Perfecta ammunition issues

[malakili]

Hopefully this is the correct forum for this post, as Perfecta seems to make auto-only ammo from what I've seen.

I have fired 149 rounds of Perfecta 115gr 9mm out of my new Beretta 92G. For comparison, in this pistol I have also fired 100 rounds of Tula steel case, 15 rounds of Rem 115gr JHP, and 570 of mixed Federal FMJ and Winchester white box FMJ.

So far the only load to give me issues has been the Perfecta. At first it seemed to fire okay, except I noticed that I would randomly get either huge muzzle flash or no noticeable flash. This seemed odd.

Tonight I was shooting Perfecta and when I fired a shot I got a particularly huge muzzle flash and felt "stuff" hitting and stinging my face. The next round in the magazine (Beretta 15rd factory) failed to feed, hanging up on the feed ramp at a nose-up 45deg angle.

I looked among the brass on the floor around me but couldn't find any that looked out of the ordinary. I was expecting to see something mangled for some reason. I also looked at my barrel, wanting to make sure I didn't get some kind of damage there. Nothing apparent.

I didn't want to shoot the rest of the box after this "hiccup", but as it was the only ammo I brought and I was shooting in a league match I gritted my teeth and did it. No further issues luckily.

Bringing up another pistol, Perfecta has been the only round to give me a problem in my Springfield "Loaded" 1911. I shot 50rds of their 230gr FMJ and had a stovepipe type FTE. This pistol has ran perfect on over 400 other loads, including Federal aluminum case and small amounts of factory JHP and reloaded lead semi-wadcutters.

Based on my above experiences, I'm not spending any more money on this ammo. It's only marginally cheaper than similar Winchester or Federal loads and seems in my amateur opinion to be loaded to wildly inconsistent pressures.

 

[moxie]

Well, it certainly sounds like that's not for you.

Most reviews of Perfecta seem positive. It's made by Fiocchi which is good. Distributed by Tulammo.

Part of owning a gun is testing it with different ammo and finding what works...and what doesn't.

 

[jonnyc]

I personally would want to run more ammo through the gun, both general and specific loads, before making any final decision.

 

[9 fingers]

Interesting that you had what seems like such incosistent rounds. I tried a couple of boxes back with it was hard to find 9mm and despite not expecting much out of it, it was very accurate, perhaps the best of the 4 or 5 brands I was shooting that day. I was not using a rest so results are totally unscientific. But shooting a CZ75b and a Zastava M88a it worked perfectly for me. But, as noted, if you had mixed or bad results, the minor savings are not worth it.
9 fingers

 

[gator-1]

I've shot 100 rounds of perfecta 95 gr fmj in my Walther pk 380 and 150 rounds of 9mm 115 gr fmj through my CZ PCR and no trouble with either one and they gave good groups, at least for me. Maybe it was a bad box but it is something to keep an eye on.

 

[Zerodefect]

I think the Perfecta box I last looked at said "Tula" on the side? Felt a bit weak.

"There's your problem right there."

 

[mongoslow]

my .40 shield would not feed a mag of it for nothing tried 3 mags of it and had at least 3 fail to feed each time,it has ate everything else I have fed to it flawlessly, shot the rest through my G23 and it was all over the target and would not group at all,I have not wasted any more $$$$ on the stuff

 

[pdxrealtor]

I found this post scouring the web. Thought I'd post my issue.

I was shooting .357 magnum Perfecta the other night when I got a blast to the face with what I can only assume was jacket fragments. Enough that I had blood slowly dripping down my cheek albeit very slowly (nothing major). If it would have been the eye I'd have been hurting.

The jacket material was building up between the cylinder and the barrel. I didn't realize it until the cylinder started locking up. Once I got it open I saw shavings (like fine slices of cheese or garlic) of jacket material crammed between the barrel and top strap.

I was also shooting Freedom munitions, but have gone through over 500 rounds of that ammo in this gun. And, I was mostly shooting the perfecta as it had a bit more kick than the Freedom. I shot 37 rounds of the Perfecta total.

I did some cylinder safety checks on the gun, with the guidance of others, and also discussed this in length with S&W. S&W thought it was the ammo and told me to go back out and use the other ammo while keeping an eye on the gun.

Hope this helps.... I have a message into Fiochh which is what comes up when searching for 'Perfecta ammo contact'.

 

[stevebla]

I like it fine have used 223, 40SW, 9MM no trouble and my rifle shoots the 223 very well. I have used at least 150 rounds in all listed calibers.

 

[imashooter]

I have used Perfecta both in a few of my 1911 .45s and my wife's .380. No issues with either though it appeared they were a little hotter than other equivalent box ammo. My normal practice ammunition are the remans from Freedom Munitions or Zero from the local manufacturer nearby my home.

 

[wingman]

What I've used so far has been excellent although somewhat more dirty which may cause problems if not cleaned more often, I clean after each range session.

 

[MIL-DOT]

Both me and my best shooting buddy have used it in .223, 9mm and 45acp, (mostly 9mm) and found it to be good stuff. But, it does seem to be getting more than it's fair share of complaints lately, which concerns me.
The stuff is made in italy, and I've also been given the impression it was made by Fiocchi, but I was reading on another forum where a guy that had an issue contacted Fiocchi about it directly, and (he said) they said they had nothing to do with it, to contact Tulammo, the distributor (but again, I can't verify that).
I've also read some folks say this was the same as that stuff from Tulammo that came in those round,white plastic containers at Wal-mart, but I seem to recall looking at some a year+ ago, and seeing it was manufactured in one of the Baltic countries IIRC (but I know it wasn't Italy). But, it did have that same odd, bright yellow case and bullet that the perfectas have.
Also, the most consistently bad reports seem to be with the Perfecta in .40 (which I haven't used).
I still have a few boxes, and I'm not worried about them, but given all the reports of issues lately, I think I'll look at other options for cheap plinking ammo. (I always had great results with the Federal aluminum from Wal-mart, but I'm not seeing it on the shelves very often these days.)

 

[sigarms228]

I prefer USA made bass case ammo myself. At online places like SGAmmo I can get it for $200 - $220 a case for 115/124 9MM. I prefer Federal American Eagle, Speer Lawman, Brass Blazer, and PMC.

 

[JDR]

No problems with Perfecta ammo in .38 Special, 9mm, and .45 ACP

No problems at all with the Perfecta ammo, the Fed Champion aluminum case ammo is a little cheaper so I will usually buy it in 9mm and .45ACP, but the Perfecta .38 Special is cheaper than the other factory ammo in that caliber, so I buy it when I can get it.

 

[TJx]

The primers on the 357 were backing out and locking up my Security Six.
The 9mm is good in my experience but no more 357 for me.

 

[gregshake2]

I own 6 sigs at present and never had a ftf or fte until a box of perfecta in 40sw I obtain in a trade I had my first fte in my p239.Quite surprise having never had this happen in any of my sigs.

 

[I6turbo]

I've only fired 2 or 3 boxes of the 9-mm but those ran perfectly in multiple guns that I tried -- Hi Power, CZ 75 B and 85 Combat, and Beretta 92SB. It struck me as good ammo and pleasant to shoot, about mid-pack or lower in terms of recoil and muzzle blast compared to stuff like Blazer Brass, Speer Lawman, GECO, S&B, ZQ1, and old Winchester white box.

It's probably not fair to Perfecta, but even though my experience to date tells me the Perfect is perfectly good plinking ammo, at similar prices I'd probably go for Speer, Blazer Brass, Federal, or one of the other U.S. brands that I have known and trusted for years.

 

[joem1945]

I pick up my range brass to reload. Seems I will pick up a few perfecta brass alonf with mine. Some of them when I go to decap/ size don't fit the shell holder very well and I crush them and they go to the scrap bucket.

 

[Jim NE]

At first it seemed to fire okay, except I noticed that I would randomly get either huge muzzle flash or no noticeable flash. This seemed odd.

This EXACT same thing happened with me at a pistol gathering last summer. It was with Perfecta 9mm ammo. In my case, the very pronounced muzzle flash was accompanied by very little recoil. It didn't result in a jam, but that was because the spent cartridge was still in the chamber. I'm guessing there wasn't enough recoil or gas to even move the slide back far enough to engage the next round in the magazine, hence, no jam. Just a "click" when the firing pin struck the spent primer. It happened twice. It was in my Taurus PT 809, which has had no problems with any other ammo. I quickly changed over to another brand of ammo, and the problem disappeared.

And yes, before that time, I had also gone through several boxes of Perfect 9mm ammo with no such issue. At a later date, I shot the rest of the ammo from the box with the problem rounds, and no issues. When I say there was a muzzle flash, I mean there was a really BIG muzzle flash. I said, "Whoa! What was that??"

My theory is that some really slow burning rifle powder was somehow loaded into some pistol cartridges by mistake. That would explain the flash and low recoil (in such a short barrel.) So no more Perfecta ammo for me ever again in semi autos. Why not? Because even though I want practice ammo to be inexpensive, I also want it to be very reliable, because target practice is where I find out how reliable my self-defense firearms are, so the ammo can't be a factor in reliability.

 

[High Plains Drifter]

Good Brass

I have only some .45 ACP cases made by Perfecta and it is good brass. Just reloaded them tonight. I will post if I have a problem.

As far as bad factory loads are concerned, it can happen with any brand. Wer had a customer that completely split the barrel of his Remington 700 in .300 WIN Ultra Mag. We think the thing that saved him from facial damage was the Leupold scope. He did suffer some lacerations and bruising on his left hand.

When we pulled down two more rounds that he had left (made by Remington) and found half powder charge (we weighed 25 grains of powder in both pull down rounds), which will detonate instead of burn. Remington tried to say he had a barrel obstruction, but they did give him a new rifle (the barrel split from a bulge at the chamber end forward). Lesson is be careful, factory rounds don't necessarily guaranty that they are loaded correctly. If I can find them I'll post pictures later.

 

[hemiram]

I bought a bunch of Perfecta 115gr 9mm at Wal-Mart at $9.79 a box, and in all my 9mm guns, it's been perfect, except for one round that had a messed up case on it. I didn't catch it when I loaded the mag and it stopped everything until I could get it out of the gun. I still have 4 boxes of it.

 

[MIL-DOT]

I shot most of another box of .45 last weekend, it was a-ok.

 

[golden]

Failure to fire

I have been using .38 Special ammo from PERFECTA and has a couple of ignition failures. The rounds fired the second time around, so it may have just been hard primers.

Jim

 

[Mhamilton2586]

Perfecta ammo is junk

So I bought 4 boxes of Perfecta ammo for my M&P 40c went to the range to shoot and immediately had problems with the ammo the casing of the ammo is crap as the ammo eject from the magazine to load into the barrel it would jam because it wouldn't seat all the way in the barrel I thought my gun was dirty because I just ran the rest of the winchester white box I had left so I broke my gun down and cleaned thoroughtly assembled back together and to no avail the same thing happened again a few rounds would be fine and then it would jam because the bullet would press against casing causing it to bulge and not seat in the barrel I thought it could have been a problem with my gun I let the gunsmith on site check it out and he confirmed that it was the ammo when I got a box of Federal ammo it worked perfect. I'm not writing this post to bash Perfecta ammo because it may just be my luck that it happen to me but it wasn't because I gave a box to another guy on the range he was shooting a Glock 23 and had the same jamming problems. All in all I should have known better to not to purchase cheap ammo like this after all when you find a good deal for ammo at $13.54 a box at Walmart on clearance there is a reason why because no one is buying it for a reason so I learned my lesson I got what I paid for.

 

[ritepath]

With my Shield when I'd shoot perfecta and collect the brass for reloading I found one or two cases that would be bulged out of 16 rounds. My shield has never bulged any of my reloads or any other brand of factory ammo. Is it cheap brass or inconsistent powder or measure of powder???