A little tighter fit and a lot more crimp on your fucking ammo.





Popped this out of my Springfield XD-s yesterday.  Its the gun I carry pretty much everyday.  I don't have time to test a bunch of different ammo so I've always just loaded it with the old standby 230gr hard ball.  A couple of weeks a go I picked up some of these 185gr hollow points to see how they would do.  I put a few mags worth through the gun at the range and everything worked great.  This week I started loading them in my gun.  Then yesterday I get this.

I want to like Hornady, I really do.  I mean the company is an American dream come true right?  Start from nothing and build a hugely successful corporation.  But every time I cozy back up to them I see something like this.  I stopped using their ammo for big game hunting after seeing a couple of spectacular failures.  I stopped using their rifle bullets for reloading anything but plinking ammo because I seem to have a harder time getting accuracy from their stuff than other manufacturers.  And now this.  

I guess I'm to the point where I'm going to stop wasting my time with Hornady's products.

What's the rest of the story as that XTP is really, really  deformed for just chambering the round once to have that happen.  How many times has that round been chambered?  Light for caliber bullets being chambered multiple times isn't going to work well as there isn't enough surface area on the bullet to prevent setback without the bullet having a cannelure and being crimped.

For carry ammo you want the bullets to have a cannelure for the crimp to engage as well.  I know people that work at Hornady and last I was told all SD/Duty based ammunition uses bullets with cannelure's so I am curious as to what specific loading that is?  If it is #9090 that round isn't marketed towards SD/Duty so being chambered multiple times isn't part of the requirement that was used when they made it I'd bet.  Compared to their Critical Defense load which has a cannelure and is crimped for repeated (within reason) chamberings here.

Also, their bullets have been very accurate in every rifle I have ever used them in so I guess our experiences differ.


ETA: I personally have re-chambered some 9mm 147gr TAP FPD (no longer made) that doesn't have a cannelure over a dozen times each for 10+ rounds and they never set back (measured with a caliper).  The difference is that the 147gr 9mm bullet is really long so there is a lot of bullet in contact with the case.

ETA 2: Also, you should contact them and give them a chance to correct the problem as I had an issue with some 300BLK being a little too hot for my liking and they replaced it all plus gave me a free box for my trouble as they had re-worked the load since it was a little on the "hot" side (still within SAAMI specs though) for some guns.

I'm guessing it caught on the feed ramp as it was loading.  This round was loaded/unloaded at most 3 times.  The brass seems oversized to me since I can push the bullet back into the case without a lot of effort.  This is their American Gunner ammo.

I'd call/e-mail them and see what they say as it could be a bad lot but that loading would make me real nervous re-chambering it due to how short it is.  It can't hurt to ask...

The "American Gunner" is the lower-end line intended for range/competition rather than defensive use, but still - that bullet looks like it got hit hard to deform that much.

I don't think this is true, my understanding is all the same components as the Custom line but in larger orders to save cost.

It's pretty obvious this ammo doesn't feed well in your particular XD. I doubt that large of a dent happened when you chambered it one time.

I would say this is user error. Using ammo that you haven't properly tested, riding the slide, ammo doesn't feed well in your firearm.

Straight walled, semi-auto cartridges cannot be crimped tightly, as they headspace off the rim. This allows only a modest taper crimp, which essentially brings the case back to where it would be after being sized. A crimp and cannelure wouldn't help this situation much.


Your gun doesn't like this ammo, instead of bashing a company that is VERY well respected in the firearms community, how about you do your part and properly test it. You should put at least 200 rounds down range of your intended carry ammo, without a hiccup. Then you know it's good.




ETA: Try to find me a .45 defensive bullet, designed for the ACP, not Colt, that has a cannelure. I just looked through all my defensive ammo and couldn't find a single one with cannelure. Then looked through all my reloading bullets, no cannelure. Then looked online, no cannelure.

ETA II: Federal HST DOES have a cannelure. You can't see it on the loaded rounds, but I just checked a fired bullet I had. So with this load, they have a cannelure, but don't crimp into it.

I pretty much agree with this. Looks like a feed jam, gun or operator error. That  deformation and setback did not happen from one normal feed cycle.

Strait walled semi auto cases headspace off of the case mouth, not the rim, but I think that is what you meant...

My XDM 3.8 feeds very smoothly and I can only assume the XDS is very similar.

1DD

I've tested Hornady's 135gr 9mm Critical Duty by re-chambering the same round in one of my SIG P320's until I achieved measurable bullet setback. It took 25 re-chamberings before I could measure .01" of setback.
Tomac