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by Charles L. Cotton
Fri Dec 02, 2016 3:49 pm
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: Strange factory ammo failure - it could have been bad.
Replies: 17
Views: 3432

Re: Strange factory ammo failure - it could have been bad.

Here's an update, but no answers.

I examined the bullet with a lighted magnifying glass and there are no rifling marks. I expected this because the slide racked easily. I used a dial caliper to check the crimp on the empty case as well as some of the remaining rounds in the box. I also checked the crimp on factory Federal 90 gr FMJ. I then checked one of my reloading manuals which shows a crimp of .372. The Corbon rounds were .370-372 and the Federals were .373.

There are no obvious answers as everything seems to check out.

Chas.
by Charles L. Cotton
Thu Dec 01, 2016 9:33 pm
Forum: General Gun, Shooting & Equipment Discussion
Topic: Strange factory ammo failure - it could have been bad.
Replies: 17
Views: 3432

Strange factory ammo failure - it could have been bad.

I've been shooting for 63 of my 67 years and I've seen many different types of malfunctions. Today I saw something new and it was scary. It could have been a life or death situation for Martha.

Martha carries one of three handguns: 1) Kimber Ultra Carry .45ACP, 2) CZ75 P-01; or 3) SIG P238. She was about to leave the house today to go shopping and she wanted to try a different holster with her P238. I unloaded the gun for her and when I racked the slide, it extracted an unfired empty case. Gun powder poured out and with a few taps, the HP bullet came out as well. This was factory Corbon jacked HP rounds.

I've never seen this happen and I have no idea why or how it did this time. The ammo was fresh out of the box and had not be subjected to being chambered and extracted numerous times. Due to teaching and other activities, I do that quite a bit with my EDC, countless time actually, but I've never had the cartridge come apart. (The force of chambering a round dozens of times won't equal one strike from a kinetic bullet-puller.) If anything, the bullet gets pushed back into the case.

I'm going to measure the case and other rounds in the box to see if there is a lack of crimp or sufficient crimp. I'll post my findings. That's my only theory. I tried pushing the bullets in the remaining cartridges and was not able to move them at all.

Martha had been carrying a non-functioning gun. Thank God (literally) that she didn't need to use it in self-defense.

Chas.

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