M&P 9mm and 147gr ammo?

[S&WIowegan]

I have an M&P 5" CORE Performance Center gun. I have read that the M&P barrels seem to prefer 147gr bullets. Sooo, I ran the gun yesterday at a posh indoor range. The 147s fed reliably until the mag had 4 rounds left. The next round up failed to feed into the chamber. The round just stopped dead on the feed ramp and wouldn't feed. This happened twice with different factory mags. Why?

Anyone else experience misfeeds with 147grammo?

 

[Wee Hooker]

I have an M&P 5" CORE Performance Center gun. I have read that the M&P barrels seem to prefer 147gr bullets. Sooo, I ran the gun yesterday at a posh indoor range. The 147s fed reliably until the mag had 4 rounds left. The next round up failed to feed into the chamber. The round just stopped dead on the feed ramp and wouldn't feed. This happened twice with different factory mags. Why?

Anyone else experience misfeeds with 147grammo?

I've never had an issue with factory 147's (although I've admittedly shot only a few boxes of them through my M&P's.)
I mostly reload my own. I've found OAL can be an issue with the 147 gr cast truncated cone bullets I have used. Especially when running lower power loads which don't produce enough slide inertia to overcome a bumpy trip on the feed ramp . FWIW, I now mostly load 130 gr RN (38 super) bullets and get similar performance with a little more margin.

p.s. Did you inspect the bullet for damage/clues? Could it be catching on the edge of the feedramp ?

 

[JJEH]

Anyone else experience misfeeds with 147grammo?

I use 147gr for duty (Buffalo Bore) and serious practice (Speer). Just for plinking I use whatever I have available (mostly 115 or 124). I've never had an issue (knock on wood) so far with my 4.25" Pro.

 

[S&WIowegan]

I didn't inspect the ammo closely since it was new out of the box. It also happened more than once with different mags. The weirdest part is each time the gun fed 13 rounds and then failed to feed the next round.

One thought I had was the ammo is fairly mild and the recoil spring is stiff; but really if so why would it run 13 rounds and then jam? Crazy! I'm going to the outdoor range tomorrow and work it hard.

 

[pineirorl]

I run 147 gr through my Shield and 3 other pistols without issue. For range I use Winchester 147 gr Train and Speer Lawman 147. The Shield I use Winchester 147 gr Defend, the others Federal HST 147 gr for defense. I only get to the range about once every month or 2, but when I do I'll run 500-600 rounds through each pistol I take.
Have you cleaned your magazines lately? When I clean mine; I pull the springs, give them and the inside walls a light clean with MPro 7 (about any decent cleaner will do), then I use a cotton swath with Tetra Gun Grease and give the walls and spring a good wipe down, then buff with a clean cotton cloth.

 

[Wee Hooker]

I didn't inspect the ammo closely since it was new out of the box. It also happened more than once with different mags. The weirdest part is each time the gun fed 13 rounds and then failed to feed the next round.

One thought I had was the ammo is fairly mild and the recoil spring is stiff; but really if so why would it run 13 rounds and then jam? Crazy! I'm going to the outdoor range tomorrow and work it hard.

As the mag empties, there will be less force holding the top round against the mag lips . That might have something to do with it. If it continues to fail at 13 rounds, try replacing that 13th with a 115 gr and see what happens.

 

[Arik]

Had this happen two weeks ago. I don't even remember what brand or weight. Everything was fine then all of a sudden one round just face plants into the feed ramp. Tap, rack, bang and everything was fine afterwards. Sometimes the planets align and these things happen. If it's only twice call it a weird fluke and continue on

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[S&WIowegan]

I have some additional observations after a long session at the outdoor range. The Federal factory 147 gr ammo measures a mere 1.07" C.O.L. which is very short vs most 9mm. The jam still occurs with factory mags with 4 rounds in the mag. I have two ACT-MAG made in Italy 17 round capacity. These mags have no problem feeding the same Federal 147s from full 17rds to empty. I also ran my handload 9mm 147 gr Montana Gold JTC with a C.O.L. of 1.15" and the stuff feeds perfectly in all mags.

Sooo....the short Federal cartridge won't run in my M&P Performance Center C.O.R.E. with S&W factory mags. Whatta kick in the head!

 

[kmanick]

I've run 147gr lawman with my shield 9 and my M&P9C with no issues what so ever. I prefer 124 but I bought 500 rounds of the 147 a while back and rotate it in when I hit the range

 

[THE PILGRIM]

The 147s feed ok in my runt Kahr.

 

[walkin' trails]

OP, out of curiosity, how many rounds have you run thru the pistol? Every 4-5000 rounds the RSA should be replaced. Magazines/magazine springs are also subject to wear and tear the more the springs are cycled. S&W should cover it under warranty if you send the pistol and factory mags back for service - just explain the problems in an email to customer service. Shouldn't cost you anything either.

Reason I'm asking is because I had a similar problem with my full size 45 when it was at around 6k rounds. When practicing 1-1 drills, it wouldn't cycle 185 grain Lawman FMJ when loading from a locked back slide. I could insert a fully loaded mag and it would function properly, but didn't like loading when just one or two were in the mag. 230 grain still worked fine (but I didn't have much of that at the time). Anyway the factory refurbished the springs and it has been fine since.

I have to carry 147s for duty ammo, and currently use Speer Gold Dot G2. It functions flawlessly thru my M&Ps - FS, 9c, and Shield. Previously I ran Winchester Ranger 147 Bonded. Again, no problems with cycling. I've also played with 147 Hydra Shoks and HSTs and they've always cycled flawlessly.

I've also rein Wolfe Mag springs in Glocks, and if you're not ready to send the pistol back to the factory, try them in your factory magazines. It just sounds like your factory mags, and possibly your gun are ready for a tuneup.

 

[jim46ok]

" It just sounds like your factory mags, and possibly your gun are ready for a tuneup."

Besides the mag maintenance/lube you might try polishing the feed ramp. I know, "works ok with other ammo...." but sometimes just a couple .001"s difference in shape/dimensions of the bullet itself can manifest itself in that way. It's easy, I do the feed ramp polish to every firearm (not some shotguns) I have. Just in case.......

 

[ZachW]

Smith and Wesson M&P 5"

I just purchased a new Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 9mm with a 5" barrel. I reload my own ammo, using mixed brass, 147 grain round nose bullet with 3.6 grains of Vhitavouri N330 powder. The C.O.L of all of my bullets are 1.10". This round cycles well through my Walther q5 match and CZ 75 SP-01 Shadow, both of which have shorter chambers.



When I tried to load 5 of these bullets in my new Smith and Wesson, it wouldn't cycle them at all and it had problems ejecting some of the spent shells. Has anybody else had similar problems? I've read that Smith and Wesson's will shoot any type of ammo, so I'm not sure why mine is having so many issues. I did try and shoot some factory 124 grain hollow points I had with me and the gun seemed to cycle them without any problem. Maybe I'll have to abandon using 147 grain bullets with this gun.

 

[Oldsalt66]

I prefer standard pressure 147 grain loadings for both carry and practice in the legacy model M&P9c I’ve owned since 2008, and have never had any problems at all.