Federal. I have since polished the feed ramp and use strictly Fiocchi Ammo.

 

Can't agree more! but for now the gun is broke in the sense that I can't trust it to fire every round out of the magazine. Because this issue is recurrent with both the original bersa mags and the pro mags, I tend to feel that this a problem with the break in of the slide and frame. Although the problem of last round misfire would indicate a magazine issue. I tend to disregard the magazine as the issue when both the Bersa and the Pro Mags are present during the problem.
I will lightly sand the grit from my frame along the slide travel and see if that makes any improvement.

 

Good advice well taken and practiced! As far as this problem goes, nobody seems to be making any progress with the apparent problem which would seem to be the magazine. So I decided to follow a different approach. I buffed out the machine marks on the frame slide that was giving a gritty feeling when racking the slide. The slide is smooth as silk now and still tight to the frame. Ill try it out and let you know if there is any Improvement as to the feeding issue. The reason I took this approach was because I had a similar problem with my RIA officer 45 not going fully into battery. This was a slide related issue caused by a weak recoil spring, another issue that would seem to be magazine related. Another fact that comes to mind is, that this problem became apparent after Bersa introduced their CC model. It is possible that there were shortcuts taken during manufacturing to cut cost of production when introducing a new CC model of the same overall designed Thunder 380 these manufacturing short cuts could have also been applied to the Thunder series as well. I think this feed issue is with the gun and not the magazine, I get the same issue with both of the only two available magazines for this weapon.

 

Grrrr!

I put close to 150 shots in my new Bersa Thunder 380 CC this weekend and had 8 FTF's!! I was using dirty reloads though. Just hope that was the issue!

 

Agree with the accuracy, buy I cant agree with the excellent part. Used mine for my recertification and had a 10 percent malfunction rate.

I repaired the slide, so that is a non- issue now. But the last round jam just will not go away. Acts like a a magazine issue, but happens with every magazine I have, both factory or aftermarket.

This gun was flawless for the first 600 rounds or more with any brand of ammunition ran through it except S&B.

I have pretty much lost all confidence.

 

Not to be a nuisance, but did anybody read the post I made on the first page #8 of this discussion? I posted about how my Bersa Thunder kept jamming on the 6th of 7 rounds of EVERY 7 round mag I had.

I then proceeded to write what I did to fix this problem and it worked. There have been 3-4 posts after my post with folks saying their pistols are jamming on the last round. Have you read or tried what I did? It might just fix your problem. it worked for me and probably couldn't hurt to try with your Bersa mags, too. Just a thought.

 

Not listening, eh? You would think they were married to you!!!!

 

I did see your post. Should have responded. Sorry. I think my problem is just take opposite. Mine worked perfectly for a while before it started malfunctioning. Took the magazine apart. Stretched the spring, and all was good again for a short while. Then it started up all over again. Tells me it was a weak spring.

On a side note, I see Eagle Imports has mags in stock again. I just ordered two, and they are sending me a spring for the malfunctioning one. Hope this works. Eagle Imports are great to work with. A rarity in this day and age.

 

I hope that works because it's not good practice to stretch springs. My point was that the new spring was overpowering the weight of the last 2 rounds in the mags and causing them to pop up and jam. Forcing 8 rds into the 7 rd mags and letting them set for a couple of weeks to "relax" worked.

Next trip out the spring(s) didn't overpower the weight of the last rds and performed as they should have. It was a new gun, new Bersa mags (2) and 1 new Promag that works without issue.