Got this today:
Ammo Recommendation Change
Experiences with some recently produced Silvertip ammunition has caused us to reevalute that recommendation. Pistols that had been functioning flawlessly for years are suddenly experiencing a rash of feeding problems. 32 Silvertip ammunition has undergone a design change. Bullets are harder and shinier. They now have small expansion cuts at the nose tip. While they look prettier, without exception those we have examined slide into the case when shooting. Unlike the old Silvertips, the bullets are not crimped into the case. The new Silvertip bullets slide into the case even when they are still inside the magazine. As the gun recoils to the rear, inertia causes the bullets to collide with the front magazine wall with sufficient force to seat the bullets deeper into the case. When the bullets hit the feed ramp, an additional sliding into the case takes place that often causes jams.
The slide assembley on the LWS 32 is only 2.5 ozs. Because of its relatively small mass its forward momentum on returning to battery position is easily upset by an obstruction along its course. When bullets slide in to thier cases much of the forward inertia of the slide is lost. I shall cite one example of a recent "repair". A fairly new pistol was sent to me which had jamming problems. Prior to test firing, the gun was gone over with a fine tooth comb. The feed ramp was reworked and all parts related to smooth cycling were polished. Four magazines of Hydra Shok were shot, followed by 2 magazines of old style Silvertips without hint of failure. Then 2 magazines of new style Silvertips were shot. Both magazines had failures. The unfired rounds still in the magazine were measured. From a start length of about .912 they had all shortened. The shortest was .901--this after only 2 rounds having been fired from that magazine. The 2 rounds that jammed were also measured. One was .894 and the other .887.
To verifty that nothing had changed with the pistol, it was again extensively fired with the old style Silvertips and Hydra-Shoks without incident. It has since been brought to my attention that some recent manufacture old style Silvertips not properly crimped may also have this problem of bullets sliding into the case.
For this reason our ammo recommendation likely will be switching to Hydra-Shoks which I am becoming familiar with and seem to work flawlessly in the LWS 32. I have also heard Gold Dots work reliably and will investigate further. My rather limited experience with the Gold Dots suggest excellent performance. The new redesigned Silvertip ammo is the ammo we have been recommending for close to 20 years. The harder bullets take away any advantage there might have been with increased deformation due to softness, and what we have seen thus far with the new ammo does not make us happy. We would hope this is a temporary problem and not a sign of thing to come.
August 19, 2004
Well there it is word-for-word, the bold text was bold in the letter also.
Ammo Recommendation Change
Experiences with some recently produced Silvertip ammunition has caused us to reevalute that recommendation. Pistols that had been functioning flawlessly for years are suddenly experiencing a rash of feeding problems. 32 Silvertip ammunition has undergone a design change. Bullets are harder and shinier. They now have small expansion cuts at the nose tip. While they look prettier, without exception those we have examined slide into the case when shooting. Unlike the old Silvertips, the bullets are not crimped into the case. The new Silvertip bullets slide into the case even when they are still inside the magazine. As the gun recoils to the rear, inertia causes the bullets to collide with the front magazine wall with sufficient force to seat the bullets deeper into the case. When the bullets hit the feed ramp, an additional sliding into the case takes place that often causes jams.
The slide assembley on the LWS 32 is only 2.5 ozs. Because of its relatively small mass its forward momentum on returning to battery position is easily upset by an obstruction along its course. When bullets slide in to thier cases much of the forward inertia of the slide is lost. I shall cite one example of a recent "repair". A fairly new pistol was sent to me which had jamming problems. Prior to test firing, the gun was gone over with a fine tooth comb. The feed ramp was reworked and all parts related to smooth cycling were polished. Four magazines of Hydra Shok were shot, followed by 2 magazines of old style Silvertips without hint of failure. Then 2 magazines of new style Silvertips were shot. Both magazines had failures. The unfired rounds still in the magazine were measured. From a start length of about .912 they had all shortened. The shortest was .901--this after only 2 rounds having been fired from that magazine. The 2 rounds that jammed were also measured. One was .894 and the other .887.
To verifty that nothing had changed with the pistol, it was again extensively fired with the old style Silvertips and Hydra-Shoks without incident. It has since been brought to my attention that some recent manufacture old style Silvertips not properly crimped may also have this problem of bullets sliding into the case.
For this reason our ammo recommendation likely will be switching to Hydra-Shoks which I am becoming familiar with and seem to work flawlessly in the LWS 32. I have also heard Gold Dots work reliably and will investigate further. My rather limited experience with the Gold Dots suggest excellent performance. The new redesigned Silvertip ammo is the ammo we have been recommending for close to 20 years. The harder bullets take away any advantage there might have been with increased deformation due to softness, and what we have seen thus far with the new ammo does not make us happy. We would hope this is a temporary problem and not a sign of thing to come.
August 19, 2004
Well there it is word-for-word, the bold text was bold in the letter also.
