Went fishing today at a buddies place on a private lake. (Caught 24 giant slab sided crappie!) My friend wanted to try my P3AT, as he's thinking about buying one himself. So I brought it along with a few boxes of WWB 115 gr and 3 boxes of Cor-Bon 90 gr. Self Defense JHP. I carry my 3AT loaded the the Cor-Bon, thought I'd let him shoot a few to check them out. He shot 5 mags of WWB with out a hitch so we loaded up the Cor-bons and he ran 2 mags with no trouble. On the 3rd mag---3rd round, instead of a BANG he got a little pop...like from a cap gun. I hollered at him to stop and we took the pistol to a table to check it out. Yup, bullet stuck about halfway in the barrel. Stripped the gun and used a cleaning rod to drive it out. Cleaned the pistol and oiled it back up...ran another few mags thru it with no problems. Now what? This is the ammo I'm depending my life on? I can see maybe a squib in cheap WWB ammo, but in a supposedly high quality self defense round? Any comments?
Hi, First thank god that you didn't demolish your pistol and that all your digits are intact. I'd let Cor-Bon know what happened and give them the lot number, you might get a free box of ammo out of it. It could be a mixed bag though as you don't really trust the ammo now :-/ The newer self defense rounds like the Winchester-olin 380 AUTO PDX ammo should give the Cor-Bon a run for its money in effectiveness. You might want to try some if they are available in your area. I picked up a box of 20 today at a LGS and the Winchester PDX is a very impressive looking bullet. That being said I thought that WWB 380 ammo was only 95 grs. not 115 grs. Best Wishes:
Hey Haugrdr, How many rimfire rounds have you shot? How many duds? 3%? more ? probably less. How many center fire rounds have you shot? How many duds? We know they are man made, and can't be perfect. I've only been shooting for a few years now, and don't get to shoot as much as I'd like, but out of the thousands of rounds of center fires I've had 1 9mm that looked mangled and did not get chamberd. That was WWB and the only CF problem. You could draw you gun in a time of need and get hit by lighning, or a shark, or your round might not fire. What are the odds? Carry a bug and keep your seat belt on. It will do you worlds more good than carring a gun. Take care, Lop
rick, honestly as a friend, sh!t happens. it could happen with any ammo any time .. any place .. any where. anything made by man can and will fail.
One thing different about Corbon ammo - they don't crimp the bullet as tight as most others. As a result, in my water torture testing, the Corbons failed dramatically more quickly than all others. That resulted in a "pop" instead of a "bang" because the powder has little if any protection from moisture. May be that is not what happened here - I'm just saying that Corbon is unusually vulnerable to it. On the flip side - the only .380 ammo I have seen that seals the bullet with pitch to make it water tight is Federal Hydra-shok. Other well known brands did well in the moisture test, but Federal HS appears to be impervious to water damage. HS also has light recoil and does well in gel tests - an excellent all-around quality choice IMHO. If I didn't want maximum power, that is what I would be using. Here are the brands I tested. The Corbon pow'r ball looks like it has a tight crimp, doesn't it? Well, it doesn't...
Thanks for the input guys, Lop, I have had several .22 duds over the years. I guess that can be expected in a cheap, mass produced rimfire. Truthfully, in 35+ years of shooting, this is the only centerfire dud I can remember. Just kind of surprised me. RJ, I know, I know, I know...again, I was a bit surprised is all. I'm just very happy we didn't have a *kaboom*. Wheelguy, these were brand new out of the box. I bought them about a month ago. I do not believe they had ever gotten wet...but who knows? I going to chalk this one up to experience...but I think I'll start looking for a new carry ammo. LOL, as soon as I can get to the range for any length of time. I NEED a good long range day or two. (BTW...buddy picked up his new P3AT today...man is he happy!)
That's scary stuff! However, if you google and dig around deep enough, you can probably find a reported squib round from just about any maker out there. I'm sure glad you guys caught it in time (before pulling the trigger again). That almost surely would have resulted in a KB. I would definitely contact Corbon with the lot number. They might want that box returned and hopefully would pick up the cost and replace it as well.
I've got the empty shell and the bullet. I also have the empty box they came in. I'll give them a call this week. I'm not so upset now, more releaved that nothing bad happened. I'll post when I hear from CorBon.
It happens. Glad your buddy and your gun are ok. I had a bad day at the range once. http://www.ktog.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1210307215/0#0 I sent the round and a few spent cases to Winchester. They told me it looked like the primer had been inserted sideways. They also sent me a $50 certificate to buy more ammo!
haugrdr, I don't recommend CorBon 90gr JHP for SelfDefense with the P3AT anyway. In our wetpack tests the stuff doesn't expand in a P3AT, see this old report....(it does expand in a longer barrel pistol) http://usrange.org/smf/index.php?topic=301.0 In our thread of ratings of 380 ammo, I listed the CorBon JHP as unsatisfactory for the P3AT...... http://www.ktog.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1272330160 Of course, this is all my opinion based on past tests. Use it if you want, but FMJ would be just as good, or better!! Or better yet, if you really are a CorBon fan, skip the 90gr JHP and get some DPX!! Cheers, og
This is kinda scary stuff, considering I have this ammo loaded in mine right now. But I'm kind of in the the "well, as with all man-made things, some of them are bound to not be perfect" boat. But over a dollar a round, I'm just hoping to damn I didn't get a bad one in my box.
Talked to a young man at Dakota Ammo, Inc. this morning (I had no idea who made Cor-Bon.) Very polite and understanding about my misgivings due to the failed round. He wanted me to send him the shell and bullet along with the empty box and receipt, which I did this afternoon. He apologized and said when he gets my package he will send me a refund. He also told me that the round probably didn't have any powder in it from my description. He's also sending me a Cor-Bon hat. So far, so good. Still gonna look for a new carry round.
The first box of DPX I ever bought for my p3at wasn't seated properly which made the rounds too long to fit in my mag. I bought them directly from Dakota online. They were good about replacing them and I haven't had a problem since. I can see how it would hurt your confidence in the round. It was fmj, but I had a 9mm wwb once that was so loose in the case that I plucked it right out with little effort. Glad you were paying attention! Just to be safe, I've gotten to where I look over each my carry rounds carefully before loading them into the mag regardless of brand. Hope they never fail when I need them. Having been in an armed defense situation before I am terrified of getting a click or pop instead of a bang. Expansion is secondary to reliable firing.
