Copper Plated Bullet Caution

[mgatc]

I see a lot of questions inquiring about copper plated bullets. I use them and they certainly provide a lot of "bang for the buck" (pun intended)

Wanted to pass along an experience that I had with them. My son went to the range and took a box of 180gn 40cal rounds that I had just loaded. His XDM jammed on the 7th shot. He took it to a gun shop on the way home and the pictures are what they pulled out after using a vise and hammering the slide back.

Bear in mind that this is ALL MY FAULT. As soon as he told me what the bullet looked like, I new that I had failed to flair the case mouth enough causing the edge of the brass to cut underneath the copper plating. I am very happy the round failed to fire.

Learn from my mistakes. 1. I did not use enough flair to properly seat the bullet. 2. I did not inspect the finished rounds closely enough to catch this.

I will continue to use copper plated bullets, more confidently now with this lesson learned.

[woolleyworm]

Originally Posted by mgatc

I see a lot of questions inquiring about copper plated bullets. I use them and they certainly provide a lot of "bang for the buck" (pun intended)

Wanted to pass along an experience that I had with them. My son went to the range and took a box of 180gn 40cal rounds that I had just loaded. His XDM jammed on the 7th shot. He took it to a gun shop on the way home and the pictures are what they pulled out after using a vise and hammering the slide back.

Bear in mind that this is ALL MY FAULT. As soon as he told me what the bullet looked like, I new that I had failed to flair the case mouth enough causing the edge of the brass to cut underneath the copper plating. I am very happy the round failed to fire.

Learn from my mistakes. 1. I did not use enough flair to properly seat the bullet. 2. I did not inspect the finished rounds closely enough to catch this. Happens to the best of us though.

I will continue to use copper plated bullets, more confidently now with this lesson learned.

Well, the bullet being mis-seated was your fault, but putting it in the gun wasn't... a good lesson for everyone to inspect the ammo one last time before putting it in the chamber/magazine/etc. Happens to the best of us though.

Very glad it didn't fully chamber and get lit; there would have been a pretty good amount of gases coming back into the chamber since the case couldn't expand fully if it had gone off.

[mgatc]

Originally Posted by woolleyworm

Very glad it didn't fully chamber and get lit; there would have been a pretty good amount of gases coming back into the chamber since the case couldn't expand fully if it had gone off.

Yep. Knew the consequence if this thing had fired and I too am very thankful. My son will do a better job of inspecting his loads while loading from now on as well.