Had an interesting malfunction at the range the other day; thought I'd see if anyone else has noticed anything similar.
Quick background: I'm shooting a Bond Arms Bullpup. It has an unusual loading cycle that pulls the round backwards out of the magazine, raises it in line with the barrel, then pushes it forward into the chamber. Because of this, certain brands of ammunition (particularly cheap target ammo in which the bullet is not crimped into the case) can cause jams when the bullet separates from the case. Bond has an extensive list of tested and approved ammunition, and in the interest of expanding the list, I try to shoot at least one new brand of ammo at each range outing. The gun has never had a single stoppage with an approved round, and until this trip I haven't had any with untested rounds either. (Excluding the Polycase Inceptor rounds which are the subject of this report, I'm up to 1500+ rounds through the gun without a hiccup.)
If you read my original range report from last year when I got the gun, you might remember that one of the first non-approved rounds I tried was the Ruger ARX in 9mm+P, and that it worked flawlessly. I've fired over 120 rounds of it without a hitch.
When I went to buy ammo for this range trip, I saw that the store had a box of Polycase Inceptor rounds, so I decided to try them as my untested ammo for this trip. I knew that Polycase makes the ARX metal/polymer hybrid bullets for the Ruger ammo, and I assumed that the Inceptor rounds (which also use an ARX bullet) would be pretty much the same, other than being standard pressure instead of +P.
That turns out not to be the case. Right off the bat, as I unpacked the rounds, I could see that where the Ruger bullets had a rounded, more "blunt" tip, the Polycase rounds were a more tapered "conical" shape, with significantly smaller "flutes".
On the third round with the new ammunition, the slide failed to return to battery. When I cleared the jam, I found that the bullet had broken off at the point where it meets the case:
As you can see, this happened three times out of the box of twenty rounds. Obviously I won't be using this particular ammunition in this gun going forward; it's very surprising, though, considering the success with the more powerful Ruger variant.
I've heard a lot of good things about the Polycase rounds from people using them in more traditional pistols, so don't take this as a general criticism of the round; more like, if you're using a round with polymer/metal sintered bullets like these in a gun with an unusual loading cycle, or one that's known to be rough on ammo, make sure you test it thoroughly before relying on it.
At a guess, I suspect the device that lifts the round into position is hitting the round against something with enough force to crack the bullet. I'm not sure why it didn't happen with the heavier, more powerful Ruger bullets; while the tip is thicker, it's the same diameter at the point where the Polycase rounds cracked. Maybe they're a different mix of materials in addition to the different shape?
Quick background: I'm shooting a Bond Arms Bullpup. It has an unusual loading cycle that pulls the round backwards out of the magazine, raises it in line with the barrel, then pushes it forward into the chamber. Because of this, certain brands of ammunition (particularly cheap target ammo in which the bullet is not crimped into the case) can cause jams when the bullet separates from the case. Bond has an extensive list of tested and approved ammunition, and in the interest of expanding the list, I try to shoot at least one new brand of ammo at each range outing. The gun has never had a single stoppage with an approved round, and until this trip I haven't had any with untested rounds either. (Excluding the Polycase Inceptor rounds which are the subject of this report, I'm up to 1500+ rounds through the gun without a hiccup.)
If you read my original range report from last year when I got the gun, you might remember that one of the first non-approved rounds I tried was the Ruger ARX in 9mm+P, and that it worked flawlessly. I've fired over 120 rounds of it without a hitch.
When I went to buy ammo for this range trip, I saw that the store had a box of Polycase Inceptor rounds, so I decided to try them as my untested ammo for this trip. I knew that Polycase makes the ARX metal/polymer hybrid bullets for the Ruger ammo, and I assumed that the Inceptor rounds (which also use an ARX bullet) would be pretty much the same, other than being standard pressure instead of +P.
That turns out not to be the case. Right off the bat, as I unpacked the rounds, I could see that where the Ruger bullets had a rounded, more "blunt" tip, the Polycase rounds were a more tapered "conical" shape, with significantly smaller "flutes".
On the third round with the new ammunition, the slide failed to return to battery. When I cleared the jam, I found that the bullet had broken off at the point where it meets the case:
As you can see, this happened three times out of the box of twenty rounds. Obviously I won't be using this particular ammunition in this gun going forward; it's very surprising, though, considering the success with the more powerful Ruger variant.
I've heard a lot of good things about the Polycase rounds from people using them in more traditional pistols, so don't take this as a general criticism of the round; more like, if you're using a round with polymer/metal sintered bullets like these in a gun with an unusual loading cycle, or one that's known to be rough on ammo, make sure you test it thoroughly before relying on it.
At a guess, I suspect the device that lifts the round into position is hitting the round against something with enough force to crack the bullet. I'm not sure why it didn't happen with the heavier, more powerful Ruger bullets; while the tip is thicker, it's the same diameter at the point where the Polycase rounds cracked. Maybe they're a different mix of materials in addition to the different shape?
