Reminder to check your ammo -Walther PPK

[Inusuit]

Recently purchased an Interarms Walther PPK from a seller on this forum. All good, pistol looked new and came with case, manual, target, cleaning rod, 6 magazines and 450 rounds of .380.

Took it out to shoot at my backyard range. First magazine was a bit glitchy, chalked it up to needing some breakin rounds. The US made PP pistols have a history of issues with some guns.

Second magazine, two rounds fire, then a click. Rack the slide, will not chamber the next round which is jammed about half in the chamber. Clear the jam, can't get a round to feed. Tried another magazine, no joy.

Field stripped it to find a .32 ACP cartridge in the barrel. Fortunately, it stuck close enough to the chamber so a .380 wouldn't go in.

The only thing I can figure is that the .32 was mixed in with the .380 ammo even though the rounds were in a sealed plastic bag labeled new ammunition from Georgia Arms. I must have put the .32 in the magazine without noticing. Ammo was apparently old because the price was $8.50 for 50 rounds.

I am very careful because I have .32 (but none in proximity to the range test), .380. 9mm Makarov, and 9mm NATO. Hard to eyeball the difference.

Anyway, lesson learned at little expense. I will be more careful in the future.

 

[Gene L]

I picked up a .32 mag and inserted into my .380 and jammed it up. Had to take it down to clear it.

 

[BB57]

I occasionally see 9mm Luger brass that has been fired in a .40 S&W chamber at the range. A few pistols will hold the smaller rim against the bolt face firmly enough to allow it to be fired.

The brass expands to the .40 chamber forward of the web, but I suspect it results in a far less than perfect seal and a lot of gas coming back into the pistol.

 

[squidsix]

I have seen and done this myself. Yes be careful out there

 

[30-30remchester]

I am not a Remington 700 fan at all, but have to pay homage to its strength. I know of 2 individuals that fired a 308 Win in guns chambered for 270 Win. Both guns locked up the bolt and a gunsmith had to unscrew the barrels to get the cases out and the bolt to work. Re- assembled action, bolt and barrels and both shoot fine with good accuracy in spite of 30 caliber bullets going down a 27 caliber barrel. On the other hand a 30/06 was fired in a Mauser actioned 308 Norma Mag. Blew the claw extractor off the bolt, bent extractor retaining ring and froze the bolt up.

 

[Walter Rego]

Reminds me of the danger of getting a 20 gauge mixed in with one's 12 gauge ammo, having the 20 gauge shell go down the barrel and blowing up the gun with the next round.

 

[glenwolde]

I've seen .40 S&W fired in a .45 ACP by accident. The bullet went about 10 feet and clattered along the cement floor.

This is why I like to put my ammo up in plastic boxes. You will spot anomalies much quicker than bulk stored or baggies. Of course you end up with a lot of plastic boxes.

 

[rockquarry]

I bought two Remington 700 AS models (matte finish, charcoal synthetic stocks) more than thirty years. One was a .308 and the other a .270. I inadvertently fired a .308 cartridge in the .270.

I don't recall the bolt being difficult to open , but the .308 case looked like a spent .410 shotgun shell. I feared the rifle was damaged and sent it to Remington for an exam. They pronounced it healthy and undamaged. I kept it for years, firing it considerably for load development work.

Since then, I think I'm far more careful than the average shooter as to what ammo is on my bench at the range. I still look at headstamps often.

 

[Dvus]

I bought a box of .45 Colt one time, and while putting it through one of my 3rd gen. Colt SAAs, I found out the hard way that someone had swapped in a .44 mag round. A big ball of fire, noise and heavy recoil gave me an instant "OH SH**!" moment. After checking my hands and finding all digits intact, I checked my frightened pony and found it to be in good condition somehow. The case had split end to end , and I'm guessing the extra clearance between the bullet and the barrel is all that kept my pony in one piece.

 

[target tech]

My favorite ammo mix up story, weather intentional or not, came from cleaning up after range duty. Our club was open to the public for rifle sight in for a month or so before deer season opened in MN and members had to volunteer for range duty.
We put 5 gallon buckets out for anyone not saving their brass, we auctioned it all off at the end of the year. I was dumping all the buckets into one when I noticed a strange looking case . The case was a .300 Win Mag with a fire formed Weatherby shoulder and a really short neck. I don't know If it was an accident or someone too cheap to by Weatherby ammo. I ended up finding a total of 5 cases in the bucket. I set them on the window sill up in the club house, I figured someone else could get a kick out of it.

 

[Echo40]

Fortunately, I've never mixed up completely different cartridges then fired them out of the wrong gun...yet. However, I once fired a good 20 rounds of overpressure .45 Long Colt loads through my Taurus Judge, (which is only rated for Standard Pressure loads) but fortunately the gun wasn't damaged.
How could I have made such a mistake, you ask? Well, it was loose ammo that my brother gave me, there were no markings on the case head to identify it as overpressure ammo, and although the report/recoil were harsher than Standard Pressure loads, I had been shooting 3" .410 buckshot shells, which had about the same blast/recoil, so it didn't register to me until I opened up a fresh box of .45LC then began shooting that.

 

[Andyd]

Back in the day when Paragon sold 1,000 rounds of 8x57IS surplus ammo in a .50 cal ammo can for $70 shipped, there was a 7x57 among the amm that I fired. It gave a weak report and the bullet fell to the ground a few feet in front of the firing line.
Smokeless powder is no explosive but a propellant and needs to build up pressure by confinement. If you take the powder, pour it in a line and light it, it will burn at about 4 to 5 inches per second. Blackpowder, on the other hand, will burn much faster and the more BP there is, the faster it will burn, up to 3,000 feet per second.

 

[375hh1973]

.25/06s fired from a .270 DO NOT give good accuracy. Just sayin.

 

[Richard Simmons]

Read an article once about a fella shooting his M1 Garand at Camp Perry. To make a long story short he fired his sighting rounds to check his zero then loaded from a new box and the first shot was off target considerably. He looked at the ejected case and noticed it looked like a straight walled case. He had opened a box of 7.62x51 by mistake. No damage to himself or the rifle.

 

[AJ]

Recently purchased an Interarms Walther PPK from a seller on this forum. All good, pistol looked new and came with case, manual, target, cleaning rod, 6 magazines and 450 rounds of .380.

Took it out to shoot at my backyard range. First magazine was a bit glitchy, chalked it up to needing some breakin rounds. The US made PP pistols have a history of issues with some guns.

Second magazine, two rounds fire, then a click. Rack the slide, will not chamber the next round which is jammed about half in the chamber. Clear the jam, can't get a round to feed. Tried another magazine, no joy.

Field stripped it to find a .32 ACP cartridge in the barrel. Fortunately, it stuck close enough to the chamber so a .380 wouldn't go in.

The only thing I can figure is that the .32 was mixed in with the .380 ammo even though the rounds were in a sealed plastic bag labeled new ammunition from Georgia Arms. I must have put the .32 in the magazine without noticing. Ammo was apparently old because the price was $8.50 for 50 rounds.

I am very careful because I have .32 (but none in proximity to the range test), .380. 9mm Makarov, and 9mm NATO. Hard to eyeball the difference.

Anyway, lesson learned at little expense. I will be more careful in the future.

Many years ago I was shooting with my 1stSgt. at the base range. We were shooting our personal guns. He had a Taurus PT-92 and a large box of 9 MM that his neighbor had given him to try. His neighbor worked for a small company in Orange County that did reloading for local PD's. As he was shooting he had a FTF. Upon closed inspection he had a .380 case in the chamber that had fired, but not ejected (remember this is a (9 MM). It had not extracted. Somehow the reloaders had mixed a .380 into a batch 0f 9 MM. The .380 was not strong enough to push the slide back and try to chamber a round in this case. He was lucky.

 

[Inusuit]

Thanks to all for posting about this issue.

I was shooting with a friend who was having trouble with his Glock 19. Slide wouldn't cycle, cases split, accuracy terrible.

He had disassembled the 19 and his 23 at the same time and put the 23 barrel back in the 19 frame.

 

[washerman]

Reminds me of the danger of getting a 20 gauge mixed in with one's 12 gauge ammo, having the 20 gauge shell go down the barrel and blowing up the gun with the next round.

If its yellow then don't put it in a 12 gauge as all 20 gauge rounds are yellow

 

[shocker]

A friend of mine told me his father did the 308 in a 270 thing. Again, the gun was no worse for wear.

 

[vinn]

my favoret ammo screw up is: installing a "chamber changer" to shoot .308 in 30 06 chamber". as I recall, the instructions said to use "locktite". on the second shot, with my springfield, "the little device" went out on an empty shell. 4 more shot emptys were a strange,"re formed" , but safe, empty.

 

[woodsltc]

Many years ago I was shooting with my 1stSgt. at the base range. We were shooting our personal guns. He had a Taurus PT-92 and a large box of 9 MM that his neighbor had given him to try. His neighbor worked for a small company in Orange County that did reloading for local PD's. As he was shooting he had a FTF. Upon closed inspection he had a .380 case in the chamber that had fired, but not ejected (remember this is a (9 MM). It had not extracted. Somehow the reloaders had mixed a .380 into a batch 0f 9 MM. The .380 was not strong enough to push the slide back and try to chamber a round in this case. He was lucky.

I'm ashamed to admit that several months ago I accidentally loaded a Glock 26 (9mm) magazine with .380 acp and fired it........rounds would fire and then stovepipe and not cycle. I shot 3 rounds before I discovered what was wrong. Kinda shook me up and embarrassed me that I did such a dumb thing.

Don