Is it normal for 9mm ammo from same box to be shorter than the others?

[ROTLD]

I have a box of Remington UMC 115 grain and noticed some are shorter than the others. It seems the tips are pushed in on some, is this normal?

I should add that these were loaded (one time) in new Shield mags, just to try and break in the mag spring as all the Shield mags I have are very hard to load the last round or two. I also noticed these smaller ones were from the bottom of the magazine and have noticed more in the box that are shorter and not sure if those came from the bottom of the magazine too.

It seems there are 11 that are pushed in and I had loaded (once) one 7rd mag and seven 8rd mags.

 

[gman51]

That sort of looks like 380 ammo and 1 9mm. Answer to your question is NO.
Look on the casings and see if they all say 9mm or do the short ones say 380?
If you haven't shot any I suggest you don't. I would send that picture to Remington and ask them what to do with the box of ammo.

 

[Sevens]

This is not normal. This is extremely bad. Do not shoot that ammo. Don't even shoot the "good" ones. When the combustion space is reduced, the pressure goes up, and it does not go up a little bit. What you show in the picture is a recipe for a possible disaster.

It begs the question...
Are you certain this was a NEW box of factory Remington ammo? While I am simply not a fan of Remington-UMC or any Remington ammo (or anything associated with Remington), it would not be typical for them to ship something that BAD.

If you are certain that this is new ammo that you purchased, you need to get a hold of Remington-UMC immediately and send them the picture. They may ask you to ship the ammo to them. Either way, they should compensate you for that junk and do -NOT- shoot it.

 

[ROTLD]

Thanks gman and sevens. Yes, these came from 2 boxes (50 packs) that were purchased new. They all say 9mm. Yikes, glad I decided to unload the mags and noticed them. Will contact them. Thanks

 

[bearfoot]

I use mikes to check the rounds in the mags. usually write the lengths down to see if the bullets change length. ^^^^^ good info on the replys on your thread. even at 2 am there is always help on the forum.

 

[swsig]

I had the same thing happen with some Federal 9mm ammo. It was obvious when I opened the box that several of the bullets and been pushed back into their casings somewhere along the way. I'd bought them from Cabela's website, and I returned them to my local Cabela's store. They allowed me to exchange them, no questions asked.

 

[MyDads38]

I can't remember the brand, but I was checking a box of 45 auto ammo and found the bullets could be pushed into the case with finger pressure! I didn't buy any and didn't for a long time. Seems the issue was corrected, but sure makes you wonder sometimes.

 

[Hotshot9]

Wow ... That's really bad. going to have to start paying closer attention to all ammo for now on! maybe because they cant make enough, QC is down. I had a jam up for the first time in my S&W 9mm PC after thousands of rounds. When clearing it I looked at the bullets and two had dents in the casing. removed them and looked at the rest I was gonna shoot and they all looked good and shot fine.

 

[TTSH]

I find the uniformity of the excessive set-backs to be interesting. If the boxes had been stepped on (for example, or similarly crushed), I'd expect a varying range of set-back depths.

I'll have to pull out some boxes of UMC 9mm from the stash and see if there is anything like that.

 

[murphydog]

Obviously the taper crimp on these rounds didn't have quite enough taper - that degree of setback could really send pressures super-high as noted above.

 

[JohnRoc65]

Every box of 9mm Winchester white box ammo I've ever bought has had a few bullets that were seated too low in the case. I keep a close look at anything I feed into my mag's and I properly discard the flawed ones.

 

[scattershot]

I reload, so I don't buy too much factory ammo. Never seen that problem before. I agree with the other folks that you should get in touch with Remingtom right away for a refund or exchange.

It's a shame the way QC has slipped in the firearms industry lately.

 

[Bish1309]

Wow, I'd never even thought to look.

Procedures change today!

 

[patrickd]

With any fmj ball ammo with no cannelure, it's fairly easy to get bullets pushed in too far from whatever reason. If you called Remington, I'm sure they'd tell you to send them in for a refund. Question from me would be who pays shipping? I'd ask for a prepaid shipping box. Personally, since I reload, I'd save myself the trouble and just pull down those few rounds and fix them.

 

[italiansport]

It's good thing you caught this as 9MM ammo is particularly pressure sensitive to bullet setback and in this case it appears to be severe. Heed the advise give here and send these back to the manufacturer.
Jim

 

[m1gunner]

With any fmj ball ammo with no cannelure, it's fairly easy to get bullets pushed in too far from whatever reason. If you called Remington, I'm sure they'd tell you to send them in for a refund. Question from me would be who pays shipping? I'd ask for a prepaid shipping box. Personally, since I reload, I'd save myself the trouble and just pull down those few rounds and fix them.

I had some 223 ammo from Remington where the bullets were loose, and some fell out. Called them and they sent a FEDEX label and just had me drop them in a FEDEX box. A week or so later, I got replacement ammo.

I paid nothing for shipping.

 

[AlHunt]

Wow. It's been said enough, you have a recipe for disaster there. I'd be comfortable tearing them down and fixing them, as suggested above.

I'd still alert the manufacturer.

 

[sophie]

No that is not normal. When I purchase factory ammo the first thing I do is eyeball and check the consistency of OAL of all the bullets in all the boxes and if I need to I get the calipers out and check the bullets in doubt and I pull all the bullets because something like you have shown could really cause a problem due to increased pressure.

 

[QED]

If any handgun practice cartridge appears longer or shorter than the rest from the same box, it gets discarded. Self-defense ammo gets measured with calipers; deviation in cartridge length of more than 0.004" from average and it gets either discarded or becomes practice ammo.

 

[shawn mccarver]

VERY DANGEROUS. DO NOT SHOOT. DISCARD.

When a bullet is forced deeper into the case, often because of repeated chambering of a round, or bad loading technique when inserting cartridges into the magazine, it causes the pressure to go exponentially sky high.

I would absolutely NOT shoot that shorter ammo. Discard it appropriately so that no one else attempts to shoot it either. If the pressures are too high, the least you will do is cause excessive wear. It is possible, however, that those rounds will cause a catastrophic failure in your weapon, which usually is mostly startling with minor injuries, but which can cause major injuries or death.

I CANNOT STRESS STRONGLY ENOUGH - DISCARD THAT AMMO.