P3AT puzzle

[ID_shooting]

I have had my gen 1 P3AT for some time now. Overall it has been a very good CCW. Nice and light, small profile, extreemy handy. What it has not been is 100% reliable.

I have fed it everything from corbons, speer GD, winclean, rem FMJ, UMC FMJ, you name it. They all have had the same issue, the occasional FTE. Common issue that has been covered many times and infact addressed by gen 2 guns.

I have not done anything major to the gun except hand polish the chamber and ramp. I have been waiting for "break in" to be done before sending it back to Kel-Tec.

There is the history, now comes yesterday.

Heading out shooting, I decided to buy some .380 ammo and shoot the Kel-Tec some. I drop into the local shop and the only .380 ammo they have is a box of CCI blazer with GD bullets, ok, I think, crap ammo but WTH, just plinking anyway.

I get to the range and I will be darned, it ate the whole box, 100% without stopping. I go back and buy another box, it ate that one too.

Not one stoppage, I can't believe it. I put the corbons I had been packing back in and it FTEs on the 3rd round, load it with more blazers, and it spits out the entire mag full with a nice 2 inch group at 15 yards. WHAT GIVES?

Is it the aluminum vs. brass cases? 88 vs. 95 gr bullets? small vs. large primer? slightly less recoil than the high-end ammo?

I think I just found my new carry ammo, whatya think?

 

[wally]

Use whatever ammo works 100% !

--wally.

 

[1 old 0311]

Guns are like women....some like this some that.Men will NEVER be able to figure either one out so don't even try....you will just go crazy

Kevin

 

[Onmilo]

Yep, yepper and yes.
If you found an ammunition you and your pistol like by all means keep on using it.
I was never terribly fond of Blazer ammunition but have shot some recently that performed fine.
I normally find that brass case Lawman is more consistantly accurate than the aluminum case Blazer and I can reload the Lawman cases, still, the last batches of Blazer I shot were pretty good.

 

[Robert J McElwain]

I saw a comment recently that said that, because of the extremely light weight of the P3AT, it's very difficult to NOT limp wrist it now and then and that this is a major factor in FTEs. OTOH, I shoot Winchester White Box through mine and, now that I've gone through 300-400 rounds, I rarely have a FTE.

I suspect there may also be a connection between the bullet weight, as you mentioned. This would tie in with the limp wristing or recoil factor.

Bob

 

[Dave R]

I think I just found my new carry ammo, whatya think?

Go for it. The Gold Dot is a fine bullet. It won't care its being projected from an aluminum case.

 

[Candiru]

I bet that if you compare the rim on the Blazer to the other ammo you've shot, you'll find it's a bit wider than other ammo that doesn't work as well. I have a similar situation with my P-32: It only feeds Sellier & Bellot reliably. Examination of ammo I tried showed that S&B has a very slightly wider rim than Federal AE, Speer Lawman, and Cor-Bon. I'm going to try modifying the extractor a bit so that it can get a better grip on the rim, going on information found at http://1bad69.com/keltec/extractor.htm.

 

[TxCajun]

I get to the range and I will be darned, it ate the whole box, 100% without stopping. I go back and buy another box, it ate that one too.

Who would have thunk it? IMHO, with these ultra-light semi-autos, ammo selectivity is the rule and not the exception. Gotta go with what works!