Took my son in law out shooting this weekend which marked the 2nd time I have shot my M&P-10. First time I went which was about six months ago I got all the way out to the range and realized I did not bring any magazines with me so all my shooting then was having to hand feed rounds in. I found then that of the several different brands I had, Federal Gold Medal Sierra Matchking 168 grain seemed to produce the better groups for my rifle.
I picked up 3 boxes of Gold Medal from BP last week and took them out with us on a shoot yesterday. Loading 10 rounds per mag the first box fired ok. On the 2nd box on about the 3rd round I got a jam. Cleared the weapon, reinserted the Mag first round fired ok and then 2nd was a jam. I observed my casings were kicking out at the 4 oclock so I thought maybe I was having a magazine issue so I tried a different mag. Same issue, 2 or 3 rounds and a jam. On one occasion the rifle failed to fire because the bolt had not picked up the round out of the mag. Well ****. Opened the 3rd box of gold medal and using my 3rd Magpul mag and 2-3 rounds and a jam. Carefully checked the rifle and mags over and nothing to note other than some brass hairs in the chamber area but I assume that to be normal. Switched over to some Hornaday, no jams. Winchester, no jams. Couple more different grain and manufacturer that I had, no jams. Even shot a box of Federal Power-Shoks, no jams. As long as I stayed away from the Gold medal I was jam free.
The only conclusion I can come to is that at least 2 of the 3 boxes of Gold Medal I picked up have casings that were not properly made as it appears the bolt was having a hard time picking up the rounds from the mags. No more Gold medal for me.