I took my CCW renewal course last night. I had my S&W Centennial and a box of Remington Target(Remington, not the Remington UMC box) .38 Spl LSWC for my range ammo.
The first ten rounds performed as expected but the next five rounds, while chambered, would not let me close the cylinder.
I punched out the offending five, loaded another five rounds and everything worked.
I tried loading the miscreant five rounds again and once again, the cylinder wouldn’t lock in place.
I selected a different five rounds and all went as expected.
Then I loaded the despicable five again and no lockup.
I set the offending five aside and this morning did a side by side comparison with the other rounds in the box and there is no discernible difference I can see. Case length, OAL, rim thickness look the same as the rest of the box.
Has anyone here experience this?
Is the problem with my S&W(I seriously doubt this but I have to admit my confidence is shaken being this is one of my carry pieces!) Or is it with Remington?
Try loading the rounds singly and see if one of the bullets gives you the same effect. .01 of an inch can be all it takes to cause problems.
My other suggestion is use the ammunition that you use for self-defense. That way you know how your ammo will work in an actual self-defense situation.
Well, one of the five is the stinker! The only visible difference I can visibly see is that the case lacks a cannelure and the rim is flattened on one side—I didn’t notice this before—I suspect from repeatedly trying to close the cylinder.
This raises a disturbing situation I’ve never thought of as a wheel gunner,
Obviously if I had loaded this into a speed loader and actually got into a serious situation where I needed to reload, it could have put me in a tragic position!
I’m thinking every speed loader’s worth of ammo needs to be chambered and cylinder locked before being reinserted into the speed loader for carry.
Does anyone else do this?
Do you USCCA instructors recommend this practice, or not?
For us auto loader guys I have taken to chambering all of my ammo through the gun at least once prior to carrying it. I run a 1911 and I have ramped and throated it myself and I can actually chamber an empty case from the magazine.
The reasoning behind this is “ramp strike” and boolit setback. Years ago I had gotten a box of top shelf SD ammo and loaded it up in the mags and chambered a round and didn’t think twice about it. Went to the range and dumped the mag and chamber of “good stuff” so I could run my regular practice ammo. Mag fell out fine and the cartridge in the chamber came out as designed but there was one problem. The boolit was seated back into the case to the point that it was compressing the powder. I know because I took it apart and measured it.
Had I fired that round there is a very real chance I would have blown my gun and hand up. I want to say 12 out of the 20 rounds did the same thing because there was not enough neck tension on the brass to keep the boolit still during chambering.
It pays to check the ammo you are going to carry for fit and function.
Thinking this over, Remington handgun ammo just joined Remington rimfire ammo on my never again list.
And all .38 Spls destined for speed loaders are getting cycled through the cylinder before deployment.
I’m a semi-auto girl myself, but the idea of chambering them all and then cycling through makes sense. I might also contact the manufacturer and let them know what happened. They will probably want information off of the box it came out of. If your reporting it causes them to double check their inspections, it’s definitely worth the phone call or email.
WWI flying ace Raoul Lufbery used to sit outside and polish his machine gun rounds while everyone else went drinking. He threw out bad rounds when he found them. This prevented gun jams common to other pilots, and may have contributed to his success.
Lufbery flew up to face German fighter pilots every day. He had a reason to be so serious about the quality of his brass. But then again, he didn’t get to choose the brand.
For my part, I think I’d find another source of ammo.
