"Blowback" when firing my .380

O

OhioGuy

New member
I had a new experience at the range this weekend, which I'm guessing is ammo-related, but I want to ask in case anyone knows better.

Shooting my Beretta Pico, which has generally been reliable across brands of training ammo -- apart from occasionally not feeding when it was brand new -- I had about four instances out of 50 rounds in which unburned gunpowder blew back at me. Thankfully I was wearing safety glasses because it got in my hair and on my face. Twice it blew back at me, and twice I felt it hit my forearms and it got on the bench.

In addition, I had two failures to extract spent brass. This was all with Maxx Tech ammo, which I bulk-ordered recently. The first box of it ran fine a few weeks ago. Since then I've cleaned and oiled the gun.

If powder is blowing back at me, doesn't that mean it's coming out of the ejection port? Otherwise I'd think it would blow forward and get burned.

So can anyone explain what's going on? Is this definitely a result of the ammo brand? Or could it be a malfunction in the gun.

BTW, the FTE's and and the powder blowback were unrelated to each other (i.e. I didn't experience them on the same round).
 
Check the OAL of the rounds. If they are too long, the slide might not close all the way and there will be some blowback coming from the breech area. This happened with my Seecamp when I was using Fiocchi and some other not recommended OAL brands.

Just take a look at the slide contact to the breech to see if it is flush with the particular brand ammo loaded. Or it could be some power residue from a dirty type powder that is causing the slide to not close completely. Scrub the barrel with a wire bore brush and see if that makes any difference.
 
Hal said:
From the reviews of that stuff, you're lucky that's all that's going wrong.....
Click to expand...
Ruh-roh.

Any links? I read the reviews on the site where I bought it, stuff like "runs great!" was the typical review.

So my problem is likely caused by crappy ammo?

What's causing the powder to blow outward?
 
Several years ago I was involved in a project that led me to load some 9mm cases with 92-grain bullets in an effort to replicate the external ballistics of a .380 out of a 9mm pistol. I don't recall actually getting any burning powder hitting my face, but the fired cases were blackened at least half way back along their length, and the ejection port area and breech face of my pistol were black. Basically, the light powder charge wasn't enough to cause the cases to obturate (expand), so the cases weren't sealing to the chamber wall when fired.

From what I see, this Maxxtech stuff is steel cased, so it's already prone to have difficulty obturating. Steel is much less elastic than brass. I'b blame it on the ammo and move on.
 
Thanks for the links.

The Maxxtech stuff I bought is all brass cased. Reviews across many sites are generally positive, but those negative reviews are VERY negative and include jams, misfeeds, squibs and other issues, some including improper sizing of the cases. It may be that the price is low because quality control is also low. I would imagine that if the case is outside of tolerance, the slide might not fully close or leave just enough of a gap that some of the blast would blow outward? I don't know.

I do know that it all happened suddenly with that one box of ammo and included not only FTEs but a few casings that flew directly back into my forehead. Something that's also never happened with that Pico.

I'll run it again this week with a box of Federal or Winchester and see if those issues are gone.
 
I'm pretty sure Wally World has bulk packs of .380.

For sure, OAL on anything that headspaces on the case mouth is pretty critical.
Also, a close eye needs to be kept on pressures with any semi auto.

I don't reload for the .380 - but - my LCP with any of the name brand ammo has been issue free since I got it a few years ago.
 
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