The Case of the Malfunctioning Magazine

I bought a used Llama .22 LR in brushed chrome. It was one of the "new style," manufactured after 1986, and I was fascinated with its beauty and workmanship. It looks like a miniature 1911A1, and it breaks down the same way. This one was in near mint condition, except for the magazine. After cleaning it up and checking it out mechanically, I decided it was ready to test fire. I put five rounds in the magazine and readied it to fire. The first round chambered and fired, but the second round failed to chamber.

I pulled back the slide and manually chamus the feed ramp and chamber, or to order ammunition such as Cor Bon Pow RBall, which is around-nose expanding bullet that usually feeds in pistols that won’t feed anything but hard-ball FMJ. I tested a miserly amount of Pow RBallfive rounds-and function was perfect, with the blast and recoil reminding me that the 100-grain bullet was traveling at 1400 fps. He elected to leave the barrel throat and polish for a later date. As for accuracy, the pistol could be erratic.

But with Black Hills ammunition, among the most consistently reliable and accurate ammunition available, results were better than bered the next round. It fired, but again the next round did not chamber. I spent a considerable amount of time trying to ascertain the cause of the problem; eventually, I came to the conclusion that the magazine was the culprit. Have you ever tried to locate factory new magazines or parts for a Llama?

After about two months of searching and frustration, I felt extremely fortunate to locate a parts dealer with two factory new magazines in shrink-wrap. After receiving them, I began to compare the new and old. There was no difference that was obvious. Upon inserting the new magazine and atwhat’s typical of older 9mm military pistols. The 115-grain bullet produced five-shot groups of 2-1/2 inches at 25 yards, while the 124-grain lead load went into 3 inches. This is gratifying accuracy.

Conclusions Despite the differences between it and the Colt, when the Llama pistol stops working, it’s usually for one or more of the same reasons why a high-quality 1911 stops working: Either it’s dirty, the magazine is bad, the recoil spring is dying out, the extractor has given up, or the firing pin is broken. The plunger tube doesn’t seem to give tempting to fire, I learned that the new magazine didn’t function at all. I quickly realized that the new magazine did not engage the magazine catch.

This is definitely a factory defect. Again, I began to compare the new magazine with the old one. I noticed that the old magazine’s lips had been filed down to make the catch engage with the slot (see photo below left). It did engage the catch, but the magazine still had feeding problems. I removed the grips in an effort to make the engagement between the magazine catch and the magazine slot on the magazine more visible. It was evident to me that the modification to the old magazine was not the correct way to go.

I took measurements between the two, and came to the conclusion that the modification should be made to the slot on the magazine rather than to the lips. I determined that I needed to file the top side of the magazinecatch slot (see photo below right) in order to make the magazine engage the catch properly. With this simple correction, feeding is now flawless. trouble, and you’ll never have a Llama in the shop for repair of a strippedout grip-screw bushing.

The safety and hammer seem to be durable as well, and I’ve yet to see a shot-out barrel. Something else will probably give up first. Overall, the Llama is an interesting piece of history, from a day when Spanish makers turned out tons of ironmongery along with a few excellent handguns. With an understanding of the differences in the Llama, by using the same principles used to repair the 1911, we can usually solve problems with this interesting variation on the Browning pistol. I