I have a Tristar C100 in .380 Auto that has a problem. I sent the piece back to Tristar and have not yet communicated with them about what, if anything, they are doing for service/repair. I included a detailed description of the problem. I'm letting the process take its course.
The problem is that the slide binds up and will not chamber a round. I have to physically push it home and sometimes with substantial force to overcome the drag. I sent the gun to Tristar in a jammed postion so they would actually see the bound up slide. When I first got the gun (new), it would not always chamber a round so I tuned the ejector which was snagging on the brass rim as it came up from the magazine and solved that issue. As more rounds when through the gun, the slide started binding and refused to move forward chambering a new round. After maybe 20 rounds at my last range session, I gave up fighting the slide and said this thing is going to Tristar. I noticed scoring on the one side of the frame and it appears that the slide is 'rubbing' on the frame and not moving smoothly over that contact area. I breakdown my guns after every range session so it was clean and lub'd. I never had a similar problem with any of my other semi-autos.
Is this problem unique to my particular gun or have others had this problem? My fear is Tristar might just claim the gun needs cleaning, operate the slide manually, declare it 'repaired' and send it back. If so, it will become a gun locker paper weight. When the gun worked, it worked really well. It's a great range gun and plinker but it no longer works.
According to the shipper, they should have received the gun a week ago. I doubt if they have gotten to it yet. So it may take a few weeks before I receive it. Stay tuned for an update...
