Taurus PT99 Problem

[massgun]

My neice was shooting my PT99 Thursday, and after the last round fired, the case wound up stovepiped. I racked the slide to clear it and then tried to remove the magazine, but it wouldn't budge. As I have finally learned from many experiences to not force things without thoroughly checking out the problem, I just brought it home to check later. I have had this pistol for many years and it has been stone reliable, the mag is factory hi-cap, not aftermarket.

Upon inspection at the bench, it appears that the horizontal element of the slide stop somehow wound up under the follower and all my attempts to budge the follower have been negative. In addition, because the follower is jammed tight, I cannot remove the slide to maybe get better access as the underside is gouging the follower when I attempt to move the slide forward off the frame. It would seem either the follower must be destroyed or the slide stop removed in order to free things. I really don't want to destroy the follower on an original mag and don't know how to remove the slide stop (if that can even be done without removing the slide).

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome (except for the one telling me to buy a real Beretta ).

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[stinx]

im assuming the mag is still in the gun? If so can you remove the floorplate and spring? that would lesson the tension

 

[massgun]

I already did that, but the slide stop protrusion that is supposed to be lifted up by the follower somehow got UNDER the follower, so it doesn't matter if the mag spring is under tension or not. This is a very strange malfunction, I can't imagine how the slide stop protrusion got under the follower, but it did. If I could figure out how it got under the follower, then I might be able to manipulate things to get it out from under, but right now, everything seems locked up tight and there is no wiggle room up, down or sideways in the follower. It would seem the easiest way to free things up would be to remove the slide stop, but I don't know how to do that.

 

[stinx]

how about removing the slidelatch? I belive on Berettas you just wiggle and pull these straight out from the frame?

 

[massgun]

Fixed it! Since I couldn't get the slide off to try to remove the slide stop, I had to simply try to pry the follower/magazine to the side opposite the slide stop. I did this with a wood wedge and was able to get it over far enough for the slide stop to pop up back over the follower at which point I could remove the magazine. I still can't figure out how this happened, but at least I can fix it if it happens again.