What kind of misfeed/failure is this?

[MacTech]

I've been *VERY* dissapointed with my Taurus PT-99AF today, I went to the range, and using Federal AmEagle Red Box, I had 3 stovepipe jams, one FTF, and one of *these*;

these jams were in a box of 50...

When the gun jammed on this round, the slide was stuck back about 3/4" and required *SERIOUS* force to rack the slide and clear the jam

As soon as I saw the rolled lip on this round, I field stripped the gun and removed the barrel, to make sure there wasn't a squib round in the barrel, there wasn't, so I reassembled and continued shooting...

up until today, the PT-99 has been 100% rock solid and reliable, I've put at least 1000 rounds through it, and today was the only time I had failures, but the failures were consistent and troubling here....

my Glock 21, OTOH, has been dead reliable, 100% functionality, no misfeeds, FTF or FTE

Any idea what caused this ammo failure, is this more of a flaw with the ammo or the gun? I hold the gun in the standard two-hand-crush grip, and I'm not limp-wristing it, I have not changed my shooting stance or grip, the gun was just tempermental today

 

[critter]

I would suspect that the round was faulty from the get-go and not caused by your firearm. I don't think the recoil spring has enough horsepower to fold the case down like that.

I can certaily see why it caused indigestion in your gun, however.

 

[GZOh]

Try some 'Winchester Whites' from WMT $19+/100... if these get caught on the slide, it's probably the gun!

 

[Daniel1120]

Those federal rounds are known for having soft brass. This along with the jam is probably what caused the cases to deform like this.

 

[roadrash 1]

I have had the exact same issue with WWB once,in my otherwise perfect G26.I think it is just poor ammo QC,and probably a case neck that was deformed during the bullet seating operation.

With every new box of ammo,I now take the barrel out of my pistol, and drop every round into the chamber before going to the range,or loading it up for self defense.

 

[jaydubya]

I had something like that happen to me twice with my Browning High Power, except the cartridge came apart after jamming the bullet up against the lands. Like you, I immediately field stripped the pistol and found the bullet in the chamber, a new sort of kaboom in the making. Each bullet had a gouge in the same place along the crimp line. I showed them to the gunshop/range owner and he said it looked like the loading machine's rammer was out of alignment, and suggested I put distance between that ammo and myself. I did.

The ammo was OutdoorMarksman's 9mm "factory reload". I had fired off two thousand of these prior to the problem lot, with no problems. But I have switched away from that stuff now.

Cordially, Jack

 

[fastbolt]

The round in the attached thumbnails was NIB in a box of factory ammunition. While this one was fairly easy to see when it was removed from the box tray, before it was loaded into a magazine, sometimes a rolled/damaged case mouth isn't noticed by some folks when the ammunition is removed from the box tray and loaded into a magazine. It pays to inspect ammunition being loaded into magazines.

FWIW, I gave up using remanufactured/"factory reloads" a number of years ago. Encountering problems of my own were one reason ... and seeing the number of problems encountered by other folks during qualification ranges (including CCW classes) was another reason. Budget/bargain new factory ammunition can still exhibit occasional problems, granted, but at least it's manufactured using new components.

 

[Babalouie]

Yep, I agree with the above, that was crapped up before your weapon tried to chamber it.

 

[MacTech]

I'm glad to hear that it's not the PT-99 that's at fault, as it has been reliable up 'till today, given the number of misfeeds I encountered (3 stovepipes and the curled lip failure, 4 failures out of 50 rounds fired) I was wondering if the gun was starting to have problems, it seems more likely that it was a bad batch of ammo, what better reason to go back to the range tomorrow to test a different batch of ammo....

Truth be told, though, I am starting to get annoyed with my PT-99, It's less accurate than I'd like it to be, at 25 yards or so, it groups at about 3-4", whether in a standing two hand crush grip or supported in a stand

My Glock 21, OTOH is much more accurate at 25 yards, has a less snappy recoil (I can get back on target in half the time it takes me with the PT-99), and is generally more fun to shoot, if .45 wasn't so sodding expensive, I'd just sell/trade off the PT-99 and switch over to .45

I do want to keep shooting 9mm though, as it's cheaper, but the "honeymoon" with the PT-99 is waning, I'd be lying if i said I wasn't tempted to trade out of it and get a different gun (CZ-75B, Glock 17/19, Witness, Charles Daly HP, etc....)

Now, to dissect the failed round and pull the bullet, and kill the primer/gunpowder with WD-40.....

 

[Babalouie]

Yep, bad batch of ammo. 3" to 4" at 25 yards is not terrible...not match grade but not horrible.