problem with sterling 300 .25acp firing with magazine in.

phathom · Jun 11, 2010

I have an old sterling .25 and it dry fires fine and fires a live round with the magazine out fine. Does anyone know why this is? I think it might be a problem with the magazine. Does anyone here have a magzine for this i might be able to test it with before i shell out money for another magazine so i know its either that or to take the gun in for repair?
Pm me or post here if so. Thanks in advance.

Update:I found out what it was, earlier I had ordered a replacement trigger bar as the original one broke, apparently the reproduction one was slightly shorter than the original. I was able to weld some extra metal into it and made it work. I have since traded the gun away, but I thought I'd let anyone know who searched for this.

torpedoman · Jun 11, 2010

wont fire covers a lot of ground, . trigger will not operate, hammer does not fall , hammer falls round does not go off. Just what is the problem?

phathom · Jun 12, 2010

Well it's striker fired, the trigger does not fully disengage the catch that is holding the striker in it's cocked position. I'm not sure if the magazine is blocking the trigger from going far enough back to move the disconnector all the way to make the striker release or if the magazine is jamming something up in the grip of the pistol and preventing it from moving to release the striker.

As I said, with the magazine out, it fires fine, I can load the mag rack it, drop the mag and fire it just fine. I can dry fire it just fine, but whenever the magazine is anywhere between 3/4 of the way and all the way inserted, the striker will not release.

I'm not sure if this is because the magazine is slightly deformed and out of spec and causing something to jam up, or if it is that something else in the gun is out of spec, such as it needing a shorter trigger pull than it has now to release the striker. This is why I would like to see if anyone has a magazine for it that is known working in another Sterling 300 .25 to see if the magazine is the problem or if the gun is the problem.