Well, no HST for me!

[spamlovr]

Speer Gold Dot HP's come in a couple of different bullet weights, there is a formula available for short barrels and a +P load, and feed fine in my XD.45c:
http://www.speer-ammo.com/products/gold_dot_prsnl.aspx
http://www.speer-ammo.com/ballistics/ammo.aspx
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe...Returned2=2000

I also haven't had any problems with DPX ammo.
http://www.dakotaammo.net/products/corbon/dpx.htm
https://dakotaammo.net/shop/product_...roducts_id=142
http://www.midwayusa.com/ebrowse.exe...Returned2=2000

John Farnam on the DPX Rounds:
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=203800

[bartonmd]

OK, well I found a couple things...

1. (1) short mag, and (1) long mag had lips that looked fine by themselves, but when loaded with ammo, they were 0.005" to 0.010" out from touching the cartrige case, at the front. I bent them back, and am shooting tonight after work, on the way home, so we'll see what we see... IF being out 5 or 10 thousandths on a, what, 20 ga. stainless tab that sticks out in to the air, unsupported, can cause things like this to happen; I have to question why. They were REALLY easy to bend back just by tapping the back of the handle of my pocket knife on them. I say I have to question why, but being that designing is what I do, I know that there are trade-offs that you have to balance, and I know that the mags are this thin, and not reinforced, so that the grip can be kept small. I get it, but I guess I'll just have to see how they stay bent back "right" in the future, because I did not check them whey they were new, so I don't know if they even came to me right.

2. This seems as if it would be a common thing, because all of my mags look like this. They have all developed a bump in the back of the mag, where it looks like the top round in the magazine has been shoved backward and dented OUT on the back of the mag. I know the "slider plate", for lack of a better term, on the under side of the slide, pushes each round back as it cycles back, but should it be pushing that hard? Maybe it's from when it was new and not "smooth" yet, and there was too much friction? It's enough that it makes it really hard to get the X-Tension on and off from the top of the mag. Have you guys experienced this? Do I bend them back, or will it just happen again?

Also, I went ahead and marked them... The ones that I bent back were #1 and #5.

Thanks,
Mike

[Bree]

Good deal. I did some searches yesterday to see if I could find a bunch of reports of HST jamming in any kind of gun. I was unsuccessful. I did find a lot of Gold Dot jam stories for various guns. Now I have not fired as many Gold Dots as I have HST's but I will say that the Gold Dots never jammed in my XD. That is based on maybe three boxes or 50 and a few extras.

Make sure to check the follower for any burrs or other imperfections that might catch or bind as the follower moves up the chamber of the mag. If it can catch anywhere it can get angled and present the cartridge improperly increasing the probability of a jam.

Thanks for taking the time to do all your investigations. You are helping a lot of people.

[bartonmd]

The follower is one thing I forgot to add to my post... I cleaned all of the insides of the mags, and their followers. There was a little bit of powder residue, but nothing horrible. The only thing about them that doesn't look brand new is where the edge of the case on the last round digs into the plastic a little bit on the follower, as it gets pushed out of the magazine. I noticed that after only having a couple magazines throught he pistol, and it it mattered, I'd think it would have been causing feed failures on the last round only, and with ball ammo, also.

If I was "really" going all "scientific method" on this, I really should have JUST bent the lips back, and run a couple hundred rounds of HP through it, THEN if it still had issues, clean the mag insides, and clean the pistol again, then try it. I'd like to do that, but I don't have the money to burn $100 on a shot in ammo on changing one thing at a time...

I'll update tomorrow about how things went at the range tonight...

Mike

[Bree]

Originally Posted by bartonmd

The follower is one thing I forgot to add to my post... I cleaned all of the insides of the mags, and their followers. There was a little bit of powder residue, but nothing horrible. The only thing about them that doesn't look brand new is where the edge of the case on the last round digs into the plastic a little bit on the follower, as it gets pushed out of the magazine. I noticed that after only having a couple magazines throught he pistol, and it it mattered, I'd think it would have been causing feed failures on the last round only, and with ball ammo, also.

If I was "really" going all "scientific method" on this, I really should have JUST bent the lips back, and run a couple hundred rounds of HP through it, THEN if it still had issues, clean the mag insides, and clean the pistol again, then try it. I'd like to do that, but I don't have the money to burn $100 on a shot in ammo on changing one thing at a time...

I'll update tomorrow about how things went at the range tonight...

Mike

I'm going to put you in for the free ammo for life award.

[bartonmd]

Originally Posted by Bree

I'm going to put you in for the free ammo for life award.

I started to say "you have no idea how much I'd shoot" but you really do know...

[Bree]

Yeah... you're one of those guys who works just so he can buy more ammo! Ammo Junkie

[bartonmd]

Originally Posted by Bree

Yeah... you're one of those guys who works just so he can buy more ammo! Ammo Junkie

Na, it's a justification thing... I have WAY too many hobbies...

Motorcycles
Cars
Smallbore rifle matches
high-power rifle matches
Thursday night Trap
Target-shooting pistols (probably should get into IDPA, or at least "Friday night steel" at the local range)

-You know the Motorcycle addiction
-Car addiction gets put on the back burner since I don't put too many miles on them because of the motorcycle addiction
-My 77/22 works well for being a squrrel gun, and I've had it since I was 16, so the only expense is ammo (cheap) and match "stuff" (shooting coat, mat, chair, scope, etc)
-Have been shooting my dad's Garand and M1A since I was in High school (He got a 40XB a couple years ago, so he shoots that), and got a Garand of my own this year, now trying to make is shoot worth a damn. Will probably get a .308 Tikka varmant with the 5rd mag next, but that's $600 for just the rifle, dealer cost (dad's got an FFL).
-My Father-in-law gave "my wife" (me) an old JG Higgens 12GA pump and a JC Penny 20Ga pump about a year ago, and this fall I started shooting Thursday night Trap at the local range, and after my second evening there and one of the old guys showing me how to shoot trap, I now am pretty consistantly between 18 and 21 per round, with the old field 12Ga. It's a hell of a lot of fun, but there are a TON of other things before an over/under!

Oh yeah, my wife doesn't tell me I can't do any of this stuff, and doesn't make a big deal about it, but they aren't her interests, either, so that makes it a bit harder... On the other hand, I get my "alone time" doing this stuff, too...

Mike

[bartonmd]

No dice... Put 50 more rounds of TAP through it, through all mags, with no issues.

(4) misfeeds in 60 rounds of HST. On the bright side, (3) of them were in 1 13 rd mag (#3), and (1) of them was in 1 10 rd mag (#5). If you remember from before, I closed up the tabs that hold the top round, were #1 and #5. The issues I had before were in 1 short mag and one long mag, and though these aren't both of the ones I "fixed", they are 1 short and 1 long, so I'm guessing that these are the mags that screwed me up last time.

Failures were as follows:
#3, 13-rd:
- @ 5th rnd, nose drop, hang straight on or below feed ramp. Actually pointing at a downward angle
- @ 8 or 9th round, I KNOW I did not limp-wrist, did not make it up in time for the slide to catch it, and the slide stopped halfway closed without the round in front of it...
-@ 13th round, nose up and hung up on top of chamber opening

#2, 10-rd shorty:
- @ 10th round, nose down into feed ramp.

I put 50 rds of ball through these (2) mags after this with no issues.

So, it would seem that THESE 2 mags don't like THIS ammo... I am calling Springfield about this tomorrow...

The thing I still don't know is the answer to the question I asked before about the mags having a bulge in the back end of them. I wonder if that 9th round got pushed back far enough when the slide went back, that it didn't get picked up when the slide came forward? Do any of your mags have the bulge in the back of the top round space of the mag?? It's not really hanging up, but with the bulge in the back, the mags don't drop free of the grip when I hit the mag release, like they did before they got the bulge.

Thanks,
Mike

[bartonmd]

ok, I called SA, and they are swapping out those (2) mags with new ones, along with one that was not welded all the way to the top, because they said that will be a dead mag before too long.

They also said that the bulging at the rear of the mag is an issue, and they are swapping out all of my mags, because of it. They said that specifically with the .45, wadcutters gripping the sliding block on the under side of the slide will get pushed to the rear of the mag and made that bulge, and it is a problem. I told them I had not run any wadcutters though it, but just HP and FMJ stuff, and, as I expected, they said that it was more than likely a break-in thing with the sliding block not being "polished" yet. If it's too rough, it will slide the top round back too hard when the slide cycles, and will bulge the mag.

I used a big punch and a trim hammer to bend the bulge back in, on (2) mags that had no failures. They said they'd replace those, too, but are letting me do them in (2) passes, so I'm not mag-less for a month... So, I'm sending in the (3) today that had the major bulging, the (2) with the failures, and the one with the non-welded split at the top, and when I get new ones for those back, I'm going to send the others in to get replaced.

I may just go ahead and take some rubbing compound and a rag to the slider block in the bottom of the slide, to get it the rest of the way polished up. It's smoother in the middle than it was, but is still not "mirror-smooth" like my 15,000 round 639 is...

I will update as I shoot more HP through these "good" mags that I bent back, to see how they work with the HST... I need to order some more, though...

Thanks,
Mike