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Guys, it's worth saying that Pasadena Shooting Center has every right to ban certain kinds of ammo. That's their choice. We all have the option of shooting at other ranges too. Now here's what I have to say about the Blazer controversy.

I too have been to many ranges that have framed examples of damaged firearms all purported to have been destroyed by Blazer ammo. But I have also worked at several ranges over the years and I will tell you that I have seen far more firearms destroyed by poor maintenance, squib loads or just plain ignorance. As an example, I once had a local deputy constable complain that his brand new Glock pistol was defective because it wasn't cycling and the bullets were going through the paper side-ways...Lesson: .40cal pistols work MUCH better when you aren't tossing 9mm ammo down the barrel! Another deputy came to me once complaining that part of her gun had flown down range...Lesson: Don't run two-piece guide-rods in your 1911 if you aren't going to keep it tight! But, that's the little stuff. Not too long ago, I watched as some bonehead touch off a .454Casull round in a Taurus Judge and then stared in amazement as his cylinder split in half, departed his lane and proceeded to rip through the plexiglass partitions of the four stations to his right. All of these issues were operator headspace malfunctions yet, I also watched as some local range commando opined the cause MUST have been the ammo.

I am not saying Blazer hasn't blown up someone's gun. The reality is, every brand of ammunition has probably been a contributing factor, if not the primary factor, in the demise of a gun. It's a little known fact that one of the ongoing costs for ammunition manufactures is buying guns. Not for testing and not for fun but, to settle complaints and/or lawsuits resulting from guns going "BOOM!" when they should have gone "BANG!" I would hazard a guess that very few of those incidents can be attributed to the ammunition alone given an objective review of the evidence. But the lay person and the average Joe who shoots less than 1000 rounds a year only knows that they put Brand X ammunition in a gun that seemingly worked just fine and now the gun is in pieces. So, they reasonably theorize the problem must have been the ammo. These theories are often validated by range staff who may or may not have any more experience or knowledge than their customers. That's all I'm going to say on it because otherwise I'll start ranting about range staff telling customers their barrels are bent when the slide is locked back on a pistol.