tarzan1888 wrote:
I bought a box of CCI Blazer Brass once and had the only FTF I have ever had with a 1911.
It happened on the 5th round and then again on the 10th round.
It got my attention and so I examined the remaining ammo in the box.
The entire row along one side of the box sat deeper in the foam container than did the rest of the cartridges in the box.
I looked at the cartridges in that row and they were all set visably deeper in the casing than all the others.
They were so deep that the lip of the casing would not allow them to feed, without forcing the slide forward.
I had a similar situation this weekend with a box of CCI Blazer brass .45s in my XD. In my case they were not set too deep in the case to start with, but some of the bullets were so loose that every 3-4 rounds in my XD, I would get a type 3 failure with the cartridge hanging up on the ramp and tilting at an angle such that the rim did not slided up under the extractor. I was getting concerned as I had never had an FTF or FTE with the XD in 3500+ rounds, but I had not shot it in about 6 months (I know -- been busy and haven't made it to the range which is why shooting this weekend was a priority) so I chalked it up to it being dirty or not lubricated properly which also concerned me because in abuse testing thousands of rounds have been fired through XDs after intentionally stripping off all lube.
I wasn't on top of things enough to immediately check the ammo closely enough and started at the wrong place - with the pistol, field stripping, checking it out, quick cleaning of the slide paying attention to the extractor, relubing and switching mags in case it were a bad mag spring. When the situation recurred I then, finally, got my head out of my butt and checked the ammo and found 2 things. Some of the ammo had a rough nick on the side of the case rim (the box it was in was pristine) which I at first thought was a mark from my ejector on the mispositioned FTF round, but then found 2-3 left in the box with similar markings. So I thought I had found my problem until I examined the ejected unfired cartridges. The bullets were apparently loose as they had setback significantly into the case on a single FTF loading enough that it was obvious even at a casual glance.
Anyway, I switched to another box of Blazer and fired off the box with no further issues. Good learning experience as I went about the whole thing bassackwards. Instead of starting with the variable, the ammo, I started with the constant, my never before failing XD.
Now to get my post here back on topic, I do not usually worry too much about rechambering rounds. I do check my first few rounds with 2 fresh ones from the box with a ruler and a level surface (I don't have a caliper) - put the chambered one in the middle and lay a good flat ruler over it and get down level to see if it is set back much. Given that I mostly carry and rechamber my .45, and given the low chamber pressure of the .45 I don't get too very concerned except with my +P rounds and have only taken out 1 round for setback in the last year. I am more careful with the 9mm due to the higher chamber pressure.
