Problem with Freedom Munitions NEW 45acp XTP Ammo

[McE]

Brought out a box of Freedom Munitions FACTORY NEW 45acp 230gr XTP ammo. These are not remanufactured.

Loaded up a magazine for one of my M&P45's. Racked the slide, slide failed to return fully to battery. Dropped the mag, pulled back on the slide- it felt stuck but came back with moderate force to eject the round. Happened to subsequent rounds, but some were okay.

Brought out the calipers for some OAL measurements, rounds seemed to range between 1.224" to 1.232". Then noticed a stark difference between the rounds that stuck and the rounds that didn't-
22 rounds in this box of 50 had visible surfaces on the bullet before the angled portion (idk what you call it) above the case mouth, and these 22 rounds failed the plunk and rotate test (as shown below).


22 fail rounds shown next to two rounds that are probably what they all should've been like.

I just got a refund for sending back severely underloaded 44Mag ammo to Freedom Munitions (they claimed 1300fps from a 5" barrel, I chrono'd 950fps from a 10.5" barrel).
Looks like I'll have to send them back some more of their defective ammo and never give them any of my business again.

 

[Irn-Bru]

After the deep seated bullet I received, I'm done with them too.

http://smith-wessonforum.com/ammo/456056-how-big-problem-could-have-been.html

 

[Duckford]

I've had a lot of luck with my New 45 230 XTP's from them, but that was a while ago now. The 250 I bought had nice Starline brass, and I keep them around because they feed well through my RIA 1911 and Thompson. In my personal experience, it was actually the best lot i've gotten from them. However, I know they don't have the best record overall for consistent quality.

My father and I buy quite a bit of ammunition from them, because of price, especially during the Sandy Hook period of shortage. In all that time, I can think of all the problems: the first shipment of new 9mm had 2 bullets pushed in, not quite as bad as Irn-Bru's situation, when they used AmmoLoad brass I've had case separation in my Uzi carbine, my shipment of XTP's came first as a shipment of Reman 230 FMJ that were shipped back at their expense, all of which was around the same time. Recently, the only problems I've had was one out of 250 rounds of Blaster line 45 ACP 230 grain FMJ had a dented case which I just chucked into the woods, and a 158 grain FMJ FN 38 Special round had a bullet that lost crimp and fell into the case and powder when cycling the magazine the tube magazine on my 1894, and another Uzi problem when another AmmoLoad case wound up in a box of Reman.

All of this over the course of thousands of rounds, we still keep buying. In the end, the very cheap prices have outweighed the problems so far, so I'll keep buying. I'm finally getting back into reloading a lot more, so I will be buying less of some calibers, but even then its beneficial, as you can return the brass you don't reload for a discount, or for me, cheap brass cased rounds I can recover the brass for myself. Although they tend to not segregate their brass, I do, and sometimes you can yield some nice Starline brass, and from loaded rounds at the cost of cheapo aluminum and steel case.

As the market improves, they very well may have to make changes and improvements to keep up with competitors as things change, but all and all, I like cheap brass rounds for training/reloading, and they do a good job of that.