[grumpyolretiredcop]

I just picked up a PMR30 today. Out of 40 rounds of V-Max and 100 rounds of CCI A22, I had 26 failures to fire; 6 from the V-Max and the remainder from the A22. In all honesty, I did not expect good performance from the CCI as it is optimized for the Savage rifle per CCI's labeling. I didn't expect 20% failure though! All misfired rounds appeared to have adequate firing pin strikes indistinguishable from rounds that fired correctly. All misfired rounds either fired correctly when chambered a second time or if not (6 rounds of CCI did not), did fire correctly when chambered in a Ruger Single-Six that I had brought along. I am an experienced pistol shooter, firearms instructor and a production foreman for a rifle manufacturer and was careful to avoid limp wristing the pistol.

After waiting for some time to lay hands on this pistol, I'm disappointed, to say the least. Guess I'll have to haunt the gun shows and see if I can come up with any of the ammo on the recommended list in the manual. Needless to say, none of them are available locally or online at the moment. Hoping to come up with ammo that works in the PMR as it is accurate and fun to shoot... when it works!

I posted the information in the "Ammo or "best" ammo for the PMR thread linked in the stickys for reference.

 

[ral357]

That A22 is pretty hot,maybe I'm wrong but I thought the use of the hotter rounds are discouraged in the PMR.

 

[grumpyolretiredcop]

Reading the manual, it appears that the PMR demands hotter ammo to work...

Low power ammo and/or light-wight bullets may cause failure to feed problems due to the lack of energy to cycle the slide all the way back.

Please take the ammo type into account before sending your pistol in for repair work. All testing at the factory will be done with high-power ammo.

PMR Manual, Page 4

 

[grumpyolretiredcop]

I did field-strip the pistol and disassembled the slide this evening, found the firing pin channel awash in lube and collected debris. Cleaned and degreased the firing pin channel thoroughly, cleaned the pistol again and lubed with Break-Free.

Also ordered a 5-inch barrel, probably won't shoot it again until I have that installed.

 

[grumpyolretiredcop]

Well, gotta change the thread title... if I could!

With the firing pin channel thoroughly cleaned and the threaded barrel installed, it's a completely different pistol. Fired the following variety of ammo at 25 yards from a rest for sighting as well as function testing:

Hornady 30 gr. V-Max: 10 rounds (all I had left) - 1 failure to fire, round fired when chambered 2nd time
Winchester 40 gr. JRN: 10 rounds - 1 round failed to feed, then failed to fire and would not eject. Fired correctly when chambered 2nd time.
Speer Gold Dot 40 gr. GDHP "Short Barrel Personal Protection": 10 rounds, 1 failure to feed, corrected without ejecting round. This load shoots about 4" right compared to other loads tested.
CCI A-22 35 gr. JRN: About 65 rounds fired. I recall only 2 failures to feed, 1 fired correctly when rechambered, 1 did not fire on either attempt.
Colorado Buck 40 gr. JHP: 10 rounds - 100% function, higher perceived recoil (not that there's much to perceive), excellent group right at point of aim.

The Colorado Buck round is my PMR's apparent favorite ammo. Although the Gold Dot is touted as a "Personal Defense" load, given the offset point of aim, I wouldn't use it for that. If the PMR was all I had, I'd stoke it with the Colorado Buck and go with it.

I couldn't get more than 20 rounds into the magazine no matter how carefully I followed the factory instructions, and I'm used to carefully loading rimfire magazines as I test .17 WSM AR-15s on a very frequent basis. It's a little disappointing, but not that big a deal as I don't see myself ever needing 30 rounds per mag.

My final snivel is a wish that KT would see fit (or someone else would) to offer either an adjustable rear sight or a firing pin cover that would allow the installation of someone else's adjustable rear sight. Given the offsets in POI that I observed, that would be very useful.

In the final analysis, I'm happy with the PMR though. Light, comfortable to shoot, a little bit of obnoxious fun with the substantial muzzle flash (I did not install the "brake" that came with the threaded barrel) and it does get a little bit of attention on the range. Good, clean fun!

 

[TxCajun]

Well, gotta change the thread title... if I could

Fixed it for ya.