remanufactured ammo ???

Polygonal Rifling

Glock says not to run reloads in their guns.... I do it all the time. How will they know?
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I did a lot of research when a gun I was looking at had polygonal rifling (like Glock).

In short, polygonal rifling is a hammered barrel to make the tube out of round in a polygonal shape, some are hexgonal, some are octagonal depending on caliber.

Polygonal rifling tends, with lead only rounds, to slick the lead on the inner surface of the barrel. Land and groove rifling has places for the lead to compress to (within the grooves) and does not have this problem. Polygonal, leaves the lead no where to go and thin layers slough onto the inner barrel. This has the effect of gradually increasing pressure and thus decreasing consistency.

I bought the Mini Firestorm 40 and found that Firestorm(now called Bersa) had already solved this issue to some extent. Not only was the barrel polygonal, they had also machined in lands and grooves (albeit much less depth than typical). This reduces the slicking issue with lead only reloads.

What I do not know is if Glock has followed suit with their polygonal barrels. There are plenty of aftermarket Glock barrels with traditional rifling that will not cause consistency issue with reloads.

Benefits of polygonal rifling? The barrels wear down at a far less rate than land and groove. And they are much cheaper to produce (which is why Glock went with them early on)

I do notice after my shoot with reloads in this Firestorm, that there is quite a bit of lead to remove from inside the barrel. I bought a brass brush, specifically to do that. It even slicks up quite a bit of the copper.

Now, the reloads I used, weren't mine, but they were a reputable LGS locally. Their reloads worked as well as anything in my .45, but it took around 50 rounds to make this 40 start being inconsistent. Groups went to 4" at 7 yards instead of my normal 2". Could be me, could be the day. Not sure, it was only one shoot. But, the FMJ I shot afterwards, went consistent after 3-4 rounds. I assumed they blew the excess out of the barrel.
 
Used to buy them by the bucket when they were cheap and available at gun shows. That river has pretty much dried up, but I never had a problem with any commercial reloads.
 
Marty8613,

Not all reloads are bare lead rounds. I load jacketed, plated, and hardcast lead for my G19. When I want to shoot hardcast, I swap out the barrel for my lone wolf with land and groove rifling.
 
Thought about it

When I want to shoot hardcast, I swap out the barrel for my lone wolf with land and groove rifling.
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Thought about it. Confirmed that consistency with hard cast diminished over time. It is far easier to find an aftermarket barrel for a Glock. I may just pick up a few extra OEM barrels to swap out. Which might be a good idea anyway, since I bought it used as it is. I've never had an easier disassemble than the Firestorm.

As to the OP. Hard cast through polygonal rifling, yes something of an issue, but not a great one. Though I wouldn't want to go 500 rounds of hard-cast at stretch due to over-pressure.
 
I think "remanufactured" (=commercially reloaded) ammunition is a reasonable bet from a name brand with some QC and insurance.
I shot a good deal of Master brand ammunition when it was available. And the old 3D was not bad. They had a neat idea, 60 round boxes of .38 Special, ten cylinder fulls in a box.
There was a company in North Carolina that turned out first rate .38 Specials, back when I was shooting PPC. If I fell behind on reloading, it was easy to pick up a couple of boxes.
I haven't shot a lot of Atlanta Arms, but what I have had was fine.
I have seen others that were pretty variable... but not dangerous.

Now if you are talking about the stuff in baggies at the gun show, I would have a different reply.

The "polygon" barrel + lead bullets debate will never be resolved. Some people get a good match between barrel, bullet, and load and can shoot cast bullets in their Glocks, etc. with no trouble.
Some people will wreck a gun and say "It must have been those lead bullets, I couldn't have done anything wrong, not ME."
And, of course, some will get a mismatch and lead their barrels so they look like the inside of a brick chimney. And it is not limited to polygonal barrels. I have some "moly" coated bullets that are very messy in a SA. They were what was available during The Panic, but I am sure paying for that availability with a lot of cleaning.
 
HSM is perfectly fine.
My PD used them 25 years ago for training rounds, I've used some independently since.
They do both re-man & "new".

Handloads, or re-man, generally refers to homegrown ammo in relation to warrantees.

As pointed out above, a GOOD commercial maker will use the same production standards with re-man as with regular new brass.
They buy the used brass from known sources, specify once-fired, clean it up, process it, and load with new bullets.

I have more experience with Black Hills re-man, and I can't really tell the difference in performance.
Any difference there might be would be more due to a variation in individual mixed headstamps & case thicknesses than quality.

If I had a gunmaker refuse to honor a warrantee because I'd used re-man from HSM or BH, I'd be raisin' some serious holyhell over it.
Denis
 
One of the problems with re-manufactured ammo is that because the company uses brass made by other companies, it is difficult for anyone to know whether the ammo was reloaded by, say, Black Hills, or by me in my basement. That is also true for Remington, Federal, etc., but if the user has the case(s) and the original box with a lot number, that should be enough to show the source of the ammo.

What scares gun makers is not that they will be blamed for their own mistakes, but that they will be blamed for a failure caused by ammo from a source with no accountability, no control and no records. So they simply say that they won't warranty their product if used with reloads.

Jim
 
I once purchased a 'plastic bag' of reloads or rather, a common gun show brand of remanufactured ammo. I had trouble closing the slide on my 9mm and ultimately I had a ka-boom with the cartridge detonating without the slide being completely closed. Blew carbon up my arm, scorched my hand just a bit and damaged my gun either as it happened or in the process of removing the brass.
Amazing thing was that the gun is an H&K P7 M13 which is a tank-like build. I don't know if a lesser build would have suffered a more significant fate.
Anyway it was all rather startling, a bit costly to have the gun shipped to H&K and repaired and I feel fortunate that there were no real resultant injuries.
I still do buy remans from the majors like Georgia ammo and a few others but no more plastic bags at gun shows. Lesson learned.
B
 
I have been shooting Palmetto State armory 9mm re manufactured ammo lately. It is inexpensive, and very reliable. Out of 500 rounds there have been 0 problems.
 
Like most folks here, you'll find that you can shoot remanufactured ammo safely. Can there be issues? Sure. But most of us I am certain have come across a round or two of new ammo that wasn't up to par. It happens.
 
Anyone (including factories) can screw up ammo, anyone (with care) can make good ammo.

Years ago when the then DCM ran EIC Matches you had to shoot their ammo, we had a lot of M72 ('06 match from Lake City) that wouldn't work. Turned out LC forgot to put flash holes in the brass.

I bought some new factory Rem 158 gr LWCSs in 38. About a third of them wouldn't go off in any of my revolvers. I had to get rid of them by shooting them in my Marlin 38/357 Rifle.

Years ago when I hired on with the Anchorage Police Dept. their issue ammo was 158 LRN 38s cast and loaded by prison trustees. They work, though I refuse to carry them in my service revolver. Never heard of on falling.

Stuff happens.
 
With over 50 years of shooting experience, I avoided using reloads or remanufactured ammo unless it was mine. Doesn't seem like it was that long ago that I was paying $175 for a case of new .45 ACP., reloading when I had the time to lower my overall shooting expenses. And since I retired and downsized, I do not have the room in my new dwelling for reloading so I am forced to purchase at todays market price. And today's price for .45 ACP has been running from $399 per case plus shipping to $500 per case plus shipping...very pricey.

A friend of mine recently discovered a great deal on "Factory Reloaded Ammo". He bought a case and never had a problem with the ammo. Based on his recommendation, I just ordered 3000 rounds. The price, including the shipping, saved me over $100 per 1000 rounds on the stuff from the lowest priced factory new ammo. In essence, I get an extra 1000 rounds to shoot when buying this quantity of remanufactured ammo. I am happy.
 
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