questionable quality armscore 9mm ammo with pictures comming soon

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a few days ago I picked up some armscore 9mm. I'm not crazy about the way they package their ammo but hey it was cheap. Well when I open the box I get another suprise its reloaded 9mm and its not all the same stuff some WWB some S&B some CCI ect. I think ok its no big deal but then I take a closer look and I get suprised yet again :cuss: the brass has a buldge at the base and all of the rounds suffer from it:what: so my question is is this stuff safe to fire because if I get suprised one more time its going to be when my gun blows up and that will be too much excitement and I will die.

I will post a picture later today (I don't have a good enough one yet)
 
To the best of my knowledge Armscor doesn't sell reloads, but I'll admit to being out of the ammo loop. I haven't bough much since i started reloading. When I bought Armscor loads it was pretty good stuff, and the componants they've sold me were good. And seeing as how they sell brass with their own headstamp, I'd be suprised if they sold loaded ammo with someone elses. Interested in the pics.

Where did you get it from? It's happened to me in the past that I bought sombodies reloads that were stuffed into an old ammo box he had. Maybe this is what you have.

In any case I wouldn't fire them if the case is bulged. Take them back and get your money back.
 
JohnBT- that's the stuff except I bought it from ammunition to go
 
Without accepting any liability for the statement, I don't think firing them would be dangerous.

If they feed, the bulged cases might actually be more accurate. I believe that's sorta kinda typical of cases sized with tungsten carbide dies. I eliminated the bulge by running my own TC-sized .45 ACP cases into a .30-06 sizing die to squoosh them down back by the web of the case.

Didn't make any difference, shooting-wise, so I decided it was an esthetics problem, not a practical problem.

The problem with TC-ringed sizing dies is you can't set the die (meaning the sizing ring) too close to the solid web of the case, because that's too hard, and it will crack the ring. So there's always a little distance before the web of the case that the ring doesn't get to. It's easier to adjust the ring down if you're reloading all the same headstamps, but with a mixed batch of brass, you may want to set the die "up" a little to avoid hitting the webs of the varying cases.

[guilt for thread veer]

Kinda interesting, esthetically, because I read a long time ago that un-polished bullets shoot better than nice, shiny polished bullets tumbled in media. But I couldn't find any un-polished bullets to test the theory. All the mfrs seem to want to polish them before sale and make 'em all pretty and lovable and utterly adorable.

Benchresters? Viewpoints on polished versus unpolished bullets?

[/guilt for thread veer]
 
230rn

i add nothing to my tumbler media
my brass is clean to the touch, dull to the eye.
never a problem shooting.
case buldge: for me its a visual thing. the base of the case reflects different than the sized part.
 
Oh, Claude Clay, I was referring to the polishing of the bullets at the factory, not the polishing of the cases.

I should have been more clear -- unpolished bullets were supposedly more accurate.
 
I personally wouldnt fire them, though I dont think it's dangerous.They may not feed well (or at all), which would be annoying to me.

Also, I am all set up to reload 9mm amongst many others, so I would just pull them apart, re-size the case to get the bulge out, and rebuil with the powder and components I pulled from them,primers not included obviously, those I'd need to use my own on, but for only 50-100rds, no biggie if the ammo was cheap enough.If the ammo wasnt that much of a deal, it wouldnt be worth my time, effort, or primer cost, so I'd try for a refund/exchange.
YMMV.
 
finally got some pictures

you can judge for yourself
 

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Looks like a bit bulged on the lower side. If it feeds ok shoot it, but in some handguns this stuff might not work. If ya throw out 2-3 a box, it was cheap.
 
I live in Las Vegas, Nevada; Armscor's USA headquarters is located in Pahrump, Nevada about 65 miles away. The reason I say this is that we see alot of Armscor's products in the gun stores around here having shot a good bit of Armscor ammo in different calibers here is my observations on it:

1. "ya gits what ya pays for"
2. most of it is pretty dirty ammo
3. Almost all of it I have shot has not been very accurate compared to other budget brands
4. it seems inconsistent in power levels from lot to lot
5. it sucks!

I bought some Armscor 125 grain .357 Magnum Soft point loads which ended up being the last box of Armscor ammo I will buy. It was loaded so hot for modern day .357 loads I almost did not shoot the whole box for fear of damage to my revolver. It was loaded like an old school full house .357 Mag load of the fifties or sixties. That might be ok If we were all shooting The large Smith N or L Frame guns of yesteryear. However, nowdays with all the small frame .357 Magnum carry revolvers such as the Smith and Wesson Scandium or Taurus Titanium guns, along with other alloy frame snubbies, loads like this seem dangerous to sell to the general public.
Most of the other ammo companies have tamed down their .357 magnum loads in the last twenty or thirty years.
I will have to say that Armscor does seem to make some nice guns for the price, Their Rock Island Armory 1911 clones seem like good values but when it comes to their ammunition I will from now on look elsewhere, Thank You.
 
Man, I get WWB for about $18/100 at Wal-Mart here
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I'll bet you don't anymore. Sometime in the past several days they hiked the price. My local store went from 18.42 to 19.97. Store on a trip a few days ago did the same thing. If your store hasn't marked the new price, but 'em out.
 
I will have to say that Armscor does seem to make some nice guns for the price, Their Rock Island Armory 1911 clones seem like good values but when it comes to their ammunition I will from now on look elsewhere, Thank You.
Click to expand...

Are they the same company? I believe there are two different companies by that name.
 
Armscor is the manufacturer, Rock Island Armory is the brand name of their pistols imported and sold in the US. They manufacture Armscor brand, Rock Islands, High Standards, frames for STI, and until recently, Charles Daly's.
 
Google says:

There is an Armscor in South Africa, which appears to be a defense contractor. From their website, I can't tell what they actually manufacture, if anything.

Then there is Armscor in the Philipines, which makes the Rock Island Pistols, as well as ammunition. It would also appear to be the same company that is under discussion in this thread.

But if anyone else could shed some light...
 
bought some Armscor 125 grain .357 Magnum Soft point loads which ended up being the last box of Armscor ammo I will buy. It was loaded so hot for modern day .357 loads I almost did not shoot the whole box for fear of damage to my revolver. It was loaded like an old school full house .357 Mag load of the fifties or sixties.
Click to expand...
For the most part only the pressure generated by the firing of the load matters, as far as the load being safe to fire. Different load combinations can create vastly different levels of felt recoil but be well within the SAAMI pressure limits.

In fact, some higher velocity lower bullet weight rounds can be really unpleasant to shoot in a short barreled gun but be quite pleasant in the same gun with a barrel an inch or two longer.
 
Ilbob, the gun I was shooting that that stuff through was not a snubby but a Single Action Army clone with a seven and a half inch barrel. I have shot many brands and bullet weights of .357 mag ammo as well as my own reloads through it so I have a pretty good idea of what a hot load feels like.
The armscor website: www.armscor.com.ph/cfp_357magnum.htm lists that load at 1875 fps 984 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. Even though their test barrel is listed at 10", that is still a pretty darn hot load.
Modern day Remington and Wincherster's 125 grain loadings range around 1250 to 1500 fps with around 420 to 600 ft-lbs of muzzle energy. Any of the loadings in my Lee manual that exceed 1800 fps are all max. loads.
My point is the snubbys or light framed revolvers are typical of the types of guns the public is buying and will not stand up to this type of loading. Armscor should post a warning on the box or maybe tone them down a bit.
 
I would like to add that SAMMI works with American Ammo manufacturers and CIP is the European equivalent. They both develop standards and guidelines for pressure limits on ammo.
Since Armscor ammo is produced in the Philippines I have my doubts as if SAMMI guidelines are followed or not and wonder if the importer probably could care less.
I guess it's obvious that I have a pretty poor opinion of Armscor ammo.
 
From that pic. I'd probably fire it if it chambers. It does look bulged, but not too bad. It's cheap reloaded ammo. Stuff like this is why I ended up buying a press and doing it myself.

As an aside, I must hang out with old fogeys a lot, because I've heard lots of complaining that new .357 loads are "wimpy" and not like "back in the day" But this marks the first time I've ever heard someone complain that they had ammo loaded to the original specs for the cartridge. Not that your points not valid, that is hot by todays standards, it's just a juxtaposition from the useal .357 complaints I hear. I know people that would pay a premium for those loads.
 
Armscor .357 125gr is HOT! I love it in the appropriate guns. Their .22mag blows hard. I find their .38super ammo to be of poor quality and loaded weak. I've had issues with their .22lr as well.
 
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