One of my shooting buddies has been obsessed with finding the quintessential self-defense load for every type of handgun he owns. For the past few years he entrusted his personal safety on his wits and awareness, his training, his sidearm, and (curiosly) ammunition from RBCD.

You know about RBCD, don't you? That's the small boutique ammo manufacturer that loads ultra-light bullets at warp-speed and claims they are "standard SAAMI pressures" for the cartridge.

My shooting bud had a bone on for a GLOCK20 and ordered a bunch of 77-gr RBCD 10mm ammo that claims some unGodly velocity like 2350-fps or something.

Well, with his RBCD ammo and a rental G20 he managed to have a major case rupture that disabled the gun. Not heeding the warning, he then bought another G20 that afternoon before he left!

The next time we were at the outdoor range together, we shot some of that RBCD ammo (out of HIS gun) over my chronograph. Yep, the numbers were incredible, but the Extreme Spread was looking pretty bleak as well. Velocities were all over the place.

Then WHAM!! That RBCD ammunition reared its ugly head again.

Another case rupture that blew the magazine apart and dislodged the magazine release clear out of his pistol. This time it cracked the frame. That was the SECOND damaged G20 in less than a week for the same shooter with two different guns.





To draw this story to a close, the ammunition company refunded all of his money on the unopened boxes (almost $40/20 x 5). And GLOCK-USA repaired his GLOCK20 for only $47 and he has since sold it off.

He gave me the one partial box he was shooting, so I could pull the bullets and check the powder charges. While I will never know what kind of powder was actually used, it sure looks a hell of a lot like Hodgdon Titegroup. I pulled the bullets, and checked the charge weights on TWO digital powder scales set up side-by-side. And the charges ranged from 10.2-gr to 10.9-grains. That SUCKS, folks.

And lastly, look at the crap bullets that I pulled from that 'factory ammunition'....



Even if they were consistent in powder charge, how could these sorry-azzed bullets possibly be accurate beyond about five yards????

BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

nitesite

Apparently a slow learner!

If I want high velocity fragmenting ammo I think that I would go with CorBon Glaser. At least their stuff has a track record.

Those bullet bases look like hell. Are the exposed tips some type of epoxy or plastic material?

I would expect minimal accuracy from such ammo with the visible deformation of bases and the variations from bullet to bullet I see there.

I see the box is labeled "total fragmenting soft point". Is that supposed to be the ammo or gun that totally fragments?

I just got my casting equipment a few weeks ago. I'll bet my QC will be better than the bullets in that picture. Kudos nitesite, these are write-ups we won't see in the gun rags.

Thanks for the heads up, Dave. I wasn't interested in that crap, but now I'm downright afraid of it.

Does the Glock 20 have the same issues with unsupported case heads as the .40 S&W Glocks?

If so, I bet that crap ammo is not made with virgin brass, but with range pick ups and other assorted scrap. Even if the head stamps are all the same, that doesn't rule out once or twice fired brass. Commercial reloaders and boutique ammo makers do this all the time, the unreputable ones that is.

LeMas ammo has been shown by various reputable people to be complete crap anyway when it comes to terminal ballistics.

i've never had any trouble shooting intense loads in my Glock 20, but then again I am not using a stock barrel. I have a Bar-Sto in it and I have never even gotten aslightly bulged case base. A few flat primers, but no problems.

Great report and pictures Nitesite!
Is your pal O.K.? Other than his net worth being slightly reduced, that is?

Like the 10mm needs some kind of "Golly Gee-Wiz" boutique ammo anyway.

I have a .380 that throws a heavier bullet.

Get a good factory load like Speer Gold Dot and call it good.

quote:

Originally posted by Spotteddog:
Is your pal O.K.? Other than his net worth being slightly reduced, that is?

Yep, he's left-handed so the magazine release blowing out the right side didn't affect him much. It stung real good under his left index finger knuckle, he said, but no obvious injuries.

I found it astonishing that GLOCK replaced his frame and returned it for only $47 including shipping.

quote:

Originally posted by gmchenry:
Get a good factory load like Speer Gold Dot and call it good.

I've posted here a dozen times or more, I've carried Georgia Arms 180-gr Gold Dot ammo (which clocks 1185-fps from my G29) from day one.

I'll stick with my 135gr Cor-Bon and 175 gr Win Silvertip loads for the 10mm. Both rounds will do the trick and not destroy your gun.

When RBCD first hit the market, a local gun shop owner who knows me called me up and asked me if I'd like to test some of it, in several calibers. I don't recall all the calibers he gave me, but I do remember that there was some .45 ACP, .380 and 9mm. I chronoed some, and the velocities were all over the place, with the fastest ones way below advertised speeds. Accuracy was awful. They did fragment as advertised when shot into water. Needless to say, I was not impressed. So, this does not surprise me one whit.

RBCD ammunition says right on the box that it is not to be used in handguns without fully supported chambers, i.e. don't use it in Glocks unless they have aftermarket bbls.

This ammo, like "Extreme Shock", is utter crap and only a fool entrusts his life to them.

My buddy, who had the KaBoom, was one of their original customers years ago, and ignored my pleas to shoot traditional ammunition.

He also had a box of RBCD .44 Special when his gun came apart. After disassembling the 10mm and showing him the horrible bullets and the wild fluctuations in powder charges I got the box of .44 Special from him. He wanted to see what the powder charges were in the .44 Special as well (since the offer from RBCD was to buy back only the 10mm ammo).

Using the same two electronic scales, I measured the all twenty individually. Again, the powder looked exactly like TiteGroup.

The lowest charge was 12.2-grains.

The highest charge was 13.0-grains.

I could do better using Lee Dippers while blindfolded.

quote:

Originally posted by nitesite:


I got the box of .44 Special from him. He wanted to see what the powder charges were in the .44 Special as well.

Using the same two electronic scales, I measured the all twenty individually. Again, the powder looked exactly like TiteGroup.

The lowest charge was 12.2-grains.

The highest charge was 13.0-grains.

I could do better using Lee Dippers while blindfolded.

Were the 44 Spl jackets as distorted as the ones from the 10mm loads?

I *assume* (due to the very light weight of the projectile) those bullets are constructed from fairly thin copper jacket and are filled with some super-duper Top Secret type of filler/core material? That would explain the distorted jackets on the 10mm bullets. Some ham-handed bullet seating to go along with the crappy powder charging.