South African PMP M193 problems?

Was at the range today and witnessed a relatively new shooter having a heck of a time with FTE using South African M193. This was the newer stuff being imported in the 50 round boxes in 200 round sealed packs. The fired cases had to be removed with a cleaning rod and we founf that the extractor was ripping the rim off the case. What was weird was the fired cases looked clean and so did the chamber on inspection. I gave the guy a couple boxes of Federal XM193 I had and he ran all 40 rounds through with no issues,

Thoughts?

Must be the ammo.

No reports at the public range I hit up every now and then or on any socials.

But, if those symptoms are happening, and then resolved with different ammo, that could be the case.

My guess: The Brass wasnt annealed.

Its not hard enough to handle the expansion and contraction of the case in the chamber.

Soft rims will tear easier.

Brass is already considerably soft, with improper case hardening, those symptoms are very common.

If you see him again, tell him to send pictures, batch numbers, and don't use any more of it. Soft metals don't make good pressure vessels.

Hopefully he can at least be refunded for bad ammo.

I would not trust anything coming out of SA today, country is rapidly becoming a third world sh@t hole.

I have some of the older South African surplus 5.56, and it not only functions 100%, it's also the most accurate M193 that I've used (vs. Federal, PPU, etc.)

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Originally Posted by Bimmer

I have some of the older South African surplus 5.56, and it not only functions 100%, it's also the most accurate M193 that I've used (vs. Federal, PPU, etc.)

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I found some SA ammo I bought around 20 years ago and shot it all up without a hitch. I cannot comment on new ammo coming out of there, though.

I shot a bunch of it from around 20 years ago. Good stuff.

I had a case I bought around the time of the Y2K panic. It always got pushed aside for newer stuff. Finally shot it last summer. Worked great after sitting around in a garage/storage unit for almost 2 decades.

Saw the guy again last weekend. The stuff he's shooting is new manufacture PMP that Freedom Munitions is selling. Same trouble, rifle is cycling, case stays in chamber, extractor ripping the rim off the case.

What makes this interesting is that this kid bought 1000 rounds of the stuff, he's run half of that through and now he's having this issue out of the blue. Ammo he's using is the same lot as the stuff that worked fine. The range officers and I recommended he have the gun checked by a local 'smith and make sure he takes a fired case and the ammo in question with him.

Did you shoot any of his problematic ammo in your gun? My guess is it’s his gun and not the ammo. Keep us updated.

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Originally Posted by ace4059

Did you shoot any of his problematic ammo in your gun? My guess is it’s his gun and not the ammo. Keep us updated.

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No, but we ran 40 rounds fo Federal XM193 through it with no problems.