Sticker on Gold Dot ammo- 'Practice Ammunition'

[Justin]

I recently received an order of 9mm 124gr Speer Gold Dots from www.ammoman.com. This was the bulk pack of 500 rounds for $99.
Anyway, the ammo came today, and on the outside of the box was a sticker that said

NOT FOR LE USE
NOT TO BE REPACKAGED
PRACTICE AMMUNITION

Practice ammunition? What gives? I bought this stuff to use as defensive ammo. Is there something wrong with it that would make it unsuitable for defensive use?

 

[MikeJ]

Speer had a run of this ammo that didn't perform up to standards, I believe there was an inconsistency in fps but I'm not sure. Because of that they felt there was a potential liability in using it for defensive purposes. If you do a search on it I beleive you can get more accurate information than I am able to remember. Bottomline is that although it doesn't meet specs it is still quite suitable for practice. Best, Mike

 

[Justin]

I called Speer and asked their customer service dept. what the deal was with this ammo.
Apparently they had a run where they had problems with some of the primers. Roughly 1 out of every 100,000 rounds from this lot will not fire, so Speer did a recall and advised that LEO's not use it in their duty weapon. They advise the same for self-defense purposes as well.

At least I can do some serious practice in with these HP's to see how they perform. Bummer that I can't use 'em in my self-defense pistol.

 

[9mmepiphany]

you can use it for SD, just be aware that for every 100k rounds you have one with a hard primer

a better idea would be for you to go out a buy a box, or 2 or 3, of factory fresh speer 9mm 124gr gold dot ammo to use for SD. practice with the bulk stuff you just got from ammoman and be happy you spent less than $10 per box of 50

 

[Country Boy]

1 out of 100,000

If you pull the trigger and it doesn't go bang, couldn't you just use an immediate action drill (tap-rack-bang)?
I would definitely run some through my gun to see how it functions. But I guess if it was just 1/100000 chance of getting a bad primer, I personally wouldn't worry.

 

[Justin]

Yeah, I think that I'll just end up using it for practice ammo and to do more extensive testing with different magazines and such to make sure it feeds ok.

As for actually putting it in the pistol for self-defense, I considered it. Odds are that every round in the box is fine. Problem is this brings a new mental thing into the picture. Even though I'm sure all the rounds are fine, there's no way to know. Which means that there would always be a little nagging doubt in the back of my mind. If I end up in a situation where I have to fend for my life, I'd rather not have to do a tap-rack-bang. I'll just buy a regular box or two of Gold Dots and chalk up the extra money to having better peace of mind.