Steel cased ammo through P30 report

[xskylitox]

I went to the range today to practice my point shooting. The gun store near my house did not have a wide selection of 9mm ammo. I had a choice between Black Hills which was $18.95 for 50 rds and some Sellier & Bellot steel cased ammo for $10 per 50. I usually go to Walmart, but the one near me has been out of 9mm for the last three months. Because money is tight right now, I decided to go with the steel cased stuff.

I've put close to 2,000 rounds through my P30 since I bought it last May. It has given me zero problems since the first 150rds, in which I had about 5 FTEs with weaker ammo. I put 500rds through it the first day I had it, so those first 150 didn't worry me. Since then, I've put all sorts of ammo through it without a single hiccup.

This steel cased stuff was something awful. It was copper washed, and all the ammo looked clean and in spec. The first two magazines fired fine. After that, I started having ejection problems. The fired shell casing was being left in the chamber. The slide would go back and start to peel off another round into the chamber, but the empty casing would still be sitting in the chamber. I would take the magazine out, letting the slide return to battery, then rack it which would eject the empty casing. This happened about once in every magazine. At first I thought there was something wrong with my ejector or the rim of the bullet casing, causing the ejector not to grip the case. However, after about 60 rounds, the gun did something different. It fired a round, returned to battery, then locked up. I took the mag out and tried to rack the slide, but couldn't. The slide wouldn't budge. I eventually got it back by pulling on it as hard as I could while pushing the frame of the gun forward. Upon getting the slide back, I could see the empty shell casing still in the chamber. I took the gun apart, and forced the shell out of the barrel using a pen. The shell looked swollen.

I was a little weary about shooting any more of the ammo, but I wanted to make sure my gun wasn't affected by this mishap, as it is my ccw weapon. I loaded my magazines with my carry ammo, and cycled the entire magazines through the gun manually with the chamber opening towards the roof. My P30 ejects the rounds fairly high when I do this, so I wanted to make sure I didn't damage the extractor. It ejected the rounds as it usually does. I did a visual inspection of the gun, and everything looked ok. Just to be positive, I put one more magazine through the pistol. It fed all 15rds without any problems.

I know it's not good to put steel cased ammo through high tolerance weapons. I wasn't worried about damaging the extractor, as I'm sure HK uses harder steel than some eastern european ammo manufacturer, but I wasn't expecting the cases to swell in the chamber. I thought steel expanded less than brass. The only thing I'd ever heard about steel ammo was that you're not supposed to shoot steel and brass at the same time, because the excess carbon build up in the chamber could cause the brass to get stuck. Has anyone else ever experienced this problem with steel? Could it be a result of the HK having very high tolerances and the ammo being a little out of spec? I know I should have known better than to feed my $800 HK the same stuff I feed my $400 WASR.

Good news is the pistol is fine. She was a little mad at me, but I explained to her that we're all going to have to make some sacrafices for a little while. Last time I ever use steel ammo in a nice handgun.

[Carrots]

Good to hear that nothing exploded, I'd sooner eat that stuff myself than force feed it to her ladyship. Blazer brass is only $9 a box for 50 here, and fortunately my semi-local Wally world is sans a shooting audience. I hope that the making up works out....

[<Mach1]

In a world of compromise, some don't.
Those who do & survive, won't again.

[Talon66]

Hey man, it's your gun. Put whatever you want through it. I sure wouldn't do it to my gun. But that's just me. I'm sure somewhere in the manual it said something about using only high quality ammunition but I could be wrong. Sorta like feeding your Ferrari F430 low grade fuel. It might run on it but why would you do it?

Oh yeah, here it is:

"Use of steel or aluminum cased cartridges is not recommended
and could adversely affect safe and reliable functioning."

[Cylinder Head]

Hey man, it's your gun. Put whatever you want through it. I sure wouldn't do it to my gun. But that's just me. I'm sure somewhere in the manual it said something about using only high quality ammunition but I could be wrong. Sorta like feeding your Ferrari F430 low grade fuel. It might run on it but why would you do it?

Oh yeah, here it is:

"Use of steel or aluminum cased cartridges is not recommended
and could adversely affect safe and reliable functioning."

Exactly, I only put 93 Octane and up in my BMW, because it's a performance machine that doesn't desserve the lesser stuff. That's why my HK's are fed a strict diet of PMC and Fiocchi for practice ammo.

[Blainestang]

Well, I guess I won't be putting this steel-cased Wolf through my new HK45C.

[xskylitox]

While I definately won't be using steel ammo again in the HK, I don't like to think of my combat guns in terms of finicky European sports cars. I definately wouldn't take a Ferrari or a BMW into battle. I didn't buy an HK handgun because it was expensive and cool looking. I bought it because they are incredibly reliable, use high quality parts and manufacturing, and I shoot them well. The problem I was having has got to be from the ammo and not the gun not liking cheap ammo. I've put really dirty surplus 9mm, and other cheap stuff through her without any problems.

[Montrala]

I've put some 1-2K of steel cased, lacqured (green), russian ammo from Barnaul. Zero problems in my P30. However when I put it in brand new P30L it had FTE every 2-3 rounds, but same was on CCI Blaser. I think ammo was just too weak for new recoil spring.

In Poland ammo is very expesive and we have little choice, some sometimes it's just choce of giving any gas avaiable to this F430 ;) Luckily there is 98-99 octane for my Audi :D

[xskylitox]

I've put some 1-2K of steel cased, lacqured (green), russian ammo from Barnaul. Zero problems in my P30. However when I put it in brand new P30L it had FTE every 2-3 rounds, but same was on CCI Blaser. I think ammo was just too weak for new recoil spring.

In Poland ammo is very expesive and we have little choice, some sometimes it's just choce of giving any gas avaiable to this F430 ;) Luckily there is 98-99 octane for my Audi :D

This stuff wasn't lacquered, so maybe that was the problem, or the steel just sucked. Good to hear the P30 can handle the steel stuff, though.

[MarcDW]

From what I understand Wolf can't be imported into the US anymore, so this problem will solve itself in time!! ;)