Are rounds with "pushed in bullets" safe?

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12Pump

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This isn't specifically a question about reloads, but it is about ammo.

I have some factory loaded 9mm hollowpoints and I noticed that a few of them appear to have shorter bullets than the others. In one case, the bullet is sticking out of the mouth of the case about a third as much as the others. I'm assuming that the bullet was pushed further into the case than the others when it was loaded. Does this cause a dangerous situation, such as higher pressure when firing?
 
ReloaderFred said:
Reducing the volume of the case increases pressure. Don't fire those rounds, but rather pull the bullets.

This can be caused by rechambering the same round over and over, or poor neck tension to start with. In either case, don't fire the rounds.

Hope this helps.

Fred
Click to expand...

It does. Thanks! I'm not even a reloader and have no experience in that area. I'm surprised to find this condition with factory loaded rounds. The most severe case that I mentioned was actually the second round in a magazine that I was unloading of a pistol I have in the house for defense. I just wanted to change to a different magazine. Good thing I didn't need to use it, or I could have had a blow-up at the worst possible moment!
 
Some factory ammo is more resistant to bullet setback than others. For example when my carry ammo was Golden Saber, I had very little noticeable setback on those rounds. On some the only way I was sure was by using a caliper. A little bit of setback is safe to fire. But something very noticeable isn't really worth the risk to your eyes, hands, and firearm.
 
Absolutely not safe. If you see noticeable bullet setback then don't risk it.
 
As above, don't shoot them.

IMG_20160107_162727_zps6xjk9dkf.jpg
 
Since it is factory contact the manufacturer. They will want to check the ammo and be sure there is no recall event developing. They usually send you more ammo than you send them for your trouble.
 
Is all the ammo the same mfg and bullet weight? Personally, I've not seen factory ammo with this problem, unless of course it's been run over by a car. Reloads are a different story. Poor reloading practices of mis-matched components can easily cause loose bullets. As the consensus above, don't shoot them...

Forgot to ask; how much shorter?
 
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mdi said:
Is all the ammo the same mfg and bullet weight? Personally, I've not seen factory ammo with this problem, unless of course it's been run over by a car. Reloads are a different story. Poor reloading practices of mis-matched components can easily cause loose bullets. As the consensus above, don't shoot them...

Forgot to ask; how much shorter?
Click to expand...

I'll try taking a picture of what I have and post it later.
 
12Pump said:
I'm surprised to find this condition with factory loaded rounds.
Click to expand...

It is a common misconception that reloads are somehow less safe, or otherwise lower quality, than factory rounds. While I am sure that there are a few incompetent reloaders out there, most of us would argue that our ammo is far better than factory.
 
I have seen this with a factory hollowpoint. 3 out of a box of 25 had the bullets set back much farther than normal. The 3 were adjacent to each other so I figured maybe something too heavy was stacked on the box or something got dropped on the box.
 
Bullets getting pushed in deeper when being shoved into a chamber isn't all that unusual. Usually the round gets shot and the shooter is blissfully uninformed about the condition unless they eject the cartridge and notice the change in OAL. If factory rounds would KB a 9mm handgun due to setback there would be reports all over the web about 9mm hand guns blowing up every day with factory ammo.

The warning in Speer manuals regarding using shorter than listed OAL in 9mm is particularly unclear about the load being used to generate the over pressure they indicate can occur. There is no study referenced nor any reason to believe that excess pressure will always result from shortened OAL. IMO the condition is most likely related to very fast powders and less to do with slower powders.

On the practical side I have shot setback factory ammo over 40 years and have never seen indications of excessive pressure on primers or expansion of the case. I would not shoot any ammo set back so deep it would not chamber normally from the magazine. Those rounds I'd pull the bullet and seat it to normal depth before firing it.
 
Picked up a 250 rd pack of UMC 45s from Walmart before I started reloading a few years ago. The last box in the pack looked like it had been dropped on it in shipping. Several cartridges were set back significantly. I emailed Remington and they sent a UPS label to send the whole box in. Shortly after, they mailed me a check in compensation for the bad ammo and thanked me.
 
drband said:
Picked up a 250 rd pack of UMC 45s from Walmart before I started reloading a few years ago. The last box in the pack looked like it had been dropped on it in shipping. Several cartridges were set back significantly. I emailed Remington and they sent a UPS label to send the whole box in. Shortly after, they mailed me a check in compensation for the bad ammo and thanked me.
Click to expand...

Well, it turns out that the ammo I have is actually Remington UMC hollowpoints. I bought them quite some time ago. Here's a picture I took last night. The round in question makes me sing the song, "One of these things is not like the other ones". Actually, there are a couple of them here.

 
The shortest one in the middle appears to lack a cannelure, so I'm wondering if it's from the same lot and has the same weight bullet? If those came from the factory like that, they need to be either pulled down, or returned to Remington, but since you state you've had them for awhile, I'd just pull them down and reuse the components.

Hope this helps.

Fred
 
The only time you should rechamber the same round cartridge more than a few times is with tip up barrel designs like some of the Berettas. You shoot a round with bullet significant setback you're playing with fire. Save your few times chambered rounds for the range, and check them against one or two in the mag first before you do that.
 
Based on the picture you shared, the only round I would definitely not fire is that 5th one. I would either pull it or scrap it. The rest would go to my bench with some calipers for detailed measurements.
 
Those look like they are all over the place.

What is the OAL on them? From the photo it doesn't look like there's more than 3 that are the same.

The 3rd one from the left has something on the rim that doesn't look "factory", #4 looks to have a little scrape too and the 5th one from the left looks like it's been fired and reloaded as I can see a slight ring about 1/16" above the extractor groove.

By "factory" do you mean commercial reloads?

How about a photo of the head stamps/ base of the cases.
 
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