Reliable .32 ACP ammo?

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Teakwood

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I have a Manurhin Wlather PP in 7.65 auto. I have tried S&B and Fiocchl ammo. Neither has proved reliable. With the S&B, I got 10-20% fail-to-fire on first strike. With the Fiocchi, the percentage is lower, but quite noticable in DA mode.

I really like the Walther PP. I can consistantly rip a ragged hole in the center of the target while rapid firing at 10yards. What I need is some ammo that can keep up.

Any ammo suggestions?
 
You can try Federal American Eagle or Winchester's white-boxed ammo, but truthfully it sounds to me like you may need to find a newer mainspring. Are you sure the primer is getting sufficiently whacked? I've used S&B in a Kel-Tec P32 and haven't had a failure to fire yet.
 
I agree with the weak mainspring malfunction.
You don't need ammo that will keep up with your gun, you need a gun that can keep up with your ammo.

There is also a slim chance you could have a chipped firing pin nose.

What do the primer strikes look like? if it doesn't fire on double action will the same round fire on single action?
 
The firing pin appears to be in fine shape, but I do not have anything to directly compare with. The primer indentations are ample, in both the types of ammo. In the last case today, I hit the round four times DA, then loaded it in another mag and hit it again SA and several times more DA - that was the Fiocchi which never did fire.

As to the mainspring, I have changed it out for various pressures several times with little change in the results.

It is either the ammo, or some line up of tolerances that is not obvious to the eye.

Think I'll try the Magtech and the Federal.
Thanks.
 
Have you tried the pencil test?

On the PP series pistols, when you flip the safety on, it locks the firing pin and then drops the hammer. A crud buildup in the firing pin channel could cause it to hang up on the safety block.
 
I have had many FTF with S&B and Fiocchi in my NAA 32. I have had zero failures with American ammo. European ammo is notorius for hard primers.

Roll Tide
 
While not necessarily a possible issue with your gun, barrels with excessive headspace (due to wear, corrosion, etc) can also cause failures to fire. But since you're getting good firing pin strikes it sounds like you got a bum lot of ammo. If you haven't shot it all maybe you can take it back to the shop where you bought it for an exchange with a different brand or lot.
 
S&B and Fiocchi make the hottest FMJ, if you're going the FMJ route with .32ACP they are the brands to stick with. europeans load .32 hot, it was their police cartridge for many years after all, get a stronger mainspring.
 
Sellier & Bellot during the 5 weeks of winter and Cor-Bon the remainder of the year. Both are completely reliable in my P-32s. They like the hot stuff :^)
 
Try using some 60gr JHP ammo rather than the FMJ RN bullets. My Beretta Tomcat Hates the RN stuff - no matter who makes it. Going to CCI Gold Dots, Win Silvertips, or Federal HydroShoks should improve your feeding significantly. Oh, if you still want to try the RN ammo, try the CCI Blazers - they gave me the best feeding for RNs.

While working up reloads for this little beastie, I found that it LIKES hotter loads ....................... anything below near max loads just do not feed well. And even with the above mentioned ammo OR my reloads, I occassionally get a double-ejection (both the empty and the next good round gets ejected at the same time).
 
I would try some Federal ammuntion. If you get misfires with it (Federal primers are "soft") then there's something wrong with pistol.
 
Re: .32 ACP ammo

For FMJ in my P-32 I use the Winchester Whitebox 70 gr stuff. But usually its loaded with Corbon's 60 gr round. If you check out Golden Loki's site, he ran tests through ballistic gelatin of this round and they never failed to expand.

In my 9's and .45's I've always had problems of the "failure-to-feed" variety with Corbon. But in my P-32 I've NEVER had ANY problems with that round.

Go figure - my smallest and cheapest gun eats that stuff for breakfast no problems. Definition of irony :(
 
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