At an introductory handgun training course I took recently, the instructor said that a few hundred rounds of FMJ should be cycled through a new semi-auto weapon before firing JHP’s, to more or less condition the firearm, otherwise the owner may experience “failure to fire” problems.
Has anyone else heard of this?
On 1911 pistols. On modern design pistols, I’ve been told to run a box or so of the ammo you wish to use. As long as it cycles, you should be good.
Never heard of that, and feel different firearms can be in vastly different states of " tune" so a generic statement like he said would raise my eyebrow and my hand…
1911’s can be in vastly different states of tune ime, my SA ran ppu hp’s just fine right off the bat.
Some of my P80 builds ran HP rounds better than fmj at first. Reason being the hp is 147 +p, my 115 grain fmj was an 1100+/- fps load. NATO fmj a whole different story, like running race fuel instead of E85 
I love picking apart generalizations from “experts.”
Some guns need more powerful ammo to cycle until they get broken in. It is so you don’t get failures but doesn’t hurt the gun.
Read the manual. It will tell you what needs to be done for break-in if anything.
I like to run some cheap FMJ through a new pistol first just to make sure it is functioning the way it should before running more expensive JHP SD rounds through it to make sure it works with those as well.
But have never heard of needing to run FMJ first before.
Agree this makes sense, but didn’t understand the logic of what the instructor had said.
Yeah, my FMJ’s are only 115 gr while the JHP’s are 124gr +P, so the instructors statement doesn’t make sense there either.
No mention of this practice in the manual.
I don’t understand the logic of “failure to eject” mentioned by Instructor.
I can agree with statement to run FMJ ammo first to see if everything functions as should. FMJ projectile must feed easily into the chamber. If not - that is the first sign that JHP may create more problems.
I’ve never seen any manual that says “run FMJ first, before running JHP”, but I always use FMJ ammo first for two reasons:
Then don’t worry about it.
If anything, in a new 1911 a break in period is warranted. You would more likely experience a FTF rather than a failure to eject, due to the nature of a “hollow” point. That’s from experience!
These failed to feed through my 3” 1911
But these had no problems after break in. Are now my EDC.
Looking back at my original post, I meant to say FTF, not FTE. Sorry for the confusion everyone. I corrected the original post.
And now the Instructor’s words make sense. 
Everything is about projectile’s front profile.
So, how does running FMJ’s before JHP’s “fix” the FTF? Is it a “wear” thing?
It’s not so much about feeding FMJ’s through as it is about polishing a new “feed” ramp.
You could take the proper Dremel tool and polish the ramp and have the same results as putting a 100-200 rounds through.
Feel free to correct if wrong.
Ok, THAT makes sense to me.
Thanks! 
I’ll stick to not using the Dremel on my new firearm though!
It’s all in the wrist! 
That’s what HE said! 
FTF, perhaps older semiautos like 1911s or Hi Powers.
