One of These is Not Like the Others

[holidaypf]

I was shooting through a box of 9mm Remington 115 grain HTPs the other day and ran across this semi-jacketed, hollow point, oddball. I wonder what load it was supposed to be for?

[canthelpit]

I'm beginning to wonder about QA at ammo plants...

A few months ago my son and I headed to the woods to shoot his GP-100.   Ammo was American Eagle .357 Magnum that he had just purchased
the day before.  He loads up and takes the first shot, turns to me and says that they seem pretty "stout".  Shoots a few more and declares that all
of them have much more than the usual amount of recoil.  When he tries to unload, we can't get any out of the cylinder, and the primers are all
seriously flattened.  Had to take it home and use a piece of dowel to get the spent rounds out.

So, we inspect the rest of the box, and the more I look the worse it looks.  Two rounds had damaged brass.  I measured all the rounds in the box
and they vary in overall length by .020 - .025".  And, the ones we shot were obviously over pressure loads.  Not good.

When I called Federal, they had me ship them back right away.  I checked back twice with them, and they never told me a thing.  But they did
send a check for the cost of the ammo. 

[holidaypf]

I need to pull and mic the bullet and weigh the powder charge. I had a round of reloaded ammunition, from a commercial seller, in my .40 go EXTRA bang. Fortunately, no damage. But I have sworn off anyone's reloads but my own, that's for sure. But it goes to show, even great ammo makers with newly manufactured stuff can screw up from time to time.

[canthelpit]

When we looked at those rounds, my first thought was they looked like (really bad) reloads, but I don't know how that
would have happened.  Bought them from a big box sporting goods store.

Maybe they aren't as "great" as they used to be. 

[M1A4ME]

That bullet is made like the very old Remington hollow points used in .38 specials and .357 magnums.  I don't know if Remington 9MM ammo used similar shaped jackets/bullet tips or not.  I didn't own anything smaller (semi auto) than the 1911 in .45 acp and my small revolver was the .357 magnum.

Here's a speed loader of Remington 125 grain hollow points on the left and Federal 125 grain hollow points on the right.  The ammo and speed loaders date back to the early 80's.  Shot some of it a couple years back and it still gets your attention.  Through the 2&3/4" Speed Six you can feel it in your sinuses/throat, see the muzzle flash even in daylight (soft ball sized ball in front of you/the muzzle) and you know it's not a .38 special when it jumps in your hands.

[holidaypf]

That bullet is made like the very old Remington hollow points used in .38 specials and .357 magnums.

Yes, I'm wondering if it's going to mic at .357 rather than .355.

[holidaypf]

Yep, it's a .357 bullet.

[M1A4ME]

I wonder if that slight increase in OD would have made a noticeable change in recoil for that one round?

[holidaypf]

I wonder if that slight increase in OD would have made a noticeable change in recoil for that one round?

I suspect it would be survivable to fire it, but I'll refrain from that experiment. Ha Once I get around to pulling the bullet I bet it will weigh 110 or 125 grains.

[Ruber]

Kinda looks like a golden saber that didn?t get the final coat.  Have you weighed it side be side with another from the same box?

[canthelpit]

Yep, it's a .357 bullet.

Are you planning on contacting Remington about this?  They definitely need to know
about that round. 

This situation, and the one we had with Federal is pretty shocking in my view.  The fact that this stuff is getting out
there from factories that, in the past, had great reputations suggests that QA is no longer a priority.  It makes you
wonder how this sort of thing can happen at all.

[lewmed]

 About 3 years ago I had several Remington 223 rounds fail to go off with good solid primer hits so I pulled them down and found no flash holes.  The same case of ammo had one round where the primer was smashed flat on the case head not inserted in the pocket. Remington picked up what was left of my case of 223 and refunded me what I had paid for it.

[Claymore504]

I have a box of 357MAG that I am pretty sure is that same bullet. I will dig it out and grab a picture.

[holidaypf]

Earlier I said this was a box of 115 grain HTPs. I was wrong, they were 147 grain HTPs.

This is the semi-jacketed round:



Total cartridge weight: 190.5 grains
Bullet weight: 125.2 grains
Powder charge: 5.3 grains

This is the usual HTP round:



Total cartridge weight: 212.4 grains
Bullet weight: 147.8 grains
Powder charge: 3.3 grains

I checked and rechecked my Lyman 1200 after weighing the HTP round. Then I thought to look at the box again and sure enough, they are 147 grain (ish) bullets NOT 115.

The difference in powder charge has me scratching my head as well.

I can imagine a disgruntled employee randomly mixing up components, but who knows!