[fogman7]

Any ideas,,I shot my Roth and it was fine. On the 7th round it would no longer push the knob bcak expelling the spent round, I have taken it a part and it looks like the springs are fine any ideas???
derek minchey
[email protected]
318-949-9298

 

[Glocksmith]

A few questions....
What make of ammo are you using? Fiocci, or surplus?
When was the last time you cleaned and lubed your pistol?
Did you inspect the condition of the barrel locking lugs and the races inside the barrel bushing for damage/dirt?

 

[fogman7]

I used Fiocci in it. Guess I need to clean it again and oil it down again. I am using Rem Oil with teflon by Remington on it. Bore is pretty clean. Action is tight.

 

[Glocksmith]

Sounds like you might have gotten a hold of some bad ammo....

 

[fogman7]

60 rounds fired only about 10 ejected out

 

[paulh]

Hey Fogman,
I have exactly the same problem, except that mine wouldn't eject correctly from round 1. I've put about 75 rounds through it, and only about 4 times has the bolt had enough power to eject and load a new round. A few times the bolt didn't get back far enough, and the empty slid back into the chamber, but most times, I get a stove pipe jamb, which crushes the case. I've cleaned it very well, and it's in great shape, but, unfortunatly, the Fiocchi ammo isn't strong enough to work the action.
Does anyone know where I can buy a new 'slide spring' for it? I'd remove a coil at a time trying to see if I could get it to function properly.

 

[fogman7]

SO MAYBE I CAN PUT A LITTLE SOMETHING WHERE THE SPRING GOES TO MAKE THE SPRING TIGHTERS OR SHOULD I MAKE IT LOOSER???? WILL EXPERIMENT ON MAKING IT TIGHTER....????

 

[Edward Tinker]

I would check with Wolff Springs first thing, they seem to have many, many types of springs for guns. But being a much older, less appreciated type, who knows?

Ed

 

[Glocksmith]

Fogman, you would want to REDUCE the spring tension. Shimming the spring will make the problem worse.
I wonder how long ago Fiocchi ran off the last lot of 8mm Roth-Steyr? My own '07 works fine with the Fiocchi ammo I have, but I only fire it about 10 - 20 times max when I take it to the range....(I don't have any stripper clips, and loading is hard on the fingers) Hmm....I may have to tote my chronograph along the next time I go and do some velocity testing.

 

[fogman7]

I took my gun a part and found where i had made a mistake that may correct the problem. when the barrel slides out , there is a spring below it and on that spring is a little piece connected to it with a point on it, i had that in backwards. Now it is in properly and hopefully will make the difference. And i dont own a stripper for my either, wish I did. I have a friend of mine who does a lot of leather work and bought a bunch of old holsters and thanks he has a holster for it or it is for my Steyr-Hahn. He told me when he diggs it out, he will give it to me, WOW!

 

[paulh]

I don't know how long ago Fiocchi made their last lot, but I have 2 different box types, one gray, and one purple. The purple box is the newer design. Some time ago, I read that Fiocchi loaded the 8mm ammo to a lower pressure. The speed was something like 150-200fps below the standard military strength. I think it was to protect the 90+ year old pistols, which may have weak springs. I've also read that failure to chamber a new round is a common problem. I guess these 2 go hand in hand. I'd love to get hold of some shootable military ammo, but I suppose that was last manufactured in the 1920's.

 

[Glocksmith]

Fogman, yup - repositioning the spring would seem to solve the problem. I'm amazed that your pistol worked at all - the little piece connected to the spring is called a "thrust bolt". It performs two functions - first, it secures the sideplate onto the frame, and second, it resets the trigger.
Paulh, my ammo is in the purple boxes. I'm going to chrono it through my '07. According to Barns in Cartridges of the World, standard velocity for the orginal military load was 1090 fps with a 116 gr bullet. I'll see how close Ficchi's 113 gr load comes to that.

 

[Glocksmith]

Sorry, that should read "Barnes", not Barns.....

 

[paulh]

Glocksmith, I'll be interested to hear if the velocity is 'up to speed'. I've currently have 5 boxes of the purple, and a half box of the grey. Maybe my pistol needs a little more of a break in period.

 

[Glocksmith]

Paulh, I'll keep you appraised of my findings....
I have a particular affection for the '07 Roth Steyr, it's lockwork influnced the design of my favorite carry gun, the Glock! I wonder if a '07 could be rechambered for say 9mmP? I know the pistol was offered to the US Army in 1911 (see Meadows, US Military Automatic Pistols, pg 414) chambered in an experimental 10.3mm cartridge (200 gr bullet at 800-825 fps - yup, .40 S&W is nothing new...) But I wonder what modifications (outside of the obvious) were done to the gun when they enlarged the caliber.

 

[paulh]

Glocksmith, Thanks for the info, and I'd appreciate the update.

I suppose it is possible to rechamber the 8mm to a 9mm, the barrel seems thick enough, but I imagine you'd have to find a way to reconfigure magazine. It looks pretty tight in there, even for the 8mm cartridges.

I was not aware of the US being offered an experimental pistol in 1911. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened had it been sucessful.

In case anyone's interested, I sent a note off to Wolff Springs and asked if they had any plans to manufacture a set of springs for the Roth Steyr. I have yet to get a reply, but others may want to send them a note telling them your're interested in replacement springs. That way, at least they'll know there's interest out there.

 

[paulh]

Hi everyone,
As a follow up to above, I got a return e-mail from Wolff Springs. They don't have any plans for making the Roth Steyr springs, but if you send them the info on what you need: Outside Diamater, wire size, spring length and # of coils, they can check their database to see if they have anything that comes close.

I took my '07 out this weekend and put 25 rounds through it. In the first 5, 4 fed well, but the 4th failed to eject. From that point on, I had a failure to eject every other round. It actually seems to be getting better. I might make it through an entire mag some day.

As usual, it drew some looks at the range. The range master, who had never seen one before, asked me to drop the clip, when we went down to change targets. He gave it a close look when we went back to firing, but by that time I was out of ammo.

 

[Jan]

According my experiences the Fiocchi Ammo is so merciful to M 7, the recoil is too weak to secure the reliable function. Twenty years ago I found a lot of S&B 8,2 mm Steyr cartridges and they had much more steam as Fiocchi. Regardless the age (70 years) the function was flawless in every detail.