Out of Spec Duty Round
Posted: Fri May 27, 2022 6:19 pm
In the middle of a range qualification, I dropped the slide on a new magazine and it failed to go into battery by about 3/8". I hit the back of the slide to drive it home, but no joy - it didn't budge. I gave it a really good rap and it still didn't budge. The only option left was to eject the round, and it took a lot of force to open the slide.
I recovered the round from the ground and tried dropping it into the open chamber - it only went part way in. It was obviously out of spec - by a lot! Ammo was Winchester Ranger 9MM hollowpoint, which is usually primo stuff. Although I've seen this before with cheap ammo, this is the first time I encountered it with top of the line ammo.
My new personal policy is to run every round that will go into a duty or self defense gun for carry through a test block to make certain that it will feed. The unit I picked up to do this with is the Lyman Handgun Ammo Checker that is bored to check 8 different calibers in a single block.
I hope this experience may save someone else from having it happen at a much less convenient time.
I recovered the round from the ground and tried dropping it into the open chamber - it only went part way in. It was obviously out of spec - by a lot! Ammo was Winchester Ranger 9MM hollowpoint, which is usually primo stuff. Although I've seen this before with cheap ammo, this is the first time I encountered it with top of the line ammo.
My new personal policy is to run every round that will go into a duty or self defense gun for carry through a test block to make certain that it will feed. The unit I picked up to do this with is the Lyman Handgun Ammo Checker that is bored to check 8 different calibers in a single block.
I hope this experience may save someone else from having it happen at a much less convenient time.