Case head rupture and impact on P320 Carry

[26 Inf]

Yeah. I won't touch remanufactured ammunition, or even buy new ammunition from any of the companies that produce the reman stuff. There are enough horror stories out there. Their QA is lacking.

Your bolded statement is painting with a pretty broad brush.

Have you ever been in a large ammunition manufacturing facility?

I worked 30+ years as a LE firearms instructor at our state's academy. Over that time I've probably seen several million new and re-manufactured rounds go down range.

The last couple decades we worked with one vendor of re-manufactured ammunition almost exclusively. I can honestly say that their ammunition was as good as or better than generic training ammunition from federal, winchester and speer.

Unless you are dealing with a local re-manufacturer who is using something like a Dillon 1050 with an Ammobot, the larger re-manufacturers use the same machines and components, save the used case, that the largest ammunition companies use. In that respect, the major difference is the case prep of the used case.

The trend is toward using new ammunition for training, many of the 're-manufacturers' are switching to using new cases and aren't much interested in buying once-fired brass - they save production costs by not having to refurbish the fired cases.

Myself, I load my stuff on a Dillon 550, use the brass five times, and dump it.

[Bret]

There is a difference between "reloads" and ammunition that is remanufactured to a specification using a once-fired case.

It's funny that virtually all of these "factory" reloading companies advertise that they're using "once-fired" brass. When you open a box you see that there are many different headstamps. If they were getting brass from a military or police range and all the headstamps matched, I might buy the once-fired story. When I see mixed headstamps and the ranges that I go to selling their brass to the reloading companies, I know that the odds are that some of the brass may have been fired many times. Even if that wasn't the case, the additional variability of mixed brass makes the final product less consistent.

[CMV]

Most of my guns have never seen factory ammo. Maybe a few boxes of different styles just to check function, but other than rimfire & 12GA I roll all my own on a 650...... CCW guns & ammo a lot more commercial, but in general all my own reloads.

During the recent droughts, factory reloads/commercial remanufactured - whatever you want to call it - was all you could find sometimes. I know several guys who weren't reloaders nor stockpilers & that was route they went because it was either (1) affordable [~1/2 the price] or (2) all there was. Fast forward to today & you can buy new inexpensive commercial like Blazer Brass, S&B, Fiocchi, et. al. for less than the factory reloads (at least 9mm). So kind of have to put it in context of what is available at the time to say it is/isn't worth it as a blanket statement.

Loading 9mm......I do it just because i like my 9mm loads but it saves very little $. Probably go thru a 30 cal can of loose 9mm every 4-5 weeks, so at times even with the 650 it feels like a chore to load so I'll buy a case or two to supplement. Do the same with .223 sometimes. Plus that gets some new brass in the mix. Anyway...I cull out lots of bad brass or feel an issue on the press & scrap something that made it that far. Even at that will get a very occasional primer squished in sideways or upside down or some defect to the finished round. Very rare - maybe 1 in 5 cans - and of that most are caught loading the mag - but it happens. So with me loading it for myself, non-automated, and several inspection steps (and I have a vested interest in the QC since it's my guns, my eyes, my hands, my family, etc at risk for bad ammo), if I can let a mistake pass, it would be foolish to assume a commercial reloader could not.....

I do think it's a good thing that the P320 is designed to fail in a way to potentially limit catastrophic failures. Also great to hear that they're fixing OPs weapon on their dime even though it wasn't factory ammo - that's a positive. Learned something new today

If you've shot enough, even if you've never had a box of A-MERC before they went kaput, you probably experienced some type of failure with commercial ammo too. Less common, but still happens. IF defect rate is 99.999% perfect (and i have no idea what it is by manufacturer, probably better than that depending on what you'd call a defect), that would be one defect every 10 cases.

[26 Inf]

Even if that wasn't the case, the additional variability of mixed brass makes the final product less consistent.

My load for 9mm 115gr JHP is Win 231 @ 4.4gr; 1.095 OAL. I am not into the intricacies of loading for precision, I chose that load because it met my needs.

When I began reloading, I initially sorted by head stamp. I quickly determined it wasn't necessary for the accuracy I needed, which, in my case, is inside four inches at 50 yards.

My random case head loads group as good as I need, and generally pile the brass in one spot, much more so than any generic factory loads I shoot.

Going by those results I don't feel my mass production loads, using an RL 550, are inconsistent in the least.

YMMV

[CMV]

Mine is very similar - 115gr ACME coated cast & Win231/HP38. Load in bulk as generic training/range/plinking ammo. 0 benefit sorting by HS in that application and every bit as consistent as any bulk FMJ factory ammo. Probably better.

[ST911]

It's funny that virtually all of these "factory" reloading companies advertise that they're using "once-fired" brass. When you open a box you see that there are many different headstamps. If they were getting brass from a military or police range and all the headstamps matched, I might buy the once-fired story. When I see mixed headstamps and the ranges that I go to selling their brass to the reloading companies, I know that the odds are that some of the brass may have been fired many times. Even if that wasn't the case, the additional variability of mixed brass makes the final product less consistent.

Headstamps can be mixed even in once-fired brass from vetted sources. Sorting would require additional processes and expense, and except for precision shooting it's effects are pretty meaningless. Further, you would also need to know what the production and testing standard for the finished round is, as a box of mixed headstamps may produce identical results. Lot-to-lot variation, or changes within a lot, from many new makers may be more significant than case-to-case variation in a box. For a pistol round, the number of shooters that could produce the difference would be minuscule, if it could be demonstrated at all.

I do find it funny how some reman'ers have so vigorously asserted their once-fired product, while eagerly soliciting brass return from the same customer.

[Bret]

I'm probably not a good enough shot for mixed versus sorted brass to matter, but I've found that it certainly makes a difference when I reload. When I shoot factory loaded ammunition, I keep it sorted by lot. This doesn't take me extra time as I typically shoot one lot at a time anyway. I found that when seating bullets in mixed versus lot sorted brass, the overall length's range and standard deviation is significantly less with the lot sorted brass. I can also feel a difference in the amount of force required to seat bullets between some brass. This is more noticeable with 40S&W, but it applies to 9mm as well. I like knowing that if I miss, it's not the quality of my reloads that's in question.

[1986s4]

In over 20 years of reloading my own ammo I've had one blown case head, a 38 super auto that I loaded with VV N310 which is a fast powder. Never happened in a 9mm but I load to modest pressure using medium and faster medium speed powder, e.g., VV N320 and 340. I stopped using N310 right after the blown case head. The pistol used is a Colt 1911 .38 super with the standard Colt barrel. No damage to the pistol and it continued to function throughout the match but the Wilson mag lips were spread slightly and the follower broken. I re-bent the feed lips back to spec and replaced the follower, the magazine continues to function.