I just picked up a p3at (apparently from around 2005, so it was new old-stock), did a light F&B, cycled 100 times, and took it to the range today. I really like the gun and trigger. I had one failure to chamber in the first 60 rounds of PMC FMJ, and a quick tap&rack solved that problem. Then I tried to run some Black Hills HP. Total disaster. For some reason, fired brass would hang on the ejector every couple of rounds. And after clearing, the nose of the next round might be damaged. So back to FMJ, and no problems. Back to HP, problems. I guess I need to try some other HP make and see if it is just a bad batch of brass or if I have some work to do. Any troubleshooting suggestions? What is the best feeding HP round?
My P3 eats DPX and Critical Defense JHP's fine. It may be that your P3 dosen't like the ammo you tried. You might want to shoot 100+/- more FMJ rounds before trying any JHP. A good break in might help. I noticed you did a F&B but how does the feed ramp look, a good polish on that couldn't hurt. CJ
You can try and bring your feedramp to a mirror polish, that seems to help alot. You might be able to find HP ammo with a polymer tip that will alleviate the feeding issues.
I'll go back and work on the ramp some, and I'll run more FMJ through at the range. Thanks for the suggestions. I quite like the form factor of the P3AT, and I want this little guy to be don't-think-about-it reliable. The failure to eject was the problem causing the nose damage, I strongly suspect. I'll remove the ejector and spring, deburr, and clean carefully. Couldn't hurt, might help. Thanks again.
Bet you it wasn't! Does it looks like little Smiley Faces on the tip of the bullet? What you are seeing is almost certainly the infamous Kel-Tec "Smiley"! It's caused by recoil ramming the top round in the magazine into the bottom sharp edge of the feed ramp during cycling. You can modify the sharp edge of the feed ramp and stop most of it. See this about that: http://www.1bad69.com/keltec/smiley.htm rc
My P3AT is just a little newer than yours and I haven't tried Black Hills JHP but I have tried Winchester Silvertip JHP, Winchester SXT JHP and Federal Hydrashock JHP all with no problems at all. You might want to try another brand.
