A “stovepipe” is essentially a failure to eject… several thing “can” cause this. Extremely dirty chamber causing the case to bind allowing the extractor to slip. A weak spring on the extractor, or imperfections on the bullet casing can all cause it to happen.

What causes pistol stovepipe?

A stovepipe jam occurs when a fired casing isn’t full ejected (hence the more technical name: Failure to Eject) and the slide comes forward, trapping it. Any semiautomatic pistol can malfunction. As pistols are widely owned for self-defense purposes, you should drill to react quickly to malfunctions.

What causes a failure to feed?

Failures to feed are almost always caused by magazines, feed ramps, and bad recoil springs. Too much tension and it returns too fast; too little tension causes excessive dwell time during the recoil cycle, and the slide doesn’t return fast enough to fully chamber the round.