Faulkner
Member
Did some internet research today and discovered that Monarch is not an actual manufacturer, it is Academy's house brand. The brass cased ammo is made by PPU in Serbia. Base on my experience at the range this morning I won't be buying any more.
I went to the range this morning to break in my new 5th Generation Glock 19. I figured 250 rounds of 9mm would allow me to fine tune the sights to my liking and get comfortable shooting while determining any differences between it and my Glock 23 .40 S&W that has been my primary duty firearm for around 20 years. I had two boxes of Winchester white box 115 grain FMJ, two boxes of Remington brown box 115 grain FMJ, and one box of Monarch 115 grain FMJ that I bought last year at Academy just before the big ammo run.
I started out with one 15 round magazine loaded with Winchester white box. After five rounds I could already tell I needed to push the rear sight to the right a bit. I put five more rounds downrange and confirmed it. I pulled out my rear sight adjusting tool, cleared and disassembled the G19 and used the tool to adjust the rear sight to the right. After making the adjustment I reassembled the G19, and shot the remaining 5 rounds in the magazine. From those 5 rounds I could see I needed to push the sight to the right a little more so I repeated the process of adjusting the sights.
I loaded 15 more rounds into magazine and stepped back up to the line. I fired off 5 rounds and was satisfied with the sight adjustment so I finished off that box of Winchester white box with the G19 sights spot on and the gun running perfectly.
I reached into my range bag and pulled out the box of Monarch 9mm FMJ and loaded up the magazine. I stepped back up to the line and fired and got a failure to feed after the first round. Hmmm. I cleared it and fired a second round and got another failure to feed. I stopped and pulled out the magazine, cleared the issue, then field stripped the G19 to take a look at what's going on. Visual inspection looked good, so I reassembled it, and looked at the loaded magazine and popped out a round and inspected it. Everything looked good, so I replaced the round, inserted the magazine and fired resulting in another failure to feed.
I reached into my range bag and grabbed an empty magazine. I loaded 5 rounds from the box into it, inserted it into the G19 and fired with another failure to feed. I wasn't thinking ammo problems yet, although I probably should have. I noticed that all the rounds so far were hitting true to aim. I pulled out my 3rd magazine and loaded one rounds into it, inserted it into the G19 and fired. The bullet hit right on target, but the slide did not lock back. I went back to magazine #2 and stripped all but one round from the magazine, inserted it and fired. The slide did not lock back.
Hmmm, this is all very odd . . . Glocks don't act this way so I finally started thinking ammo problems. I reached back into my bag and pulled out a brown box of Remington FMJ's and loaded 5 rounds into magazine #2. I fired off all 5 with no problems. I did the same with magazine #3 and again had no problems. I placed magazine #1 back in the G19, which was still loaded with Monarch rounds, fired and it failed to feed after firing. I stripped all the Monarch rounds out of the magazine and reloaded it with 15 rounds of Remington and fired all 15 without issue. I then placed one Remington round in each magazine and individually fired them and the slide locked back on all three magazines.
Just for grins, I pulled out one round of Monarch and loaded it into the #1 magazine and fired, and sure enough, the slide did not lock back. Well I'll be darned, looks like this Monarch ammo may be underloaded. One last thing, I remembered I had a 9mm & .40 S&W chamber gauge in my bag so I fumbled around and found the 9mm gauge. I dropped a Monarch round in the gauge and it seemed to be in spec.
As I scratched my head, I decided to do one more test. I walked back to my car and got my Ruger LC9s that I carry off duty and have fired a lot. I carry Remington Golden Sabers JHP in the magazine, so when I got back to the line I fired off two rounds and the little Ruger worked flawlessly. I pulled the magazine out and replaced the two fired Golden Sabers with two Monarch FMJ's. I fired off the first round, and yes, it jammed up and failed to feed. I stripped off the other Monarch and replaced it with two Remington FMJ's and fired and everything worked perfectly. I then topped off the Ruger's magazine with two Golden Sabers and put it back in it's holster.
I know it seems to took me a long time to get to the point of evidence that I had bad ammo, but it's been a long, long, time since I've run across more than one or two rounds of bad factory ammo out of hundreds, much less nearly a whole box.
I went to the range this morning to break in my new 5th Generation Glock 19. I figured 250 rounds of 9mm would allow me to fine tune the sights to my liking and get comfortable shooting while determining any differences between it and my Glock 23 .40 S&W that has been my primary duty firearm for around 20 years. I had two boxes of Winchester white box 115 grain FMJ, two boxes of Remington brown box 115 grain FMJ, and one box of Monarch 115 grain FMJ that I bought last year at Academy just before the big ammo run.
I started out with one 15 round magazine loaded with Winchester white box. After five rounds I could already tell I needed to push the rear sight to the right a bit. I put five more rounds downrange and confirmed it. I pulled out my rear sight adjusting tool, cleared and disassembled the G19 and used the tool to adjust the rear sight to the right. After making the adjustment I reassembled the G19, and shot the remaining 5 rounds in the magazine. From those 5 rounds I could see I needed to push the sight to the right a little more so I repeated the process of adjusting the sights.
I loaded 15 more rounds into magazine and stepped back up to the line. I fired off 5 rounds and was satisfied with the sight adjustment so I finished off that box of Winchester white box with the G19 sights spot on and the gun running perfectly.
I reached into my range bag and pulled out the box of Monarch 9mm FMJ and loaded up the magazine. I stepped back up to the line and fired and got a failure to feed after the first round. Hmmm. I cleared it and fired a second round and got another failure to feed. I stopped and pulled out the magazine, cleared the issue, then field stripped the G19 to take a look at what's going on. Visual inspection looked good, so I reassembled it, and looked at the loaded magazine and popped out a round and inspected it. Everything looked good, so I replaced the round, inserted the magazine and fired resulting in another failure to feed.
I reached into my range bag and grabbed an empty magazine. I loaded 5 rounds from the box into it, inserted it into the G19 and fired with another failure to feed. I wasn't thinking ammo problems yet, although I probably should have. I noticed that all the rounds so far were hitting true to aim. I pulled out my 3rd magazine and loaded one rounds into it, inserted it into the G19 and fired. The bullet hit right on target, but the slide did not lock back. I went back to magazine #2 and stripped all but one round from the magazine, inserted it and fired. The slide did not lock back.
Hmmm, this is all very odd . . . Glocks don't act this way so I finally started thinking ammo problems. I reached back into my bag and pulled out a brown box of Remington FMJ's and loaded 5 rounds into magazine #2. I fired off all 5 with no problems. I did the same with magazine #3 and again had no problems. I placed magazine #1 back in the G19, which was still loaded with Monarch rounds, fired and it failed to feed after firing. I stripped all the Monarch rounds out of the magazine and reloaded it with 15 rounds of Remington and fired all 15 without issue. I then placed one Remington round in each magazine and individually fired them and the slide locked back on all three magazines.
Just for grins, I pulled out one round of Monarch and loaded it into the #1 magazine and fired, and sure enough, the slide did not lock back. Well I'll be darned, looks like this Monarch ammo may be underloaded. One last thing, I remembered I had a 9mm & .40 S&W chamber gauge in my bag so I fumbled around and found the 9mm gauge. I dropped a Monarch round in the gauge and it seemed to be in spec.
As I scratched my head, I decided to do one more test. I walked back to my car and got my Ruger LC9s that I carry off duty and have fired a lot. I carry Remington Golden Sabers JHP in the magazine, so when I got back to the line I fired off two rounds and the little Ruger worked flawlessly. I pulled the magazine out and replaced the two fired Golden Sabers with two Monarch FMJ's. I fired off the first round, and yes, it jammed up and failed to feed. I stripped off the other Monarch and replaced it with two Remington FMJ's and fired and everything worked perfectly. I then topped off the Ruger's magazine with two Golden Sabers and put it back in it's holster.
I know it seems to took me a long time to get to the point of evidence that I had bad ammo, but it's been a long, long, time since I've run across more than one or two rounds of bad factory ammo out of hundreds, much less nearly a whole box.
