I'm running out of my favorite ammo for my 617. It really likes Federal BYOB but I haven't been able to find any in the longest amount of time. I can substitute Remingon Golden Bullets and still get 100% ignition even with an 8 pound DA trigger pull.
I loaded up my loading block with CCI-SV ammo this week and headed to the range hoping I can still shoot it. It use to be my favorite ammo but I had a dozen failures to fire out of the first box of 50.
I was stumped. I thought I was shooting my Golden Bullets and didn't realize I has swapped ammo. After those first 50 rounds I got frustrated and headed home to my work bench. There, I pulled out the firing pin and replaced it with a new Cylinder & Slide extended firing pin. I also replaced my stock mainspring with a Miculek spring that upped my DA poundage to about 9.5 pounds. Hammer fall is 55 ounces which should be enough to bust any primer.
As thing would have it I didn't have a chance to go back to the range for testing and I have a match scheduled for tomorrow. Not wanting to waste the day I decided to shoot my Black Mamba instead and loaded all my magazines with Norma Tac 22 ammo. It's greasy but my Mamba loves it. It won't work in the 617 because it fouls the cylinders too quickly.
Lesson learned is to pay attention to what ammo I've loaded into my box. Put a card in there so I can tell at a glance and trust my gun.
