Semi-perfect first experience with my new M&P9c

[lordhamster]

Hey folks. I'm the proud new owner of a new M&P9c with factory nightsights and CT laser grips. Great little pistol with the outstanding reputation and customer service of Smith & Wesson backing it up.

The other day, a friend and I took it to the range to give it it's first workout. I shot the first 5 rounds of Blazer Brass rounds. The M&P shot them flawlessly and with minimal recoil.

Next my friend (who had been shooting TulAmmo from Walmart through his Sig SP2022) loaded the M&P with TulAmmo and immediately we heard a "click" when he went to fire instead of a bang. We waited a minute, then he racked out the "bad" round and tried the next. Same thing. In short, we had two rounds with somewhat anemic dimples in the primer compared to those in the blazer rounds. Both rounds later shot fine from his Sig.

After those two failures to fire, we ran another 120+ rounds of both TulAmmo and Blazer brass through my M&P without any problems. The little gun was a good fit for me and I was making very respectable groups right on the target at 10 yards. However the two light strikes have me a bit worried. For now I'm assuming that the berdan primers on the TulAmmo may be to blame, but I'll definitely be keeping a close eye on this M&P's performance before I fully trust it.

 

[Bovice]

Don't panic just yet. A friend of mine has a S&W Sigma and after a couple times out, he started getting regular light primer strikes. All of the light-strike rounds fired in a P226, so they weren't duds.

Not being a striker-fired guy, I didn't really know what to tell him to do, but then we decided to do an internet search on how to remove the striker and check the striker channel for debris.

It was very simple to do (try youtube for videos, it's not that hard, just be careful) and there was a good amount of junk down in there. He cleaned it out and tried it again, with success.

If it only happened with one kind of ammo, the primers may be too hard for your M&P. If it works fine with Blazer, Remington, Winchester, etc. then stick to those brands. Tula isn't known as the best ammunition on the market.

 

[lordhamster]

Don't panic just yet. A friend of mine has a S&W Sigma and after a couple times out, he started getting regular light primer strikes. All of the light-strike rounds fired in a P226, so they weren't duds.

Not being a striker-fired guy, I didn't really know what to tell him to do, but then we decided to do an internet search on how to remove the striker and check the striker channel for debris.

It was very simple to do (try youtube for videos, it's not that hard, just be careful) and there was a good amount of junk down in there. He cleaned it out and tried it again, with success.

If it only happened with one kind of ammo, the primers may be too hard for your M&P. If it works fine with Blazer, Remington, Winchester, etc. then stick to those brands. Tula isn't known as the best ammunition on the market.

yeah, I'm going to check out the striker channel and then take a look. I'll also try other rounds. Based on my internet search, failures to fire are fairly common with TulaAmmo.

 

[GLOOB]

In short, we had two rounds with somewhat anemic dimples in the primer compared to those in the blazer rounds.

The primer strike always look lighter when the round doesn't fire. A round that fires propels the case backward against the firing pin/striker, leaving a deeper mark. Just saying so's you don't think your striker is hitting inconsistently.

 

[lordhamster]

The primer strike always look lighter when the round doesn't fire. A round that fires propels the case backward against the firing pin/striker, leaving a deeper mark. Just saying so's you don't think your striker is hitting inconsistently.

Excellent point, I never thought of that. That might explain the difference. All the fired rounds of both types of cheap ammo had identical primer strikes. Like I said, based on what I read about Tulammo I'm going to assume it was the ammo. A quick google search shows this isn't uncommon with that ammo.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Zerodefect]

Oh, yeah. It's the ammo. Nothing wrong with that. Noone uses Tula for defense.

As long as itworks with Blazer and Federal.

 

[Ben86]

Russian ammo notoriously has really hard primers. It also may be a break in issue. You made have had some factory crud in the striker channel that needed to be loosened up. I wouldn't worry about it.