I thought I broke my gun.
So in the previous post I mentioned that I had ordered 500 9mm reloads. Yesterday I picked them up in town, and this morning I loaded magazines and took them out to the driveway range. Everything went okay through the first mag but halfway through the second the Arex locked up hard. I mean I could neither rack nor remove the slide. The slide wasn’t in battery, and what’s more I was pretty sure there was a live round in the chamber so I had to proceed cautiously.
Didn’t even want to take the pistol indoors because I was going to have to fiddle pretty hard to get the slide to do anything, and – y’know. Live round. Actually I ended up tapping the slide into battery with a rubber hammer. Then I fired it – yup, live round – took it inside and tried to take the pistol apart. The slide came off the frame easily enough but the barrel did not want to come out of the slide. The reason for that turned out to be that the case was stuck in the chamber, and the extractor hook was in the rim so there we were. I finally convinced the barrel to leave the slide and then I was able to knock out the case.
I cleaned and inspected the gun and could find nothing wrong. Lubed and reassembled it: Seemed to work fine.
So I loaded up a couple more mags and went back down the driveway. And on the second mag the pistol locked up again. This time not as hard: I was able to remove the slide…
…and this time it was a fired case that was stuck in the chamber. I was able to tap the barrel out but the case remained stuck in the chamber. I had to bring it back inside and knock it out with a cleaning rod.
Put the pistol back together again. This time I loaded the mags with new Fiocchi ammo, went down the driveway, and blasted away. 36 rounds, bang bang bang, no problems at all.
I never had trouble with commercial reloads before: I’ve shot lots through 1911s in the past. But these sure didn’t work out for me.
Grab your digital caliper and a couple of handfuls of those unfired reloads. Measure diameter at the case neck where the bullet is seated 3 times with 1/3 rotation and measure length from nose of,bullet to base of case and rim of case to base. I suspect weak and out of round from too many reloads plus untrimmed cases, even a hairline crack on some.
not all reloads are created equal.
I haven’t used any in decades, since I moved away from the guy I trusted.
And since I don’t trust myself that much, I don’t load my own.
Yep- I never used reloads unless I made them. And now that I can’t remember what I’m doing from one minute to the next, those either. Yer lucky you didn’t severely damage your pistol.
Joel, it’s the firearm gods punishing you for using the Europellet.
Was there a bulge in the case just above the rim? Get ahold of the guy that manufactured or sold you the cartridges, and let him know you are not happy. When you reload and sell , you have liabilities to make sure they are safe.
Joel, I’m glad you’re OK. It sounds like the cases weren’t sized properly or slightly overcharged, or possibly both. Whoever you get the reloads from… Well, let’s just say they need a good kick in the butt.
Plunk test until you get one that don’t fall in chamber. Sharpie that one up good and push/turn it in the chamber. Then you’ll know where they are out of spec.
Let the seller know about the problem.
They are very good about correcting issues with their ammo.
I’m curious – it’s just another data point; any evidence from the primer? e.g. cratered or flattened?
Nope. Wondered the same thing. No signs of overpressure.
That’s the reason I never do reloads anymore. I had a long time friend/ retired military armorer who did them for me and never had issues. He stopped and then one day at a range i watched a rifle blow up and split the barrel from commercial reloads, so Never again.
I just pay the money for new factory loads and if things go bad, I call Frank The Strong Arm Lawyer.
Joel, I ran into the exact same thing 30 years ago with my Glock 19. Turns out that not all the brass was full length resized. Our chambers are VERY close to minimum spec, so you get an slightly oversized round that wedges in REAL good. I was far away, in the field when when I hammered my slide closed, fired, locked up tight. No tools. Found a broken arrow and rock for case removal. I went through WTF?!?! gyrations for a minute.
Mike, above @ 4:46 got it. Disassemble yer gun and fit test each round in your barrel.
Then donate the out of spec ammo to someone with a more “generous” sized chamber.