I just bought a very nice S&W 639 yesterday and haven't yet settled on a carry load for it. I'm planning on trying out a variety of 9mm JHP's and obviously thoroughly testing whichever I settle on. That being said, I'm particularly interested in testing loadings which have a reputation for causing feeding problems in older guns. My thought is, if it is reliable with 9mm loads known to cause feed issues in older guns, then it's more likely to be reliable with other loadings that don't share this reputation (I like to have secondary and tertiary loadings of choice if the primary one becomes unavailable). So, my question is what 9mm loadings are you all aware of that are notorious for unreliable feeding in older pistols? I'm not really worried about ending up with a bunch of ammo that I can't use because if the S&W won't feed it, my CZ-75 likely will (it's been boringly reliable with nearly everything I've tried in it over the years).
9mm JHP with feeding problems
- Thread starter Webleymkv
- Start date
I've found that just about anything other than RN ball may be unreliable in older semi-autos. That does not apply to the S&W 539s and 639s within my humble experience. I've had a couple of both. They just feed any appropriate, good quality ammo, to include RN, flat point, hollow point, +P, +P+ and equivalent reloads. I don't recall trying to use full wadcutter and semi wadcutter in my 539s and 639s, ammo obviously inappropriate for a 9MM auto-loader.
Well, I took it out today and tested it with a smathering of JHP's that I had either on hand or could get locally. So far it's eaten 50 rounds of Geco 115gr JHP, 20 rounds of Hornady American Gunner 115gr JHP, Winchester PDX1 124gr +P JHP, and 50 rounds of Federal 9BPLE 115 gr +P+ JHP with nary a hiccough. Reliability, thus far, is looking good.