Posted 23 March 2014 - 05:05 PMYesterday I picked up a few (8) boxes of Hornady Critical Defense 9mm because I got tired of not being able to find any Speer Gold Dot anywhere. What a waste of money it turned out to be.
I wanted to test it today mainly on my carry gun (Sig P239) but also put around 10 or so rounds through my Glock 19 gen 3. My Glock seemed to eat it up with no problems. So far so good.
Then it was time to feed my Sig with it for about 100 rounds or so. I wanted to put this many through it so I could be certain that it would be reliable as my carry ammo. First magazine loaded up, and go to chamber the first round (using slingshot method...not using the slide release) and the slide stays mostly locked back. I look down in the chamber and see that the round is stuck. So I lock the slide back again and release the mag, at this point the stuck bullet flies out like it was just fired. Great...wasted a round right there. So I inserted the magazine again and released the slide. Chambered just fine and I started shooting. Same magazine but 3rd bullet the slide is partially locked back again. Followed the same routine as before. Then continued on to finish out that magazine.
This all happens several more times with different magazines. It happened with each magazine I own (6 total). What happens is when I insert the magazine for some reason that bullet moves forward sometimes up to 1-2 mm and that's where the problem starts. I noticed that if I had another bullet catch up again all I had to do is lock the slide back and then push the bullet to the rear again and then it would feed just fine.
So with all this said, I simply cannot trust this ammo (it's the one with the red plug or whatever in the tip) with my life. So it's just going to be range ammo the next time I go shooting. After coming home and doing a bit of google I've found this is actually a common complaint with this ammo. I wish I would have known this before I dropped almost $200 on what was supposed to be my new carry ammo. Oh well, live and learn. So before I left the range I asked what they had available for self defense ammo and ended up picking up some Winchester PDX1 and will put some of that through my Sig the next time I go to the range. It seems to have a good reputation so I'm fairly confident it will work for me. Cycled some through my gun at home and didn't have any of the feeding problems the Hornady did.