Scary .40S&W round

[CroiDhubh]

So, at the shop a fellow employee comes up to me and goes, "Hey, man...this sure as hell doesn't look right to me. Check it out!" He gives me a 180gr .40S&W Speer Gold Dot and...well...check out the photos...








So, I'm pretty much going when I see it. Ask him, "Where the hell did you find this?" His reply? "I extracted it." I blink at him and go, "What do you mean you EXTRACTED it?" He points at his gun, then motions like he just ejected a round from the gun. Damn thing is pushed WAY down (almost 2x the normal depth) into the casing and the rim is chewed to crap.



He had this round IN HIS GUN...I was so shocked I never asked him why he even checked the round to begin with. I'm sure he was going to practice his draw on an unloaded fire arm in the back (I always double and triple check to make sure it's unloaded).

I'm just glad he didn't need it. I'm picturing that thing exploding in his young little face.

[BuffCyclist]

Jeez, definitely scary! I found one of those in, ironically enough, a box of Speer Gold Dots as well. It was obviously pushed in too far, because when I opened the box of 50, I saw it was sitting low and thought I got gipped and it was just an empty case. Granted it didn't have the chewed up rim, but the bullet was pushed in at least 1/8".

Still have it, but never did anything with it. Might end up pulling the bullet and reloading it to proper specs.

I do know that when loading rounds into the gun from empty, some people will just lock the slide back, drop the round into the chamber, release the slide and insert a full mag. I've read that this can cause the bullet to be pushed in further into the case and cause problems down the road. Although, when I think about it, it doesn't make much sense because a pistol round is held in the chamber by the brass, not the bullet so how could doing it that method cause pressure on the bullet and push it in further. Might have been a different reason for that happening, but hard to say.

Glad your friend didn't get injured with it!

[hurley842002]

Appears to be an older (pre nickel case) gold dot. I took a half a dozen of those with a trade recently, they were free with the deal, and most had some significant setback, they now sit in a cabinet lined up for show.

[Dr_Fwd]

Exact reason why I throw away 2 rounds from my carry gun once a month or so... its always the rounds that goes into a chamber every morning before I holster it...

[Goodburbon]

I have a .45 round like that, Newer remington Golden Saber.

It'd been chambered a few times, then one day I ejected for a cleaning, or a range trip and there it was, compressed.

The cause is likely that it's more expensive defensive ammunition, not used due to cost, and on the top of the magazine. Cycle it into the chamber from the top of the mag a few times and voila.
I suppose It also suggests that the rounds aren't crimped very well from the factory.

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[hurley842002]

Exact reason why I throw away 2 rounds from my carry gun once a month or so... its always the rounds that goes into a chamber every morning before I holster it...

Unload your carry gun every night? Hell the only time mine gets unloaded is while at the range, and about once a month to dust off and clean out lint.

[Tim K]

Measure the OAL of a new round. Cycle it and measure again. Keep doing that until you become a believer in changing out your carry ammo regularly. I forgetexactly what I saw, but I think I remember 0.005"-0.010" per cycle on Remington Gold Sabers.

[BuffCyclist]

Unload your carry gun every night? Hell the only time mine gets unloaded is while at the range, and about once a month to dust off and clean out lint.

Agreed, mine is loaded all the time (with 1 in chamber ready to rock, cause ya know, its a glock) until I go to the range. I probably need to cycle my carry ammo out more than I do, but every time I shoot it, it works flawlessly.

Measure the OAL of a new round. Cycle it and measure again. Keep doing that until you become a believer in changing out your carry ammo regularly. I forgetexactly what I saw, but I think I remember 0.005"-0.010" per cycle on Remington Gold Sabers.

I did this after reading stories of that happening, though I only saw it change by about 1-2 thousandths every cycle of the slide (no mag, slide back, drop in chamber and release slide). So the Remington Gold Sabers must have less of a crimp than the Gold Dots. I should do this experiment again when I get home from my work shift, would be interesting to see how the Gold Dots compare to say, Federal .40S&W bulk FMJs.

[Dr_Fwd]

Unload your carry gun every night? Hell the only time mine gets unloaded is while at the range, and about once a month to dust off and clean out lint.

Oh trust me, I've got at least one loaded gun in every room at my house, including bathrooms and closets. ROFL!
I only unload my carry gun because I'm not removing holster from belt and the gun seats on counter top.

[cstone]

Pull the bullet, size the case with no decapping pin, add powder and re-seat the bullet. If you can't reuse the case, at least you have a bullet out of it, so it's not a total loss.