Testing the reliability of HP's Feeding

[dubious]

Hi, I'm wondering what the most efficient way of testing HPs or JHPs in my little Taurus PT111 Pro (3rd gen) is. Obviously there is the option of shooting a few hundred of them, but I can't afford too many. I'm thinking I can invest in 100 max. I'll probably shoot 80 of them, and save the 20 for my 2 10 round mags. If I just keep racking and ejecting by hand a few hundred times to practice, I will have a good chance of detecting FTFs... right? I'm concerned that just racking by hand is not a good test because it's not the same as feeding by recoil. Is there any technique I can use to best replicate a genuine recoil feed? Are there any other ways I can test the reliability of the ammo?

I've put about 2,000 FMJ rounds and about 30 JHP +Ps through my gun with no hitches. I'm going to avoid +P's in the future, since there is a bit of debate in the Taurus community on that issue: They may induce excessive wear and tear on this gun and the +P is reportedly not that useful out of a 3 1/4" barrel. Any suggestions on Ammo type for this gun? Mine shoots about 4" low at 7 yards, so maybe heavier ammo makes sense. I'm thinking about the 147 gr Remington Golden Saber.

 

[DPris]

No, running it by hand will tell you nothing.
The only way to find out if a hollowpoint will feed is to shoot a bunch of them.
Denis

 

[vanilla_gorilla]

Continuously racking and ejecting a few rounds is a good was to learn about bullet setback and the disastrous effect that it can have.

 

[BikerRN]

Find ammo you can afford.

I recently purchased a new 1911 and while some of my guns feed the CorBon 185 Grain +P DPX JHP I couldn't afford 200 rounds to test this gun. So I went with a Winchester load that I can afford and bought 300 rounds. 200 for "testing" and another 100 for carry.

I agree with the above about hand cycling the slide and loading that way. It's not very productive.

BikerRN

 

[Fish828]

+1 vanilla gorilla
continuously feeding your ammo through your gun manually is a good way to ruin a bunch of expensive ammo, rendering it unusable. only way to test it is to shoot it.

 

[1911 guy]

Best way is to fire it, just as the others have said. Bite the bullet (yeah, a pun) and buy the hundred you can afford right now. Better yet, buy them one box at a time just in case the gun decides early on it doesn't like them.

 

[Steve C]

Hollow point feeding has pretty much been a non issue for quite a while as bullet design was improved over the earlier HP's. I've found that Remington JHP's both their traditional and the Golden Saber to feed in all my 9mm's and .45's. Since I handload and JHP's are genrally no more expensive than FMJ's I test the bullet profiles I can get using handloads.

Federals Hydra shoks, JHP's and Winchester SXT's also feed with boring regularity as do the small amount of Hornady factory I've shot.

The only JHP's I've encountered some problems with are .45 acp CCI Gold Dots as their wide hollow profile will hang up in my early Colt Combat Commander. I've also found some +P+ 9mm ammo and steel case 145gr Russian that will sieze in the chamber in certain of my pistols but that may be a rough chamber or cleaning issue. Those kinds of stoppages have been discovered by shooting one or two magazines of the new ammo. Shame about the Russian though as it was quite accurate.

If I was on a tight budget I'd buy some Fiocchi 115gr JHP's, not the new ones loaded with Hornady bullets but their standard offering. Its relatively inexpensive compared to most jhp offerings and its quite hot running at around 1,300 fps from a full sized pistol.

 

[mainmech48]

Ditto. The only sure way to test for reliable function with a particular load is to shoot some.

Personally, I'd want at least 200 rds. with absolutely no malfs whatever before I'd entrust the safety of my Personal Favorite Behind(s) to it.

 

[treeprof]

Given that feeding problems often arise in the first few or last few rounds in a mag, I've done some informal range comparisons shooting carry ammo loaded only as the first 3 rounds and the last 3 rounds vs. shooting fulls mags of carry ammo. I tend to avoid known malf-prone guns or designs to begin with, but I've not had any feeding issues arise shooting full mags of carry ammo that hadn't manifested themselves shooting the carry ammo as the first and last three rounds. I am in no way recommending you do so, I'm just passing along my experience.

 

[NG VI]

Does it help show gun/ammo incompatibility faster if you shoot the gun a bunch with cheaper ammo first and then mix and match and shoot a couple straight-carry mags? And does mixing up different bullets into one magazine cause any problems with most guns? None of mine have ever behaved any differently because of that, wondering if anyone else's has.