I bought my .380 EZ about 2 years ago and didn't shoot it an awful lot for about the first year, but enough to write a couple comprehensive reviews. My version is the one without the manual thumb safety. (Yes, they all have the grip safety.) I kept reading about the last round in the magazine stovepiping, but mine hadn't done that.
WELL, guess what?
The gun is so much fun to shoot that I starting using it more regularly and: It started! At first it was 2 of my 6 magazines, but not every time. The time before last I shot all 6 magazines with no problems. This past range trip two of the magazines did the stovepipe thing again, and I only shot 3 of the 6 because I had shot another couple guns first and we ran out of time due to someone waiting to use the range.
I read so much about the problem being the weak magazine springs, and thought about calling S&W to see if they would send me new springs BUT I also read that some people found the new springs to have the same results. Some of the springs have the yellow paint on the bottom 1/3 and some have no paint. That does not seem to affect how they work/don't work.
Most of us suspect that in S&W's desire to make a truly EZ gun, they designed springs that are just plain too weak and flimsy. HEY FOLKS, UpLula loaders are cheap - give us some good, long lasting springs, will ya???
What to do? Some people did things like inserting a dummy round at the bottom below the spring, reducing the capacity by one. That's not what I want! Someone made inserts to go into the hollow follower, thus compressing the spring somewhat, but that's not what I want to do either, especially since I don't have "someone" to make precision fit inserts.
And some more people said they stretched the springs and that helped, at least for a while: SO, I asked my dearly beloved to stretch the springs for me. The first one he S--T-R--E--T--C--H--E--D way, way out. YIKES! I got it back in the magazine but it's a tight fit. How it will work, or IF it will work remains to be seen. I'm guessing I won't be able to load all 8 rounds in that one now. Being careful, he stretched the next two 'maybe the right amount' to provide more tension but not too much. I hope.
Now I have to wait until I can get back to the range and shoot all 6 magazines to see what happens. Yes, I have them numbered. There are now 3 in factory condition, 2 slightly stretched and one really tight. They are all totally clean inside.
Knowing that it is possible that all 6 will work just fine for one or two range trips, I will report back when I have something to report. With what has happened to the price of ammo, I am not going to go out and shoot 200 or 300 rounds just for testing purposes! This is not a carry gun for me, so I can take the time needed to pursue a solution.
I also found an on line parts store that sells replacement springs for $6 each, but I suspect they would be the identical ones that came in the magazines in the first place.
At this point I'm venting my frustrations with a gun that in all other ways is so very much fun to shoot. And I'm also trying to get one more gun thread on the forum instead of more political and hate stuff.
