[tkaz0718]

Hello,

I am pretty new to hand guns and this Charles Daly DDA 10-40/45 is my first one. This is the compact 3 5/8" barrel. I really like the look and feel of this gun but I am having some prolems with it. I took it out the other day to put a couple magazines through it and I consistantly had FTF and a few FTE. For some reason I would pull a round off and the slide would lock back prematurely almost every time. Then I would have to press the slide lock down to drop the slide again and pull another round and there it goes again locking up. I used many different ammunition including WWB ball and HP, Hornady critical defense, Hydra-shok, and cheap fedral ball. Could anybody help me figure out how to fix this problem? When I came back from shooting I broke it down and cleaned it up really nice so im hoping it doesnt rain tomorrow so I can take it out again and tinker with it. I need to figure out WTH is wrong with this thing so I can trust it to save my life if I ever have to. And I cant really afford a new gun for awhile so that isnt really a option for me right now. Thank you! Not to mention this gun isnt exactly the most popular gun by any means and CD went out of bussiness so finding good info and parts is a pain in the butt! Im also looking for extra 10 round mags that I cant seem to find anywhere. Numrich is about the only place that still has CD parts but they are always sold out of the mags.

 

[kalford]

Charles Daily stamped thier name on alot of stuff, some good, some not so good. Can you get us a pic? I am seeing a 1911 in my head, but want to be sure before I give advise.

 

[Kaboom]

Is this it?
Guns For Sale - Pistols For Sale - Charles Daly DDA 10-40/45 in 45Acp with 3.6 - Auction: 9298172 (Ended 08/26/2009, 22:14:44 PST)

If so, why would you buy something so ugly? lol

I thought it might be the classic "thumb on the slide stop" but it looks to be fairly out of the way. Do your hands get anywhere near the stop lever? Have you had anyone else shoot it? Have you tried shooting with your opposite hand?

 

[tkaz0718]

Lol it looks a lot better in person but yes thats the one. I was givin this gun by a family member a long time ago and havent really got into shooting untill recently. I think some of the problem might be limp wristing. Now that I think back I wasnt holding the gun very tight and the problem got progressivly worse the longer I was shooting. This being my first time shooting since I was like 15. Now im 22 and really getting into handguns so this is my first one. I deffinatly wouldnt have bought this gun if I had the choice though I still really like it if I can fix the problem. I got wednesday and thursday off of work so I plan on taking it out for the second time and seeing if I can make improvements. I was doing some research and read that by adding some tension to the slide spring people who have had this problem with this gun have fixed it by doing this. This may be a dumb question but how do you add more tension to the slide spring? And is the slide spring the same as the recoil spring? I guess the slide is alittle overly heavy for the light polymer frame.

 

[kalford]

Interested in hearing your results after your second shoot. Please, either take someone else with you, or ask someone at the range to run some rounds, and see if the gun jams. I've never heard of adding presure to a recoil spring, but it sounds dangerous. Being as Charles Daley went under, I'd bet that replacement recoil springs are in short supply (can you find spare mags?). All of that to say, in your shoes, if the continues to malf, I would trade it off. Best of luck bud, and please let us know how it goes.

 

[tkaz0718]

Hello again,

So I took it out to shoot again on tuesday. I usually dont go to the range because my grandma owns a bunch of land and I just take it out in the fields and set up some targets. Didnt bring anyone with me this time but maybe next time I will. Anyways, it did better than last time but still had some premature slide lock issues and failure to feeds. This happened mainly on the WWB 230g HP i was using. The ball ammo I used didnt have nearly as many malfunctions. I made sure I wasnt limp wristing this time and held the gun nice and firm so this is why I belive it had less malfunctions. Maybe this is just one of those guns that does not like hollow points which would completly suck. The form I read about adding tension to the slide lock spring is here= Shot My New Charles Daly DDA 10 45 Today - TheFiringLine Forums I was reading another article that someone with this gun was having FTF so they broke down the magazine and sanded the black peice thats on the top of the magazine that holds the rounds in, and that fixed his problems. I guess I just have to keep looking for more solutions until I can get this completly under control or figure out how to do these adjustments that seem to be fixing other peoples problems. Thanks for you comments and I will keep you posted on this topic.