Check Your Carry Ammo

[Whiskey]

Recently had to get rid of some .40 (Gold Dots) while others were shooting our new 9mm (Hornady) Even with the very obvious red button at the front of the 9mm ammo, some dudes tried to jam 40 in their mags. Also saw them try to get G19 magazines to seat in G17's, and same for 23/22's before. Non gun people, especially the ones who think they ARE gun people, will do wild stuff if you give them the opportunity.

We remedied it by only shooting one type of ammunition for duty and practice, and only keeping G17 magazines available on the range.

Hope that Trooper heals well.

[Ed L]

The ammo was Cor-Bon 115 gr. 9mm +P. I have shot at least hundreds (if not thousands) of rounds of Cor-Bon in 9mm and .45 with no issues, although it gave some light strikes in a North American Arms .380. I switched to Winchester JHP in that gun, which solved the problem.

I started using Cor-Bon because that is what the gun rags of the 1990's raved about. Now that I have the ability to check DocGKR's sticky threads, if I recall correctly, he is more concerned about accuracy, reliability, and availability with 9mm JHP, since most provide decent performance. As I use up my supply of Cor-Bon, I will likely move to something from one of the larger manufacturers, most likely a 124 gr. +P.

Bill, Corbon ammo has had quality control problems dating back to the 1990s. Lots of people on the old use.net group rec.guns reported issues These included rounds failing to detonate, rounds loaded with not enough power, rounds loaded with too much powder. I remember that I posted this info back on the old Self Defense forum.

Back in the mid 1990s I read in the rec.guns newsgroups about people who were firing the 40 S&W 135 grain +P JHP and encountered squib loads. Some rounds went bang, others went pop and did not even cycle the action. They called Corbon and were told that the lot of ammo in question had been sabotaged by a disgruntled employee who no longer worked for them.

I called Corbon and they confirmed this story. They told me what lot number of the problem ammo. It turned out to be the same lot of ammo I had loaded in my home defense handgun. Corbon instructed me to ship the ammo back to them. I asked them if they were going to make some recall announcement, they told me they were working on it. They NEVER issued any announcement.

Over the years I saw many posts about problems with Corbon ammo, including problems detonating Corbon rounds in 9mm and 380. I've also saw one by someone who measured the 40 S&W 135 grain JHP and found it to be below the minimum standard length for that caliber. Someone else took rounds apart and measured the powder charges and found significant differences.

[BillSWPA]

Bill, Corbon ammo has had quality control problems dating back to the 1990s. Lots of people on the old use.net group rec.guns reported issues These included rounds failing to detonate, rounds loaded with not enough power, rounds loaded with too much powder. I remember that I posted this info back on the old Self Defense forum.

Back in the mid 1990s I read in the rec.guns newsgroups about people who were firing the 40 S&W 135 grain +P JHP and encountered squib loads. Some rounds went bang, others went pop and did not even cycle the action. They called Corbon and were told that the lot of ammo in question had been sabotaged by a disgruntled employee who no longer worked for them.

I called Corbon and they confirmed this story. They told me what lot number of the problem ammo. It turned out to be the same lot of ammo I had loaded in my home defense handgun. Corbon instructed me to ship the ammo back to them. I asked them if they were going to make some recall announcement, they told me they were working on it. They NEVER issued any announcement.

Over the years I saw many posts about problems with Corbon ammo, including problems detonating Corbon rounds in 9mm and 380. I've also saw one by someone who measured the 40 S&W 135 grain JHP and found it to be below the minimum standard length for that caliber. Someone else took rounds apart and measured the powder charges and found significant differences.

This is not the first time I have heard of such issues. Perhaps I need to accelerate my switch to something else. I recently bought a bunch of Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. +P.

[358156hp]

Cor Bon was sold out of Peter Pi's family in 2017?, and was moved from South Dakota to Ohio. It ain't the Cor Bon I grew up with. Complaints seem to be commonplace. Interestingly Peters son Peter Pi Jr, is now associated with the "new" Super Vel.

This could get interesting.

[CZ Man]

Interestingly Peters son Peter Pi Jr, is now associated with the "new" Super Vel.

This could get interesting.

Pi Jr is running Defiant Munitions still based in SD. Pi Sr was working with Super Vel for a while but I believe he's no longer with them.

[RJ]

Thanks Tom, I am so sorry to hear of that officer, and hope he recovers as best as possible.

This is a good opportunity to take a look at my carry ammo. Maybe as part of a year end review habit I can start this year. I have a couple 50 round boxes of older Speer GD 124+p (2021) I've been using for too long. I got two new 50 round boxes of Federal HST 124 this year to try. I've been marking each incoming box with the month and year of order with a sharpie. Also I will go back and chamber check each round with my checker tool as part of a visual exam for all of it.

Appreciate the reminder.

[BWT]

How often does everyone here shoot through their carry ammo?

ETA: If this is some how unclear. Is it once a year? Once every two years? What’s considered the best practice?

[Ed L]

Cor Bon was sold out of Peter Pi's family in 2017?, and was moved from South Dakota to Ohio. It ain't the Cor Bon I grew up with. Complaints seem to be commonplace. Interestingly Peters son Peter Pi Jr, is now associated with the "new" Super Vel.

Corbon had QC problems dating back at least to 1995.

This is not the first time I have heard of such issues. Perhaps I need to accelerate my switch to something else. I recently bought a bunch of Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. +P.

I think I mentioned it to you in the now non-existent Self Defense Forums many years ago. I will post them in a separate post since they are long.

Here are some posts from the old usenet group rec.guns. Corbon's quality control problems date back to at least 1995. But you won't read anything about it in Combat Handguns Magazine.

[Ed L]

Here are some posts from the old usenet group rec guns about problems with Corbon ammo:

Article: 155084
Newsgroups: rec.guns
From: scot@aimnet.com (Scot J. Marburger)
Subject: COR-BON Caution
Date: 22 Jul 1995 12:00:42 -0400

Bill Giese and I just got back from the range where we had an interesting experience with some COR-BON ammunition. Bill was shooting his Glock 23 with the 135 gr. .40 S&W COR-BON ammo, and noticed that one of the rounds went "pop" when the previous one went "BANG". We stopped shooting and found the empty still in the chamber, but no bullet stuck in the barrel.

Bill reloaded and started shooting again, "BANG", "pop". Racking the slide showed another empty still in the chamber, and no bullet stuck in the barrel. Bill filled the magazine and handed the pistol to me. "pop", same un-ejected empty, no stuck bullet. "BANG", "BANG", "pop". Same story. Out of 12 rounds in that box, we got 4 "pops" and then set aside
the box.

When we got home, we called COR-BON (COR-BON Bullet Company, (800)626-7266, 4828 Michigan Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201) and spoke with someone named Mike. Mike was very appologetic, and said that two new boxes of ammo would be on the way Monday. When asked what he thought had happened, he explained that COR-BON had recently changed locations, and they suspected that a disgruntled employee had been short charging some of the ammo in retaliation. Hmmm...

This warrented further investigation. I weighed each cartridge in the box, and found a spread of about 2 grains around a mean of 212 gr. I found 5 rounds that weighed less than 211 grains and set them aside. Another box all fell into the 212 +- 1 gr range. I pulled the bullets from the light rounds and weighed the bullets and the powder. Here's what I found:

1 3.9 gr
2 5.2 gr
3 5.8 gr
4 3.5 gr
5 5.1 gr

All bullets weighed 135 gr +- .5 gr.

That's quite a spread in powder charges, so I pulled apart one round of the nominal weight cartridges. It contained 8.7 grains of powder, same nominal bullet weight. So Mike's story seems to be confirmed.

The upshot is if you have any COR-BON 135 gr .40 S&W ammo tucked away for a dark day, especially if it has lot number 1083 dated March 08, 1995, (the information is located inside one of the box end flaps) you might want to weigh the cartridges to find out if there is a significant variation. Since one box contained 9 "powder-puff" loads and the other didn't contain any, and since both boxes had the same lot number, shooting some of it won't tell you if it is reliable. I might also be suspisious of any COR-BON ammo made in this same time frame, especially if I was going to count on it for defensive use.

--
<=========== Note new email and Web addresses ============>
Scot J. Marburger
Shooting Supplies & Gunsmithing
Dublin, California
scot@aimnet.com
http://users.aimnet.com/~scot/shooting_supplies


Article: 156017
Newsgroups: rec.guns
From: LNWT83A@prodigy.com (William Shipman)
Subject: Re: COR-BON Caution
Date: 26 Jul 1995 16:47:30 -0400

I had the same experience with COR-BON. I bought two boxes of 165 GR for my SIG229 and had two squibs in the first box. I called COR-BON and was told the same story about the disgruntled employee. I was told that the problem was confined to one lot (#1045) of 165 GR .40 cal with a production date of Jan 11 1995.
-
SIG229 LNWT83A@prodigy.com

Article: 157295
Newsgroups: rec.guns
From: flynshoot@aol.com (FlynShoot)
Subject: Re: Sigma+Haarts+Corbon=Misfires
Date: 7 Aug 1995 10:41:41 -0400

Are you sure you don't have ammo problems with the Corbon? I had two of the 50 rnd boxes for .40 cal that were definitely FUBAR'd (bang,pop,poof,bang,poof,etc). I called CorBon who aknowledged that there was a problem with some of the ammo and promptly replaced it gratis. Excellent customer service (maybe because of the liability issue).


rmwcigna@ix.netcom.com (Robert Walton) writes:
I bought a G26 over the weekend. After running some standard FMJ ammo through it with no problems, I tried a some Corbon 115 JHP +Ps and experienced the first (and I hope last) misfires. Two of the > 20 rounds failed to detonate, though upon inspection there was a pin strike on both. I could use some advice from those with more experience in Corbon or Glock opeations.
>
Circumstances: The pin strike imprint on the primer was less pronounced than on the other three brands of ammo I tried (none of which produced problems), or on the rest of the Corbon ammo. I tried
to repeat this failure and could not. I loaded the rounds in the mag again and they went off on this time. The two rounds in question misfired one right after the other. There were no other misfires.
There were no failures to feed or eject. Temperature was in the high 70s, low humidity, altitude about 1,000 feet -- if any of that matters.

Potential Causes: Any of the following -- primers not set flush in the two rounds in question, light hammer strike (grime or something else affecting firing pin velocity on the two sequential shots in question), magazine feeding, other?

I'd appreciate any feedback anyone can give me on this, as this is my new concealed carry gun -- or it will be when I have 100% confidence in it. If it was the ammo, or the gun, or the magazine, or
something else, I need to know. Replies appreciated. Thanks.


perrone@lava.net (Paul Perrone) writes:
On 15 Feb 1996 22:45:28 -0500, Roger Uehara <carol@beachnet.gen.ca.us>
wrote:

About a year ago I went to a gun store to buy some Cor-bon 9mm 115 grain #plus p ammo. I was told that the store had had some problems with the #115 grain ammo and wasn't selling it, so I
bought the 124 grain ammo #instead . Has anybody heard what the problem is with the 115 grain #bullet ?

the box of cor-bon 115 gr. +P i bought about 2-1/2 years ago was just plain awful. in the first dozen rounds i had 6 failures, closely examined the 44 remaining rounds and found two with entirely different
types of bullets in them and about a dozen that didn't have sealed primers. when i lined them all up it was so obvious they were wildly out of spec that i thought i was looking at a scale model of a
rollercoaster. the rounds with the highest seated bullets stuck *way* out of the chambers of both glock 17 and taurus pt908 barrels.

i think that this tale about the disgruntled cor-bon employee who sabotaged a bunch of .40 S&W rounds may or may not be true, but i also suggest that cor-bon may have a much more pervasive quality control problem than they are willing to admit.

//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\
Paul Perrone
Honolulu, Hawai`iperrone@lava.net
perrone@hawaii.edu
http://www.lava.net/~perrone/

[RJ]

I have a couple 50 round boxes of older Speer GD 124+p (2021) I've been using for too long. I got two new 50 round boxes of Federal HST 124 this year to try.

I'm glad I checked because my memory is like a sieve. I actually have two boxes of Gold Dot 124+p labeled 8/22, and two boxes of Federal HST 124 labeled 6/23. My reasoning for ordering the normal pressure HST was to try something slightly less impactful, having some concerns about arthritis in my hands). I plan to reorder at least one box of either GD or HST in December next year.

How often does everyone here shoot through their carry ammo?

ETA: If this is some how unclear. Is it once a year? Once every two years? What’s considered the best practice?

Going forward, annually in December for me, but I'm very interested in what other folks are thinking.