by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Smith & Wesson will modify the ejectors on 3,300 semi-automatic pistols to solve a highly-publicized jamming problem experienced by the New Jersey State Police.
One possible contributing factor Gun Week pursued was a reported variation in the ammunition New Jersey issues to its troopers, but that apparently was without merit
Initially, Gun Week was told that duty ammo, supplied by CCI Gold Dot, used in the agency's Heckler & Koch P7M8 pistols was loaded with a different propellant to solve a fouling and cycling problem in that pistol, which has a gas-retarded action. However, that does not now appear to be accurate. True, there was a powder change in the 9mm Gold Dot, but not directly to address a problem with the pistol. Nobody has suggested that ammunition might be a part of the S&W malfunction puzzle, and a source at S&W noted, "We never had that (ejection) problem with off-the-shelf Gold Dot ammo." Gold Dot ammunition, developed several years ago by the CCI division of Blount Inc. in Lewiston, ID, has an excellent track record. When Gun Week checked with CCI-Speer's tech specialist, Allan Jones, he confirmed there had been a change in the propellant used in the Gold Dot ammo, but it was to a slightly faster and cleaner-burning powder, designed to make it function better in the H&K MP5 submachinegun. Coincidentally, this cleaner-burning powder apparently worked better in the P7 pistol by reducing powder residue that fouled the pistol's gas port. Jones also said the change was made, "across the board," and that New Jersey was not using some specially-loaded, exclusive ammunition
When Garden State troopers began seriously shopping for new duty weapons, they tested pistols from Beretta, the Glock 17 and 19, Heckler & Koch's USP, and the SIG P226, P228, and P229 among others. When the gunsmoke cleared, the testing committee picked the Smith & Wesson Model 99 semi-auto pistol as their new service sidearm
Then the whole program of re-arming troopers went south. Or, more accurately, the problem went northeast, right back to S&W's Massachusetts headquarters, where the beleaguered handgun manufacturer thought it had experienced all the bad publicity it could stand with gunowner outrage over the "deal" former CEO Ed Schultz cut with the Clinton White House. A captain involved in the testing and selection process for new state police pistols considered the highly-publicized jamming problems as nothing more than a "bump" in the road, "not a spike." State Police Capt. Carl Leisinger told Gun Week that, "The things I'm hearing on the news have really spun out of control. I'm not saying everything (in the reports) is wrong, but some of it got a little exaggerated." Leisinger, who is based in West Trenton, acknowledged that, "The number of malfunctions is more than we want (but) it is not tremendous." That's not what published reports by the Associated Press, newspapers and televi-
sion stations in the state suggested, though. During the initial testing, when 60 troopers fired a reported 3,000 rounds through each of their individual test guns, there was only one malfunctioning pistol reported. That changed abruptly when the guns were issued to over 431 troopers, who reported over 130 malfunctions, along with over 200 failures reported by state police recruits.
Ejector Modification
S&W specialists went to work on the problem, noted company spokesman Ken Jorgensen, and came up with the ejector modification. He also confirmed that, in some cases, shooters themselves may have also been an element in the malfunctions by "weak-wristing" during shooting exercises. Semi-auto pistols of just about every make will experience cycling malfunctions when shooters do not maintain a properly rigid wrist, and allow the pistol to wobble in their hand.
Jones agreed that the "human factor" may have a great deal to do with the malfunctions. A veteran shooter, Jones has experience with the P7, noting that when he has fired that model, he held the gun in such a way that, if he had used the same grip pressure on another type of semi-auto pistol, he likely would have "limp wrested" the gun. Jones also noted that shooting with a limp wrist "will produce a straight-line stoppage" because the spent cartridge case does not properly eject. Asked if it is possible a variation in ammunition, however slight, could have contributed to some of the malfunctions in some way, he said, "It's possible, but that would be a stretch." His analysis was that some New Jersey troopers may have experienced transition problems, learning to grip the new pistol differently than the H&K model they had grown used to.
New Jersey's cycling problem became immediate fodder for the Internet, and that quickly deteriorated to conjecture that did not even have the total number of pistols involved in the contract correct. New Jersey is purchasing, according to Leisinger, 3,300 of the new S&W pistols. The guns were purchased through Ray's Sport Shop in Plainfield. A spokeswoman for the gun shop declined comment, noting only that, "We don't comment on anything." She said past experience with the press had resulted in that policy.
Ammunition Disparity?
New Jersey issues the standard load 124-grain Gold Dot from CCI. It replaced a Remington cartridge with the same bullet weight about four years ago, Leisinger said.
Leisinger recalled, "One time we had a slight problem with powder speeds. The H&K is very sensitive with that gas port. They (CCI ammo technicians) came down and worked with us and changed the powder combination (in the cartridge). They worked with us 100%. I thought their cooperation was unbelievable."
But Jones said switching to a cleaner burning powder would not have a significant effect on the function of one handgun over another, though it did appear to solve the P7's fouling problem. The failure of S&W pistols to eject spent cartridges became the focus of media attention, though Leisinger would not characterize these as "stove pipe" jams. John Hagerty, director of communications for the New Jersey State Police, described the ejection failures: "In a nutshell what we have determined are instances of spent casings jamming in the ejection port." Neither elaborated as to whether this means the spent casings do not fully clear the ejection port, and thus nose into the top of the breech when the slide moves forward into battery.
Hagerty said 431 troopers had received the pistols and have subsequently turned them back in, for the older H&Ks, until the S&W pistols can be fitted with the new ejectors. Those H&K pistols will remain with the agency, he added.
Qualifications
According to Hagerty, troopers qualify four times annually, firing 42 rounds in each course. Leisinger said they qualify twice annually, shooting twice during their qualifications, once in the daylight, once at night. All duty side arms are equipped with tritium night sights. Hagerty maintained the "jamming and reliability rate was well within the standards."
New Jersey troopers are reportedly not so sure of that, and newspaper reports have quoted Col. Carson Dunbar Jr., superintendent of the State Police, as being "personally uncomfortable" with the performance of the guns as delivered.
During the course of selecting the S&W Model 99, a design that is actually the product of a joint effort between S&W and Walther, there were some modifications initially made to the gun at the request of the state police agency. Leisinger confirmed that the decocker was first deleted, then put back, when concerns arose about accidental discharges. Decocker Decision
"They submitted the gun without the decocker," he recalled. "Then that became single-action-only. And then when we discovered with the decocker you can take the gun down without pulling the trigger, we wanted the decocker put (back) on. Down the road, somebody was possibly going to shoot somebody." He portrayed the initial concern as trying to eliminate levers that might project from the pistol and interfere with its operation. Decocker levers do project varying distances from other gun models, though Gun Week has not found any indication that these have ever posed serious problems. What makes the Model 99 S&W different is that the decocker is not a traditional "lever," but designed more like a "plunger/button" on the top left of the slide. It profiles quite well with the slide surface. Gun Week visited a gun shop and, with the help of a shop employee, tested various ways to make the pistol accidentally lock open during cycling (arguably possible by pressing up on the slide stop with the left-hand thumb during right-hand firing), but could not find a way to accidentally engage the decocker. Magazine capacity was changed from the original 16 rounds on the test guns to 15 rounds on the duty weapons. Leisinger said some of the duty guns were experiencing failures to feed, with the round nosing down and jamming against the feed ramp.
Push to Re-Arm
The push to re-arm Garden State troopers began with the October 1997 death of Trooper Scott Gonzales. His pistol jammed during a gunfight with a mental patient, and while he was attempting to clear the pistol, he was killed. Both male and female troopers were involved in the gun tests, and among the winning attributes of the Model 99 is the synthetic grip's backstrap, which can be changed to fit different sized hands. While switching to a new gun seemed to be a priority, changing calibers did not. According to Leisinger, State Police top brass decided to keep the 9mm as the agency's caliber of choice. With the Gold Dot projectile, he noted, there have been no jacket separations even with a muzzle velocity of 1,150 fps, and bullets have expanded as advertised in a variety of media. Law enforcement agencies across the country use Gold Dot ammo, which has a solid performance record. Gun Week has used it in various gun tests, and in assorted calibers, over the years without problem.