Budget/low cost ammo costs less for a reason, and part of that reason can sometimes be the nature of the components. Might be less well finished cases, for example. Reduced power levels or dirtier powders. Primers that aren't as sensitive.
Premium ammo costs more for a reason, too.
It's not uncommon for larger LE agency contracts to state specifications for things involving QC, stated velocity ranges ... and even the number of allowable ammunition problems which may occur over an acceptable number of rounds received.
I remember when some low-cost contract ammo was checked by S&W when some LE users of one of their gun lines were experiencing some feeding issues. They couldn't duplicate the reported problems with the guns at the factory using the variety of representative commercial ammo kept on hand at the factory, so they requested some of the actual ammo being used by one of the LE agencies. Upon testing with that ammo, they were able to duplicate the reported problems.
As I recall it being explained, the case rim thickness was on the overly generous end of manufacturing specifications (which can make feeding more difficult as the case rim tries to feed under the extractor), and the power levels sometimes only generated velocities in the low 700fps range (versus almost 1000fps), which obviously affects slide velocity, slide run distance and cycling. A major state agency using that contract ammo started randomly testing new shipments, and I was told that they occasionally rejected & returned a shipment for failing to meet the stated specs.
It can happen to any company, though.
I remember getting a call for one of our instructors attending training at an outside agency in the middle 2000's. he was calling to tell me that the agency was currently loading up several pallets of cases of .40 ammo to be returned to the ammo company. The problem? They'd finally decided that they'd been experiencing an unreasonable number of squib loads on their training range. The ammo order (I'd seen the PO for it during one of my visits) was for $750,000 for a year's inventory, and apparently a goodly amount of it was now being returned. It was one of the LE-only premium rounds, too. It can happen.
I can think of another ammo company's premium line that experienced some different production lots being requested returned by agencies using it off the state contract. Some short-loaded (low powder) rounds had been identified during training, reported by at least 3 agencies. It was replaced with similar, new ammo.
When you consider that the major ammo companies may be churning out up to a million rounds over a 24 hour period, every day, it's hardly surprising that there may be an occasional problem at one time or another.
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Ret LE Firearms inst & armorer
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