Factory Ammo

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packetloss

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This was fresh out of the box factory Remington 115 grain 9mm ammo that a guy at the range was shooting next to me. There were at least 10 of these beauties out of the 100 rounds he shot.

I know everyone likes to say, don't shoot someone else's reloads, but this is what you get with factory ammo. Either way you are playing roulette.

A couple of weeks ago, a guy next to me was shooting S&B factory ammo and had about 3 squibs in it.
 
edwardware said:
As a reloader, I've handled tens of thousands of formerly-factory cases. That's not "what you get with factory ammo".

It seems unlikely it's a bad case-forming setup, given how consistent it is. My bet's on a craptastically bad chamber.
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He was shooting a fairly new Walther PPQ (I think he said he got it about 6 months ago). I didn't examine his chamber or his gun for that matter, but would be a little surprised if it was his gun. I don't have a PPQ but it's supposed to be really good.
 
I recently had a big name factory ammo with 3 squibs out of a 1,000 round lot. It happens.
 
packetloss said:
He was shooting a fairly new Walther PPQ (I think he said he got it about 6 months ago). I didn't examine his chamber or his gun for that matter, but would be a little surprised if it was his gun. I don't have a PPQ but it's supposed to be really good.
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PPQs are really good. But, so were the S&W M&P, Sig P226, Springfield 1911 and IWI 45 that I had to send in for warranty work for various malfunctions. I'm in the "bad chamber" boat with others. But, if the shooter really thinks it's an ammo problem, he should be having a lively conversation with Remington and possibly an inspection (not repair) of his pistol by a competent gunsmith in case he needs to talk to Walther about warranty work. It's too bad that he didn't eject a couple of chambered but not fired rounds to see if there was any evidence of case damage from chambering that might have weakened the brass in a consistent pattern.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I don't know him well, but if I run into him again at the range I will offer up those suggestions. Sounds likely that it is a chamber issue.
 
edwardware said:
Don't get me wrong, it certainly could be an out of spec case forming operation. . . but it's suspiciously consistent.
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I agree. Each split has a very similar shape and placement. None of my handguns have ever produced spent cases that bad (from $79 dollar "Saturday Night Specials" to well known quality handguns). I think I would stopped shooting the ammo after the first split...
 
packetloss said:
factory Remington 115 grain 9mm ammo that a guy at the range was shooting next to me ... He was shooting a fairly new Walther PPQ (I think he said he got it about 6 months ago) ... There were at least 10 of these beauties out of the 100 rounds he shot.

... but this is what you get with factory ammo.
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Unless you have more details to offer to us, you are speculating and ASSUMING that it's bad factory ammunition.

And you know what they say about making assumptions ... ;)

Like other members already posted, unless I have more information, I would withhold my judgement on whether the case wall failures with very consistent rupture marks were due to ammunition vs firearm.

Sure, it could be ammunition but do we have enough facts/details to make that definitive conclusion?
 
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I suspect firearm chamber problem. I really doubt it was the ammo. I have seen similar examples in the past and every time it was the firearm. This is speculation of course but I would look closely at firearm before simply blaming the ammo.
 
How would you go about checking the chamber to determine if that were the cause?
 
23tony said:
How would you go about checking the chamber to determine if that were the cause?
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Shoot different brand ammunition.

If the same case wall rupture problem is replicated with distinct case failure pattern shown in the OP's picture, then we can suspect the barrel/pistol.

If other brand ammunition do not replicate case wall rupture issue, we can suspect ammunition.

Until then, we can only guess the cause of case wall failure.
 
Considering all the remington 9mm ammo I have bought was loaded incredibly light and the way that brass looks bulged with the primers still that rounded and all the separations looking the exact same, I am going with an damaged/oversized chamber before overpressured ammo.
 
I'm skeptic.......well used (thin) brass with a hot load......oversized brass....and a fella that may not be willing to admit to any of it. ;)

With my Thumblers and pins I can make it look new over and over and over.....til it breaks. Look at the beat up rim on the one on the right.....been around.

IMO, the fact that all three have the same shaped crack just means it was shot and destroyed in the same chamber and was from the same lot of well used brass.
 
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Bad brass. Split demonstrates a metallurgical flaw.
Appears a contaminant in the alloy, or poorly annealed.

I was given some Norinco 9mm ammo back in early 90’s that almost an entire box did something like that.
 
Not only are the splits too consistent, but there is the same ring near the mouth of every case. It almost looks like a straight wall case fire formed in a bottle neck chamber. Hard to say for sure with the photo, but something other than bad ammo sure seems possible.
 
The pictures seem to greatly exaggerate some of those features. I took a closer look at them and those rings are not that pronounced. Likewise, there is no bulge on the cases. I compared them to cases I have that came out of several other guns and other than the crack they are pretty similar.

Still, I do agree that the cracks themselves seem to be very consistent. Then again, that could also be due to a flaw with however they produced this batch of brass.

If it were my gun, I would definitely try another brand of ammo and see if the problem persists. If I run into him again, I will see what he is shooting and suggest that. Most folks near me don't reload so they never pick up and examine their cases and would never notice these things.
 
Trying other factory is one approach also a chamber cast may indicate some out of spec machining or flaws...

I can't offer any WAGs on this as I've fired the cheapest imported ammo I could find in my old, questionable handguns. A Rossi 38 Special revolver that came into my possession in about '68 and a Davis pocket auto in 380 that I paid a whopping $79.00 for...
 
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