Pistol and Ammo Compatibility

[Napier]

Call me stupid. For decades I owned only one handgun. First a 32 H&R revolver. Next a Beretta 92F. Then an S&W 5906. Then I got involuntarily retireded, and I needed a hobby. Now I have so many handguns I can't remember them all if you challenged me. In last year's ammo drought, I bought whatever I could find to feed my babies. And discovered an ugly fact, to paraphrase Abe Lincoln: "You can feed some of the ammo some of the time, and you can feed all of the ammo some of the time, but you can't feed all of the ammo all of the time." I want to buy ONE .380 ACP practice round for all of my pistolas, and ONE .380 ACP defense round for all of my pistolas. And ditto for 9mm. Attached are my findings so far. Not a pretty sight. For the pistols or for the ammo. Makes me want to go back to wheel guns. But I AM having a lot of fun shooting off my ammo inventory!

[Beiruty]

Glock can't eat cheap Winchester White box 9mm? My HK eats anything I tried to shoot, steel, brass, JHP and FMJ.

[Napier]

Glock can't eat cheap Winchester White box 9mm? My HK eats anything I tried to shoot, steel, brass, JHP and FMJ.

Do you slather it with catsup to make it taste good to your HK?

[Beiruty]

Glock can't eat cheap Winchester White box 9mm? My HK eats anything I tried to shoot, steel, brass, JHP and FMJ.

Do you slather it with catsup to make it taste good to your HK?

My guy prefers Rem Oil.

[MoJo]

My guns prefer Tabasco makes the rounds hotter.

Seriously not all guns will like all ammo the same. I find for range/match shooting a 9mm round nose bullet works very well. The .380 is usually the problem child I had a P3AT that wouldn't shoot any round nose bullet reliably it would work like clockwork with any hollow point I tried and with WWB range ammo because the WWB has a flat point similar to hollow point. Who knows? Every gun is a law unto itself.

[Texas Size 11]

Glock can't eat cheap Winchester White box 9mm? My HK eats anything I tried to shoot, steel, brass, JHP and FMJ.

My G22 ate up the white box Winchester before I started reloading...no problems whatsoever.

[maverick2076]

My 4th Gen G19 has no problems with the WWB.

[The Annoyed Man]

Meh... This is one of the reasons that I am not enamored of the .380 caliber, nor that much enamored of either of the pistols I own chambered in it. I have found that it isn't just a matter of matching the right ammo manufacturer to the right gun. NO. Instead, it is a matter of matching the right batch of the ammo from a given manufacturer to the right gun. But when you run out of that batch, all the bets are off.

[G.A. Heath]

All guns can get picky about ammo, the 1911 is one of the most notorious for that. Typically guns not liking a particular type of ammo can be traced back to the weight and shape of a particular bullet. The OAL can cause issues in some guns, and sometimes you come across weak loads that make a gun not like a particular brand/type of ammo. Often bad magazines can make it appear that a gun doesn't like a particular type of ammo.

Some known issues with some handguns:
1911: Many 1911s are picky about what ammo they will work with when shooting something other than 230Gr. Ball (FMJ) loads. This can often be cured with a magazine change, failing at that have a gun smith work on the feed ramp should fix it.
4th gen Glock 19: Guns with a 03 spring may not properly function with 115Gr ammo. Installing a 04 spring will cure this issue.
4th gen Glock 17: Guns with a 01 spring may not properly function with 115Gr ammo. Installing a 02 spring will cure this issue.

[TheGasMan]

Have I just been lucky? I can't count the number of rounds I've fired in my life. While it certainly not the number of some people on here, I've had many firearms in my life as well. I've only owned four firearms that had at least semi-frequent FTF/FTE. Two of them were Kimbers which were quickly dismissed from the collection due to these issues. Settle down, not trying to start a fight about brands. I'm not trying to bash Kimber, they were extremely nice looking and the quality of the machining was very nice. But at the end of the day I want a gun that I know goes bang regardless of what is stamped on the brass. The other two were .22s. They kind of get a pass because they fired thousands and thousands of rounds between cleanings with the cheapest thing I can find at Wal-Mart. Every other pistol I've owned has never been picky. I do clean every trip to the range so maybe that is part of it, but it still seems like a lot of guys have problems that I haven't seen with ammo alone. Just seems strange. I can't imagine having to pull out a sheet at the ammo counter to remember what will work.

[geoelectro]

My 3rd Gen Glock 19 has always fired flawlessly. I use WWB at the range and Cor-Bon JHP +P for carrying which also shoot perfectly at the range. I used to have a Taurus 1911SS and it would occasionally have a FTF/FTE problem. That worried me so I sold it.

I am looking for another 9mm and wanting something that looks different from the Glock. I have been very interested in a Taurus PT 917 c. Anyone have any experience with that one?

Geoelectro

[hirundo82]

Glock can't eat cheap Winchester White box 9mm?

Glock tried to fix a known reliability issue issue with the .40S&W guns (FTF with attached tac light) when they came out with the Gen4 guns. By all reports, they fixed that problem but screwed up reliability of the 9mm guns at the same time.

[Scott in Houston]

My 3rd Gen Glock 19 has always fired flawlessly. I use WWB at the range and Cor-Bon JHP +P for carrying which also shoot perfectly at the range. I used to have a Taurus 1911SS and it would occasionally have a FTF/FTE problem. That worried me so I sold it.

I am looking for another 9mm and wanting something that looks different from the Glock. I have been very interested in a Taurus PT 917 c. Anyone have any experience with that one?

Geoelectro

Ditto. All 4 of my Glocks eat EVERY brand and type of ammo. I've run 10K rounds through the 19 and not one issue. Not one.
My G32 only has 3K through it, but no issues. And my G26 and 27 are also flawless. I'm amazed.

My Taurus TCP on the other hand is finicky.
I'll never buy another Taurus. There's just too good a chance you'll get a bad one. Many ate just fine but % of poor ones are so much higher with Taurus.

If you want another, non-Glock, gun, get a Sig or S&W M&P.
Both are like Glock in reliability.

[zero4o3]

I dont think I have ever fired WWB out of a gun that had any issues with it. that being said my P239 in .40 really hates PMC brand ammo, go figure

[geoelectro]

Well I found and bought a Taurus PT917c so I'll get a range report here as soon as I can. Sure is a nice feeling/looking handgun!

Geoelectro