2nd Chapter - Bad Day at the Range - KB!

I

ICryoman

New member
Well,

It happend again today in my same Walther P99. Another PMC case blown apart with the base of the cartridge blown into the remainder of the shell. A large bulge and tear (in the casing) at the unsupported part of the barrel. Snapped the extractor in half and sent it and the extractor spring flying. The shot did remain in battery and did no other damage to the pistol other than the broken extractor. Examination of other PMC cases (after firing them this range session) shows many with hairline cracks on the inside corner of the web. The PMC brass is crap and a visual comparision looking down into the inside web clearly reveals a thin, inferior web compared to Winchester or Starline brass. Will post more photos later. At $30 per extractor (need a spring this time...) this is getting pretty expensive... Cheers, Cryoman:(
 
Like I said, get rid of that crap PMC.

I'm glad you're ok! I'd really like to see the pictures too. It is good to know that the Walther holds up fairly well from these failures.

P99
 
2ND TIME??

Have you contacted Walther or PMC instead of forking out the $30?

Good luck and thank you for sharing the info.
 
A man walks in to the Doctor's office...

"Doctor, every time I do this, it hurts"

The Dr. replies...

"Then stop doing it!"

:D
 
Yea. That'll teach me about PMC (I just thought I could shoot up the leftovers....!) Called Walther USA today. They said send the pistol, they'll replace the extractor. I asked whether it would be cheaper to replace it than shipping to Walther?? Ended up they gave me a holiday discount on the new extractor since my story was so sad (stupid?). Walther (unofficially) said the PMC is crap and not to shoot it NEW (nevermind reloading it). They assured I would have no such problems with other brass. Will try to post photos this evening. Cheers, Cryoman
 
Now that is interesting, Cryoman!

I've been reloading and shooting nothing but PMC 9mm for the last four years! Never saw any signs of a case failure, and some of the cases have been reloaded at least a dozen times.

Some of the brass was from new ammo, and the rest from once fired brass. Our range ammo is PMC, so it's the predominate brass available.

Bill
 
Hi Bill,

12 reloads on your 9mm is a pretty good track record. My bad was taking .40 cases from a friend with an unknown history. I've learned my lesson and will only use brass that I know the history on (while keeping good records.) I'll stickwith Winchester and Starline for now. Cheers, Cryoman
 
Cryoman,

Good move, you can't go wrong with Starline brass.

I use Starline brass for everything else, but the price of that PMC 9mm brass (free) was just too good to pass. :D

Bill
 
Back Up The Boat Son?

Leeme get this story straight?
You were using mystery brass (unknown history?) with handloads in .40 S&W? (the net is full of KaBOOMs with .40S&W!) loaded to what? pressure in a Walther? with a self admitted unsupported chamber (What?) and your bitchin about PMC?
Could it possibly be the load? The old brass? The defective, ummm, you didn't improve feeding with a Dremal did you? or a Walther that has an unsupported chamber?
 
cryo, glad to hear that you're ok. it wasn't apparent to me from the start that you were talking about reloaded ammo, or .40cal. i was gonna say that i've put about 2k rounds of pmc through my walther p99 9mm and have not had any problems.

Adept
 
Alaska Roy,

The P99 does have a supported chamber. That probably why the P99 didn't suffer more damage than it did.

P99
 
ICryoman:

Can we assume that this is the same Glock that KB'd the first time ??

You need to get rid of that cheap Glock and get something reliable, like a Walther.:D


Dawg23
 
Mr. Speir:

We all know you've made career (or perhaps a crusade) out of publicizing Glock KB's. Hope your therapy is doing you some good.


Best wishes for a complete recovery,
Dawg23
 
Dawg23?

Perhaps a quick reread of the original post here would remind you it's a Walther 99 in question.
The poster cryo mentioned mystery brass as well as "the unsupported part of the barrel".
The specific loading was not mentioned, as a smith the best I can do is read the post and make an educated SWAG.
Operator headspace is my call without visually inspecting the gun in question for case support.
I fail to understand the attack on Mr Speir, his creds are obvious to all in the "gun culture".
The .40S&W is infamous for Kabooming in many different manufacturers guns as well in new and reloaded ammo, for that simple fact I won't own one.
I believe it was last summer here in Alaska I witnessed case head failure with brand new Federal ammo during qualifications fired by the Alaska State Troopers.
Anyone wanting the straight poop on the .40S&W really should do their own research on the net, it's a real shocker!
 
thanks for the link Dean. I have actually seen a Glock 35 that looked just like that. The problem does seem to happen more in a Glock than other manufacturers guns. Although I have seen a SIG and a P99 that were damaged pretty bad. In the SIG and P99 however, both admitted that they had over loaded their reloads. When I see how well ICryoman's P99 held up, it make me feel more confident in my own P99's.

By the way I have taken my friends Glock and measured its chamber as compared to my P99's. The Glocks is .02" bigger. I've also measured a SIG's Chamber and it was about the same as the P99's.

P99
 
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