At the range today, and on round #472 after the last cleaning (1242 total rounds through the gun) my G44 fired out of battery. Something must have been stuck in the chamber that prevented the round from going all the way in and it held the slide open just a touch. It was enough for it to bulge the case and obviously blow it out when it went off.
Most of the gasses went out the sides, as you can see by the cool soot pattern on my hands. Didn't hurt, but it got my attention.
We took it apart and verified that rounds would not drop into the chamber all the way. Those same rounds went into another G44 just fine, and other ammo wouldn't go into mine. We could not see anything in there, no lead fouling (all plated ammo which hopefully helps with that) was obvious and after much scrubbing with the OEM brush, some cleaning patches and a brass rod we got whatever it was out. Still couldn't see any visible difference but rounds chambered again.
Put it all back together and fired the last 28 rounds I had on hand, no ill effects from what I could tell. Accuracy wasn't off.
We checked the other G44 and it does the same thing, you can pull the slide open just a touch and the striker still falls when the trigger is pulled and would touch off a round. So it's either both the guns we have being 'defective' or it's a design thing.
Most of the gasses went out the sides, as you can see by the cool soot pattern on my hands. Didn't hurt, but it got my attention.
We took it apart and verified that rounds would not drop into the chamber all the way. Those same rounds went into another G44 just fine, and other ammo wouldn't go into mine. We could not see anything in there, no lead fouling (all plated ammo which hopefully helps with that) was obvious and after much scrubbing with the OEM brush, some cleaning patches and a brass rod we got whatever it was out. Still couldn't see any visible difference but rounds chambered again.
Put it all back together and fired the last 28 rounds I had on hand, no ill effects from what I could tell. Accuracy wasn't off.
We checked the other G44 and it does the same thing, you can pull the slide open just a touch and the striker still falls when the trigger is pulled and would touch off a round. So it's either both the guns we have being 'defective' or it's a design thing.