RWS Frangible & malfunctions

[Longhorn]

Sorry if this should go in the ammo section, but I'm just curious if any one else has shot this particular brand of ammo and had malfunctions with it?

Currently I'm a Cadet in a Sheriff's Academy and we had a shooting day invite last weekend and outside of function checking my M&P40 and the 2 free mags, hadn't had the opportunity to run a lot of rounds through it. (put 200 rounds through it with 0 malfunctions)

So went to the range and I went through a box of Federal 180 gr FMJ with ease. No malfunctions what-so-ever as expected with any mag. (about 50 rounds. Gun was 100% clean before shooting and all mags weren't fully loaded as we were typically shooting 6-6 and mags were dropping onto grass, not dirt/sand).

We switched to the covered range and were given RWS to shoot (115gr .40 S&W Copper-Matrix loads for me, being when we're @ Range 1 we're supposed to shoot frangible's). Started shooting and made it to about round #28 before I had a failure to feed. Cleared the malfunction, put in a fresh mag and made it to about round #35 before another feed problem. Cleared, inserted another mag and round #37 failed.

Went back over to the "open" range, loaded 6-6-6-6 of the 2nd box of Federals and went back to shooting, and no malfunctions.

I wasn't the only one that had problems, our Chief's Kimber SIS also had some malfunctions.

Anyone else experienced similar with these rounds?

[Muzzy]

By FTF I assume you mean the chamber was empty after cycling and there was no jambing or hanging up. I had some RWS with hard primers that caused some issues in a SIG but no feeding issues. I would posit that the frangible load is a fairly "weak" round such that the gun is not properly stripping the next round off to chamber it. This can be an issue with many frangibles out there. I had a newish HK that wouldn't feed a certain frangible round and had every malf. known to man--instructor told me to get a new gun; no frangible and that HK went 5000 rounds without a malf. So the instructor's ammo was cr*p not the HK.

Another issue is a sticky chamber--even though you say it is clean. It could be holding back the cycling just enough to cause a lack of stripping the next round. In addition if your gun is cold and the lube you are using is thickening in the cold it could also slow down/absorb energy that causes FTF. If your chamber is polished clean with a brush or dremel and your lube is very light in application and viscosity at cold temps then I doubt you can blame it on the gun per se. Check for riding the slide with hand or digits--wont make a difference with "normal" ammo but shows up with the "weak" stuff. Weak mag springs could also make a difference but why throw money at your basically sound gun. Just use different ammo. If you cant use diff ammo then you could look at it as a chance to practice malf. drills. If you have an old worn recoil spring available throw that in or get a recoil spring to mod especially for that ammo--try that and it might make your gun happy.