FTF w/ Federal HST Personal Defense 124 gr. HP

[Phishfindr]

I had my first failure to feed after 600 rounds in a new PCR purchased in February. I bought a box of 20 Federal HST Personal Defense 124 gr. ammo at the range on Saturday. One of the rounds caused the failure. It was the first time using this ammo in the gun. I've fire hundreds of WW 115 gr. target loads, 80 rounds of Speer LE 124 gr. HP, and 20 rounds of Federal Punch 124 gr. HP's without any issues. I clean the gun thoroughly after every range session.

Has anyone had any issues with this particular ammo?

[Earl Keese]

HST 124's have fed & functioned fine in my Rami & P10C. I don't own a PCR, but you should plunk test every round you plan to load in a magazine for self defense. Then you'll know for sure.

[Auslander]

No. Never had an issue with literally 1000’s of rounds of HST P9HST2. I know that they use magnum primers in the LE ammo but don’t know if they use standard priming in the personal defense stuff.

Does the primer show a distinct indentation?

[M1A4ME]

Failure to feed.

Not failure to fire.

Did the bullet hang up on the feed ramp?  Or did it start into the chamber and then hang before the slide could get fully forward?  If so, almost closed?  Or wide open with the bullet nose hung up on the top of the chamber?

Hung up on the feed ramp?  Might not ever happen again.  I have a P01 Omega that would sometimes hand up the 115 grain hollow points I shoot on the feed ramp.  Got out the dremel, a felt polishing attachment and some lapping compound and shined that feed ramp up like a mirror.  No feed issues since.

Sometimes you just get a bullet/cartridge that didn't get put together right or is damaged during seating/crimping.  How well do you look the cartridges over before loading them in the magazine?

Almost closed, but not quite?  Could be a bullet not formed right/damaged.  A cartridge just a bit longer than normal that hung up when the bullet contacted the neck down between the chamber and the lands of the barrel. 

Might just need a new recoil spring.

Since it's your first one I hesitate to say "magazine spring" but if it continues/gets worse you might want to know if it only happens on one magazine.  Changing the magazine spring might help.

All the above may not be the cause but may help you narrow down on what could cause the failure to feed/chamber.

Good luck.  We all want trouble free guns.

[Phishfindr]

Failure to feed.

Not failure to fire.

Did the bullet hang up on the feed ramp?  Or did it start into the chamber and then hang before the slide could get fully forward?  If so, almost closed?  Or wide open with the bullet nose hung up on the top of the chamber?

Hung up on the feed ramp?  Might not ever happen again.  I have a P01 Omega that would sometimes hand up the 115 grain hollow points I shoot on the feed ramp.  Got out the dremel, a felt polishing attachment and some lapping compound and shined that feed ramp up like a mirror.  No feed issues since.

Sometimes you just get a bullet/cartridge that didn't get put together right or is damaged during seating/crimping.  How well do you look the cartridges over before loading them in the magazine?

Almost closed, but not quite?  Could be a bullet not formed right/damaged.  A cartridge just a bit longer than normal that hung up when the bullet contacted the neck down between the chamber and the lands of the barrel. 

Might just need a new recoil spring.

Since it's your first one I hesitate to say "magazine spring" but if it continues/gets worse you might want to know if it only happens on one magazine.  Changing the magazine spring might help.

All the above may not be the cause but may help you narrow down on what could cause the failure to feed/chamber.

Good luck.  We all want trouble free guns.

Thanks for your reply, and the previous 2 as well. The bullet hung up on the top of the chamber with the slide wide open. I released the mag, pulled back on the slide, and it fell out. Upon inspection it looked perfectly fine, so I reloaded it, and it fired. No further issues with the rest of the ammo. It was from a brand new box of ammo I just purchased.

I'm very conscious of my grip usually, and learned from my share of "limp wrist" issues with FTF & FTE with prior guns. The more I think about it (way too much), I may have had my thumb resting on the slide release when firing. I'd hate to think it's the gun, especially because I carry it daily. Only 1 in 620 rounds shouldn't bother me this much, but it was with a self defense round, and 1 is too many in my mind.

[Wobbly]

I would tend to say that is more of a gun break-in issue than ammo. When I started with CZ's about year 2000, it was considered necessary to shoot 500-600 rounds for "break-in".

[tdogg]

When was the last time you pulled the extractor and cleaned behind the channel?  CZ's like a clean lube free (dry) extractor.  I'd make sure yours is clean and the claw doesn't have a chip/burr on it.  If you lube it, just use a little rust preventative and wipe it off with rag.  You don't want the gunk accumulating behind the claw and lube helps it accumulate.

Next I'd pull the magazines apart and clean and wax them inside and out.  Your favorite car wax is perfect.  It will enhance feeding and make them easier to clean.

HST 124's have fed & functioned fine in my Rami & P10C. I don't own a PCR, but you should plunk test every round you plan to load in a magazine for self defense. Then you'll know for sure.

I second the motion to plunk test your SD rounds.  I hadn't thought about it for SD rounds but I do it for all my competition rounds!  New practice for me from now on!

Cheers,
Toby

[Auslander]

And I really need to start wearing my reading glasses.

[M1A4ME]

Seems like some people/owners in the past have talked about an issue where the bottom of the slide is rough.  When the slide comes forward to shove a round out of the magazine into the chamber it can drag that next round in the top of the magazine forward to the point that it's not very well supported/controlled by the lips in the magazine. 

Could that result in the next time the slide goes forward not controlling that round causing it to pop upwards at the nose too soon and hit that chamber?

I think the usual recommendations are sometimes polishing the bottom of the slide there in the center and/or replacing magazine springs with stronger/new springs.

This is a slide from a CZ75 Compact out of the box.  Smooth as glass.  But I have seen some of my other ones (P07) that you can see the machine marks running side to side across the same area.  Just don't have a picture of that one.  Is your slide nice and smooth there or rough?

[Phishfindr]

Seems like some people/owners in the past have talked about an issue where the bottom of the slide is rough.  When the slide comes forward to shove a round out of the magazine into the chamber it can drag that next round in the top of the magazine forward to the point that it's not very well supported/controlled by the lips in the magazine. 

Could that result in the next time the slide goes forward not controlling that round causing it to pop upwards at the nose too soon and hit that chamber?

I think the usual recommendations are sometimes polishing the bottom of the slide there in the center and/or replacing magazine springs with stronger/new springs.

This is a slide from a CZ75 Compact out of the box.  Smooth as glass.  But I have seen some of my other ones (P07) that you can see the machine marks running side to side across the same area.  Just don't have a picture of that one.  Is your slide nice and smooth there or rough?

Thanks for the input. The bottom of the slide is very smooth. I'm going to head back to the range this weekend and put another 100 rounds through it. If there aren't any issues I'm going to feel a lot better. about the one FTF being human error.

[Earl Keese]

With only one failure, I don't think there is anything to troubleshoot yet...