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Failure2Stop
09-22-2011, 04:47 PM
Long story short, I picked up 500 rounds of 124gr 9mm reloads from a gunshow for practice ammo.
When I started shooting it I began with a POA/POI verification at 25yds.
It was a terrible group. Hell, it would have been a terrible pattern of 00 Buck.
Center of 10 shot "group" was about 7" left and high, with 3 distinct fliers.
I immediately blamed myself and brought the target back to 7 yards to do dot drills and get my poop in a group.
Still couldn't consistently place 10 shots into a 3" circle at 7 unless I slowed waaaaay down.
I went home and dry-fired throughout the week until I hit the range again today.

As I was packing for the range I remebered a box of ~60 aluminum cased Blazer 124gr that I still had, and threw in a box of S&B 115gr from a recent shipment.
I prefer to do speed work at the begining of a range session, but given my less than stellar performance earlier I wanted to check on fundamentals, so the first thing I did was a quick dot drill at 7 yds (further than I wanted, but that range is ghey) with old carry ammo and finished it with some of the Blazer. It was clean and I was happy, but I wanted to see what POA/POI shift I might be looking at so I pushed the target back to 25yds for POA/POI confirmation.
Blazer punched in a tidy 3-4" group with one flier (my fault all the way, but still in black), and the S&B put in a nice 4" group (I was shooting a little faster than I should have and had two drop a couple of inches below the group body.

So, I figured that the dry-fire did me right and proceeded to my training for the day.
I figured that I would use the reloads and check for POA/POI shift with what I intended to shoot for the day.
Same repeat of the previous group. Way high and left, with wild fliers.
I also noticed that the recoil was considerably higher with the reloads than even the GD (don't remember what weight I bought, old ammo).
Seriously, it felt like hot .40.
I considered dumping all the gunshow ammo, but I only had ~100 rounds of anything else, and I didn't want to lose time and range fee.
So I did big target/fast stuff at 7 until the ammo was all gone.
I noticed that there was a fine layer of unburned flake powder all over my station.

I haven't really shot all that much ammo that I have had to pay for (thanks Uncle Sugar), and of the 7 to 10 cases of ammo that I have purchased, I have never seen anything like that before.
If I hadn't shot such drastically better groups just before (and after) I probably wouldn't have believed it.
Has anyone else had this kind of experience with ammo?

*I intend on contacting the company and sharing my experience, so I don't want to name them until communication is established and they have had a chance to reply. FWIW, I also got 500 rounds of 69gr .223 from them, and it shoots as expected.*

SecondsCount
09-22-2011, 05:01 PM
Never seen it but my guess would be that the powder was way too slow for 9mm.

I shot a friends 45ACP loads recently and could feel the unburnt powder hitting my arms and face when the case ejected. Nice, soft load but just not hot enough for the bullet combination.

Al T.
09-23-2011, 03:20 PM
Yes. Not at all unusual. I have a 1911 that despises any bullet over 215 grains. I have had major POI/POA shifts when switching loads in accurate handguns, though until you go past 15 yards or so, it's not as noticeable.

Few folks shoot at longer ranges anymore, so (IMHO & IME) FMJ (ball*) practice ammo has consistently gotten less accurate over the last decade or so.




* This has nothing to do with pelvic shots. :D

ToddG
09-23-2011, 03:22 PM
Long story short, I picked up 500 rounds of 124gr 9mm reloads from a gunshow for practice ammo.

Unless it was Black Hills, the inquiry can pretty much stop right there.

Failure2Stop
09-23-2011, 08:42 PM
Unless it was Black Hills, the inquiry can pretty much stop right there.

Yeah, I knew that was coming, I should have figured that it would come from you.
It was one of those moments in time where I knew I was being stupid, but convinced myself that it was a good idea.
Most certainly was NOT Black Hills. :(

Ever see this kind of silliness with factory ammo?

JHC
09-23-2011, 09:59 PM
The VERY LAST time I bought GA Arms ammo; I bought a can of their 55 gr fmj .223 and it soccer ball sized patterns at 50 yards from a N4 Recce. Blazer 124 gr has been pretty solid this year across 4K rds of it.

ToddG
09-23-2011, 10:57 PM
I should have figured that it would come from you.

Only because I love.


Ever see this kind of silliness with factory ammo?

Yes. 125gr JHP 357 SIG from Triton. They went out of business shortly thereafter. :cool: