UPDATE New P2000 Weak Ejection/Brass to Face

[williejc]

I've been shooting a P2000 in 357 Sig and 40 S&W for four years without ejection issues. Using Romanian Geco in 40 S&W, I had failures to feed in a CZ but none with any other ammo. Notice that Walmart has been selling the Romanian variety for several months. I hesitate to equate it with Swiss ammo.

To me weak ejection means weak ammo.

[montrala]

9mm Geco is no longer made in Swiss, but in former MFS factory in Hungary. This is not same ammo and there is noticeable difference. New "Geco" is weaker load, but it should not be too weak (unless faulty batch of ammo). However P2000 comes from factory with very strong recoil spring, that need some 500 rounds to get into it's normal spring ratio. Check again with same ammo after this initial period is finished. Things might improve by themselves.

[w3453l]

Thank you for everyone's input to this thread.

I went to the range yesterday with two P2000's. One was the same one from the OP, the other was still brand new.

I shot about 200 rounds of Speer Lawman 124 gr thru both.

It seemed to shoot fine thru the first (original P2000 this thread is about). Although I wouldn't say that the ejection was as strong as what I had in my VP9 with Swiss Geco.

Ejection was to ~4 o'clock. No brass to face, or shoulder.

Second (brand new P2000) had first shot brass to face. Next few shots had a weak ejection that progressed from 5 o'clock to 4 o'clock position. After that ejection was ok, but still not as strong as what I had in my VP9.

I put 30 more of the Hungarian Geco thru my first P2000 (one in OP) and ejection was also 4 o'clock, but noticeably weaker than Speer Lawman.

One thing I want to note: it was difficult to judge how far the pistols were ejecting brass. The range is set up in lanes, so the shells hit the walls/barriers separating lanes. I did see that quite a bit of shells ended up behind me indicating that the ejection is biased backward rather than forward (Ie. 4 o'clock vs 2 o'clock).

It looks like the guns just need a proper break in. I'm just wondering: about how far should they be ejecting the brass? And do the VP9's commonly have stronger ejection than the P2000's?

I may be just overthinking all of this; it's just that the P2000 is about perfect in every way for me, but the initial brass to face problems had me worried.

[DreadPirateMoyer]

Hey there OP,

Sorry to hear about your problems. As someone who went through endless BTF problems with multiple Glocks, I get the frustration. I think it's a big problem that people don't give enough credence to and if it's happening more frequently than once every few hundred rounds or so, your guns are due for a trip back to HK (don't worry, their CS is amazing and they'll take care of you).

THAT SAID, now that I'm very sensitive to BTF issues because of my Glocks, I have noticed that most of my new handguns give me BTF on the first magazine or so, sometimes even within the first 100 rounds. I think this is because the recoil spring is brand new and hasn't achieve its "set" as it would after being used a few times. Because it hasn't been worn in, it's really stiff and sucks up a lot of the recoil energy of the gun, meaning the ejected cases sometimes dribble out of the gun like a Gen 3/Gen 4 9mm Glock, sometimes right into your face. This has happened to me over multiple HKs and Berettas.

These problems always disappeared by round 200 and ejection has been perfect 2-5 o' clock in all my guns since. However, a few other guns I got, I actually would lock back the slide before my first range trip to cause a set in the recoil spring based on the above theory. On these guns, I had no BTF at all.

Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe not. I do know that once the recoil spring was broken in on all my guns, the BTF disappeared. I'd try locking back the slide overnight before your next range trip and giving them another whirl. If the BTF continues past that and 200 rounds, off to HK. It's definitely an absolutely unacceptable thing to happen on a routine basis.

P.S.: I'm at work and don't have my HK manual, but I believe HK recommends a break in of 200 rounds with 9mm 124gr NATO ammo on their pistols. It's a stout load, so I'd think it correlates well with my theory.

[montrala]

Other procedure is to leave pistol in storage with slide locked back for few weeks (if it is not used). This relaxes recoil spring a bit as well.

[jyo]

Interesting, I have both the P2000 and P2000sk---both in 9mm---both bought used but mint---no idea how many times each had been fired (even if they just told you some number)---nether appear to have ever been in a holster. Zero issues with each---no ejection problems---great accuracy---totally reliable with any 115-124 FMJ or JHP ammo I have tried (never had any 147 ammo). The P2000 is DA/SA and has proven to be one of my favorite pistols (just right size). The P2000sk has the "light" LEM trigger and I am liking it more and more. The LEM system trigger takes a little getting used to---nothing major---neat smaller pistol.
Maybe your gun just needs to ba shot more? Maybe a tighter grip? Good luck...

[w3453l]

^ I was actually just going to update the thread last night.

Thanks again to everyone for the input. Montrala, I had the slide locked back for about 1 week.

I put just about another 50 rounds of Speer 124 gr RN thru it, and about 700 - 800 rounds of Geco 124 gr. the Geco was some of the Swiss production I still had from a while back; NOT the newer Hungarian production.

The gun ran flawlessly; 0 issues.

It looks like the gun just had to be broken in a little before running weak ammo thru it. I've came to the conclusion that the issue was from the Hungarian produced Geco which was noticeably weaker than the Swiss production Geco or Speer Lawman. I observed that the Hungarian Geco was in fact ejecting weak thru the Beretta 92 and friend's Glock 17, both of which had already had 1000's of rounds thru them previously.

I ran the Swiss Geco thru: VP9, 92 FS, and PPQ as well. All four handguns ejected brass positively.

One thing to keep in mind is that I only bought one case of the Hungarian Geco, so it could have just been a bad batch.

I also just noticed how well the gun absorbs recoil; to me it feels almost as if shooting a full metal pistol.

[Adrenaline_6]

Glad to hear everything worked out for you. Your problem is the most common among new HK pistols, more so in the long slide versions. Since they are designed around the higher pressure NATO spec ammo, a little break into time for the stiffer spring and after that it will eat most anything unless the actual round is out of spec.

[19852]

Glad everything worked out for you. I've loaded weak ammo and run it through a P-2000 and P-30. Broken in guns that they were they did eject but the cases were thrown forward by the closing slide.