Cartridge came apart???

[S&W19]

Ok, this is strange.

I was carrying a 1911 around the house with the magazine inserted and nothing in the chamber. (You can debate that form of carry, but that isn't the point of this post).

When I disarmed and cleared the weapon, the magazine came out missing a bullet.
The cartridge case was still in the magazine.

I racked the slide back and the bullet fell out of the magwell. That's never happened to me before and I 'm curious if anyone has had this happen before and why.

This was a Kimber I've owned for a dozen years,
165 grain 45 acp Federal Hydra -Shocks
in a Chip McCormick 8 round power mag I've used off and on for years.

It's a great handgun and I've kept well maintained and shot a lot over the years.
Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[ken792]

How many times has that cartridge been chambered?

Most likely the crimp was weak and the inertia of the round being chambered caused the slug to slide forward and lightly jam itself into the rifling of the barrel. Then when you racked the slide to extract, the case got separated from the slug which was at that point lightly lodged against the rifling and did not have much of a crimp holding it in.

 

[S&W19]

Was never chambered. Hammer was always down when the mag was inserted.

 

[ken792]

Was never chambered. Hammer was always down when the mag was inserted.

Whoops, I misread your original post. I thought that there was a round in the chamber. I guess the crimp was just very weak and the slug fell out of the case on its own. That's certainly not something you want, especially in self defense ammo.

 

[Mooseman]

I would be contacting Federal. Had you needed to use your 1911, you would have been in a world of hurt.

 

[S&W19]

I would be contacting Federal. Had you needed to use your 1911, you would have been in a world of hurt.

So you think this the fault of the ammo only? I just don't know what to think.
I'm in my 40's and been shooting since I was 6. The only time I saw something this loose was in .22's. Weird.

 

[lsw]

Is it possible you ever dropped the pistol, magazine, or the ammo at some time? Or it was subject to some kind of shock or impact?

 

[S&W19]

Is it possible you ever dropped the pistol, magazine, or the ammo at some time? Or it was subject to some kind of shock or impact?

Nope. Not at all unless you consider sitting on an overstuffed couch an impact. Probably not since I'm <200#.

 

[Biggfoot44]

So thÍs was virgin ammo ? Ie was taken from a factory fresh box , loaded once into that magazine , never chambered ever , and never unloaded from a magazine , and then loaded back into a magazine ?

 

[iH8DemLibz]

What happened to the powder?

It should be inside the firearm somewhere.

Or in the magazine.

10 on the weird s--t-o-meter.

 

[S&W19]

So thÍs was virgin ammo ? Ie was taken from a factory fresh box , loaded once into that magazine , never chambered ever , and never unloaded from a magazine , and then loaded back into a magazine ?

Ammo I've had for awhile, moved from one mag to the next as necessary to keep springs fresh. Being that it's expensive SD ammo, I remove it and use 230 grain at the range mostly.
But it's never been chambered.

 

[S&W19]

What happened to the powder?

It should be inside the firearm somewhere.

Or in the magazine.

10 on the weird s--t-o-meter.

Was spilling out of the case. It's now part of my backyard cuz I didn't know what else to do with it.

 

[S&W19]

I would be contacting Federal. Had you needed to use your 1911, you would have been in a world of hurt.

I sent CS a message. Will be interesting to see the reply.

 

[Biggfoot44]

Humm. Definatly outside of expectations of durability.

And for our teaching moment of the day :

When you first break open a box of Duty/ Defensive ammo , inspect it. Anything questionalbe do side to side comparison to known good ammo. Anything questionable , break out precision measuring instrements. Test chamber each round into cylnder or field stripped bbl. Push down on the bullet (actual projectile) with thumb, any movement is red flag.

Whenever you subsequently unload/ load the gun/ magazine/ speedloader/ etc , absolute minimum is visual inspection, follow up as needed.

Unless some other cause is 100% confirmed , remove that box of ammo from service , and any other ammo of same Lot # you may have. And yes, Federal will want to know about this , and will likely request the remaining ammo for examination.

 

[S&W19]

Humm. Definatly outside of expectations of durability.

And for our teaching moment of the day :

When you first break open a box of Duty/ Defensive ammo , inspect it. Anything questionalbe do side to side comparison to known good ammo. Anything questionable , break out precision measuring instrements. Test chamber each round into cylnder or field stripped bbl. Push down on the bullet (actual projectile) with thumb, any movement is red flag.

Whenever you subsequently unload/ load the gun/ magazine/ speedloader/ etc , absolute minimum is visual inspection, follow up as needed.

Unless some other cause is 100% confirmed , remove that box of ammo from service , and any other ammo of same Lot # you may have. And yes, Federal will want to know about this , and will likely request the remaining ammo for examination.

Yeah I know. Makes me want to just run with 230 ball. Was good enough for WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam, right? Jeez.

 

[Mooseman]

I sent CS a message. Will be interesting to see the reply.

Make sure you share the reply with us.

 

[Doctor_M]

 

[protegeV]

 

[S&W19]

Make sure you share the reply with us.

Will do.

 

[AlpineDude67]

I once had a .22 round that did something similar. It was in the chamber and when I cleared the weapon (cleared with no issue or resistance), the bullet was still in the casing, but no longer straight. It was kind of half out of the brass on one side so it pointed off about 30 degrees to one side. Basically the crimp partially failed but there was enough left to keep the bullet from becoming entirely free. Crappy Golden Bullets as I recall. I threw it in a bucket of water just to be safe and then pulled it apart. But I have never seen anything like this with a manufactured, centerfire.

Just curious - was it produced during the ammo crisis of last year? I think QC went to hell when they were making the stuff as fast as they possibly could.