Use components that you can be relatively sure WILL go bang every time and practice like none of them will.

Clearing drills are smart planning if you carry a semi-auto for self defense.

As 38-44 has noticed, more failures to fire with current factory ammo. You have mentioned that NONE of your handloads have failed to feed of fire.

Seems simple to me as to what to carry for personal protection.

I may use their bullets but not their ammo.


FWIW

Skip's post got me thinking, we may have almost come full-circle to where many of us were back in the early 80s, when we could home-roll self-defense ammo that was more effective AND more reliable, especially in our semi-autos, than anything the factories made. I've got enough high-end self-defense ammo that was manufactured a few years back squirrelled away that it won't be a concern for me for awhile, if ever, but I just might have to start carrying reloads again! Holy smokes!! Can't believe I said it!

As for concerns about the off-center strikes, I've shot 1911s that hit the primer so far off center that the edge of the pin indent actually was on the edge of the primer cup, and they still went "bang" every time. Not optimal, obviously, but if the anvil is made correctly, the original poster's primers are as good as dead-centered.

I'll just stick with what I know has always worked in all my 9mm's and .380's

Speer Gold Dots and Remington Golden Sabers

Will update after Hornady inspects these rounds but no matter what they do or say I will not buy or use Critical Defense ammo. Their regular .380 and .32 auto work fine in my mouse guns so I do not know why they had to mess with success.?

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+1 Skip. I'll keep rolling my own for "critical defense" situations... but I will start a visual inspection procedure on all the Fed GMM primers I use in my SD loads.

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Andy

That is a fairly small diameter indent, but as y'all said, plenty deep. All my handguns (and rifles for that matter) have larger diameter dimples.

I don't know what primer Hornady uses, but it would be interesting to see if other rounds (non Hornady) had the same problem with the same mfgr. primers. Not likely we'll find out unless someone from Hornady trolls this forum.
I've never had a problem with any Hornady ammo myself, but their XTP hollow points won't feed in my Dan Wesson 1911 when loaded by me. Seems to be an ogive (or lack thereof) thing. It's a match chamber, I'm not faulting Hornady for that.

Jeff
Semper Paratus

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Yes, those are off center primer hits, but the rounds should have gone off fine. My S&W Mod. 76 where the firing pin damm near hits all over the primer and goes very deep, But it all wise goes off.

I would contact Hornary right away and tell them what happend. This sort of ammo, or any ammo, should go off every time. Save all the bad and unfired ammo and the box so they can have all the lot info. Sounds like a big Recall is in order, But a recall saves a life it's worth it.

Brian P. Kenny
SWCA # 908

All I carry is handloads, I just can't justify 1$, or more, per round for the fancy stuff. I Usually just put Nosler or XTP hollow points over a healthy charge of Power Pistol. Make sure the guns reliable with the load and off I go.

I finally got Hornady to issue a call tag to pick up the ammo, took three e mails and at least as many phone calls. here is their reply. I will have the gun checked out but for a 25 round box of ammo with 4-5 live ones returned I find the response well, so so.




I recently got the opportunity to look into your return of 9mm 115 grain Critical Defense ammunition. Misfires in a self defense handgun can be very unsettling and it is definitely a problem worth some attention.

In complaints of misfires there are a few measurements I look at that can give obvious cues as to what the problem is. The first measurement I took was cartridge headspace. Headspace is a measurement of a specific dimension of the the cartridge case that determines how the round will "seat" in the chamber. If a headspace is too long than the cartridge may not chamber at all. If it is too short there can be problems with misfires. SAAMI specification for headspace of the 9mm cartridge is .744" - .754". I measured the headspace of the misfired rounds you sent in and determined the headspace values to be .747", .747", .747" and .748". These are within specification and therefore I ruled out headspace as the culprit of this problem.

Next I checked the primers. To start with I will explain the term "all fire." An all fire is the depth that a firing pin must penetrate a primer for 100% reliable primer ignition. The requirement for an all fire is .017". I carefully measured the depth at which your firing pin struck these primers and found the depths to be .013", .014", .014" and .015". These strikes are very close to all fire limit and I think very well explain your situation. I'm assuming that the remainder of the box was shot successfully and the only misfires were sent to us.

Next I sent the misfired rounds down to our lab to be test fired. We do not have the specific model of Kahr in our inventory that you have. However, we do have a Kahr MK9 which seems to be a very similar design. All four of the misfired rounds fired on the first primer strike and functioned the gun flawlessly.

The .017" for an all fire is not like crossing a magic line and being able to say, "These are .016" and will never fire." Ammunition fired from guns that are striking primers in a very borderline manner can show this flip-flop behavior. Your firing pin penetration depths on the misfires were very close to the requirement for an all fire and I think the issue is simply that your firing pin is striking primers right at or slightly under the requirement causing an occasional misfire but usually firing successfully. Lastly this is also likely the explanation for why different ammunition works fine out of the gun as different manufacturers use different primers that can have slightly different hardness's. Our primers, while still in spec, are very likely a little harder than those in the Speer and Remington that you report as functioning fine. In short I would strongly suggest taking your firearm to a gunsmith or sending it in to Kahr for a quick look over. A few small tweaks to the firing pin or its spring is likely all it will take to make this gun 100% reliable with all types of ammunition.

As a result of being unable to find any defect in the ammunition itself I must hold off at this time in issuing a return. However, if you have the firearm checked and it comes back with a clean bill of health with no findable faults I would be more than happy to send you out a new lot of 9mm Critical Defense ammunition.

Here is most of what I wrote back:


I can not dispute your information as you have the instruments, technology and experience in measuring such things. But look at it from a customer practical standpoint.. You also "assumed the rest fired" which they did not. I rechambered several and restruck them, then they fired
As I believe I mentioned in my letter, I have fired over 400 rounds of ammo through this gun of many different brands, plus my own reloads using CCI, Winchester and Wolf primers and have never had a failure to ignite a primer. I buy your new brand and have a problem. Not a problem with feeding or ejecting which occurs with some guns/ammo combination, but failure to ignite which I have never had in a factory load. Photographs of the primer strikes shared with experienced reloaders all concurred that the strike was hard and deep enough that it should have ignited. I also mentioned that I re- chambered some of the misfires and yes, they did go off on the second strike which to me indicates a high primer. You did not mention this possibility in your report.

So the bottom line is that Remington, Winchester, PMC, Fiochi, MagTech, Speer, Federal, Blazer Brass, Speer, and reloads all fire, but only the new Hornady CD does not, therefore it's the gun? I find that difficult to comprehend.
I have every round fired written in a log by date, quantity and any noted failures.

I will relay your information to the members of several reloading forums I belong to as they were interested in the outcome.

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have always carried my own loaded ammo in all carry guns. this is just another reason to continue,but also why we test carry ammo to be sure it works in our own guns. since speer gold dots and remington sabers are usually available as components, that's what i use.

Well thats unfortunate that they wouldn't stand behind there product, and try and compensate you in some way. I guess its just easier to blame your gun than it is to take ownership of there product.

Good luck and I guess I know which ammo you, and I WON'T be buying now. FWIW, I only shoot my own reloads anyway.

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