TulAmmo and the M&P40c: "Not the preferred method."

[MN.9130 44]

Seeing as Walmart seems to have un-assed their ammo selection, and opened a new location far closer to my house, I decided to pick up a $12ish box of .40S&W and have an inexpensive range day. Turns out, I was in for an adventure!

 

Being Halloween and all, I had my favorite range to myself, save for a guy all the way down the line with a .22. The A/C was rocking at full blast, and I happily unpacked all my shit and got my ducks in a row. I noticed, right off the bat, that the casings were VERY rough: loading my magazine was like rubbing fine sandpaper together. I usually don't think much of the first magazine, as it takes me about that many rounds to get back in the swing of things, but on round two, my slide hung rearward. Remedial action kicked in, but the mag refused to drop free and the slide took three he-man TUGS before the round un-assed itself and went into chamber. It became shot three, and when the slide locked back again, I fought the urge to clear the fucker and decided to take a look. I found, as shown in photographs below, that the problem was the rounds getting stuck between the slide and the chamber lip while still underneath the magazine feed lips: this bound the mag in place, but again, was easy enough to clear with a tug and release.

 

After three mags of what seemed like %50 percent failures, I put a new target up and fired for accuracy... and had a stoppage on every round but the last. On a whim, I put another target up, cleared my mind, and ran a panic drill... and it fired %100! Not only that, but if I did my part on the trigger... the accuracy was more than fine!

 

Curious. Very very curious... never had any trouble with this guy before, but it was my first time feeding it steel cased ammo. It got me thinking about the cause, and while I'd love to just jump on the ammo and go back to brass, it had me wondering about my mag: I do keep 9 of its 10 capacity loaded in it at all times at home, but I was able to replicate the stoppage with a fresh mag after I returned home, admittedly with a lower frequency and severity.

 

 

 

On the bright side, if you're looking to train yourself to clear stoppages... these might just be for you!

[joebanda1213 59]

hahah I feel like this forum reads my mind sometimes. Bought 100 rounds 9mm of tula last weekend to take the girlfriend shooting. I had zero stopages in my xdm. But after the first mag I noticed the rounds getting jammed up in the mags to the point that there was no spring tension and the top two bullets would fall out the mag if not held up straight prior to being slid into the pistol. The whole time I was wondering if the steel case was going to hurt my gun. They went wherer I pointed them though. I only made it through 60 or 70 rounds then my GF deflected two bullets off the ground like 6 inches from the backstop. I told them sorry and that she was done for the day. But they still didnt seem happy so I packed my shit up and left fast. Those asshats made my night a date from hell.

[Arik 565]

Bought a few boxes of that Black box Tula .45 fmj ammo. Few it through my Para LDA with no problems