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3,496 Posts
Ohhhhh, I'm sure Hornady would love to hear about this and want all the ammo you have left shipped back and the boxes. Trust me, they will be very interested.
Problem with Hornady Critical Defense
I bought 4 boxes of the new Hornady Critical Defense ammo in 9mm. Yesterday I got a chance to try it out and what a disappointment!! One out of every 3 rounds was a misfire. The hammer left pronounced indentations on the primers but the rounds were duds. Some I even put back in and tried again with the same result. Now I had two hammer indentations on the primer but no fire! :barf:
Today I went to the range and with the same gun (Kahr CW9) I fired my normal carry round, Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. with not a single misfire. Then I ran 50 rounds of Federal American Eagle hard ball with again, not a single misfire.
I'm going to contact Hornady for a refund but needless to say, I would never carry their Critical Defense round.
Today I went to the range and with the same gun (Kahr CW9) I fired my normal carry round, Speer Gold Dot 124 gr. with not a single misfire. Then I ran 50 rounds of Federal American Eagle hard ball with again, not a single misfire.
I'm going to contact Hornady for a refund but needless to say, I would never carry their Critical Defense round.
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3,379 Posts
This topic has gone on for a few months on multiple boards. So, its not new (just maybe new here) They changed the primers design, and the new primers are supposedly copper colored instead of silver colored now. But, there are still reports.
I bought a box and planned to use it as my new carry ammo after I fired about 1/2 of it.
I just thru it in the back of my safe instead. Even if I get thru 1/2, I'll have my doubts. True, the likely hood is diminished that if I get thru 1/2 with no issues, the other 1/2 may be okay. But, I've seen reports of just a few in the box being bad.
So, for now, I'll pass on this ammo for alt least the next year. Irritating.
I have never had a misfire on any commercial centerfire cartridge before. It's disappointing to hear this. And, it is a self defense round.
I bought a box and planned to use it as my new carry ammo after I fired about 1/2 of it.
I just thru it in the back of my safe instead. Even if I get thru 1/2, I'll have my doubts. True, the likely hood is diminished that if I get thru 1/2 with no issues, the other 1/2 may be okay. But, I've seen reports of just a few in the box being bad.
So, for now, I'll pass on this ammo for alt least the next year. Irritating.
I have never had a misfire on any commercial centerfire cartridge before. It's disappointing to hear this. And, it is a self defense round.
All 4 boxes have the copper colored primers!!!
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121 Posts
I have had no problem with the 3 boxes of Critical Defense that I shot through my Beretta. Very interesting though.
I've tested for accuracy and shot 40 rounds of Hornady's .38 spl Critical Defense std pressure rounds out of two different j-frames. No faliures to fire from those two boxes.
I now carry the remaining 10 rounds when packing a j-frame (5 in gun/5 in a speed strip).
regards
I now carry the remaining 10 rounds when packing a j-frame (5 in gun/5 in a speed strip).
regards
I have been using this ammo in my Springfield EMP and have never had a problem. I save my brass, so I just checked all the stuff I fired in the past year, and it all had copper colored primers. However, I just checked a brand new box I picked up from a local dealer and it has silver primers! I know it was new stock, so maybe the new primers are silver?
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3,379 Posts
I think the copper is newer, but cannot swear - the thread I read it in was a month or two ago on AR15.com. Someone claimed to have called the company to complain
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3,683 Posts
About two years ago I had three misfires from a box of 20 JHP Federal Premium Hydra-Shoks. I had solid primer strikes on each of the rounds.
So I called Federal and was impressed with the professionalism of the rep. He was extremely concerned. One of the first things he asked me was to identify the Lot No. (inside the box). He then asked me to return the rest of the rounds including the box they came in.
For my trouble, he sent me two free boxes of Hydra-Shoks.
I never did find out what the problem was. Maybe it was just a bad batch. Mistakes happen.
Excalibur...it would be interesting to hear what the response from Hornady is.
As others have said, Hornady will make it right. They can't afford to have their reputation tarnished.
So I called Federal and was impressed with the professionalism of the rep. He was extremely concerned. One of the first things he asked me was to identify the Lot No. (inside the box). He then asked me to return the rest of the rounds including the box they came in.
For my trouble, he sent me two free boxes of Hydra-Shoks.
I never did find out what the problem was. Maybe it was just a bad batch. Mistakes happen.
Excalibur...it would be interesting to hear what the response from Hornady is.
As others have said, Hornady will make it right. They can't afford to have their reputation tarnished.
Used to reload for a shooting bud that had a Ruger P-90. I only use Win LPP and his gun didn't like them. We'd shoot some pin comps and he would consistently have 3-5 mis/hang fires per 100 rds. No probs with any factory rds, just my WLP rds. Sounds kinda like what prob you have. As said, let us know what the Hornady rep says. Tracy
Update from Hornady
Today I talked with Doug at Hornady. He immediately said they want them back to find out what is going on. He instructed me to send them back via UPS but I had to ask him to pay for the shipping and he reluctantly agreed. I told him that since they manufactured the ammo and I already paid for it I didn't feel that they should ask me to be out any more cash because the ammo is defective. So UPS is picking it up tomorrow. I'll post the results from Hornady when I get an answer.
BTW -- Doug said they don't manufacture primers. They buy them from a supplier so I'm sure the supplier will hear about it also.
Today I talked with Doug at Hornady. He immediately said they want them back to find out what is going on. He instructed me to send them back via UPS but I had to ask him to pay for the shipping and he reluctantly agreed. I told him that since they manufactured the ammo and I already paid for it I didn't feel that they should ask me to be out any more cash because the ammo is defective. So UPS is picking it up tomorrow. I'll post the results from Hornady when I get an answer.
BTW -- Doug said they don't manufacture primers. They buy them from a supplier so I'm sure the supplier will hear about it also.
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76 Posts
I'm just curious if the rep said anything about compensating you for the ammunition
you're returning.
Thanks for keeping us up to date.
you're returning.
Thanks for keeping us up to date.
He stated that they would replace it after they tested the batch I'm sending back.
I'll be interested to hear what they tell you. I had 2 no-fires in the first box of these I shot. Both rounds fired on the second strike. The gun has had 500 rounds of a dozen other types of HP and FMJ ammo through it without issue.
I have 3 more boxes of the same lot in the ammo safe, and another 100 rounds on back order. I've replaced the CD in my carry gun with HST's until I hear more about this.
Update from Hornady
Well, today the rep from Hornady called me and said it was my gun!!! He said he measured headspace, etc. on the rounds and everything was in specs. Then he took it to the range and fired some from a Glock and a couple other guns and did not have a FTF. He said the specs for primer indent is .0117 and the rounds I sent back that had failed in my gun showed indents of .0113. (I think I got that right, maybe it was .017). So the only thing they will do is return the ammo to me!
I again repeated that right after their ammo failed to fire I shot Gold Dots, Federal American Eagle and UMC without one failure. Didn't matter -- it's my gun. I told him that I had done some research online and found that others were having the same problem with Critical Defense ammo -- I'm not the only one and only then did he admit that they have had numerous returns of that ammo for the same reason -- failure to fire. But he refused to do anything but return the ammo. I asked him to explain why my gun didn't have a problem with any other ammo and he said he couldn't comment on other brands.
So I'm getting the ammo back. Don't know what I'll do with it but you can bet I'll never trust my life with it. I know Hornady is a good company but this is really disappointing. I'll stick with Gold Dots that have NEVER failed!
Well, today the rep from Hornady called me and said it was my gun!!!
He said he measured headspace, etc. on the rounds and everything was in specs. Then he took it to the range and fired some from a Glock and a couple other guns and did not have a FTF. He said the specs for primer indent is .0117 and the rounds I sent back that had failed in my gun showed indents of .0113. (I think I got that right, maybe it was .017). So the only thing they will do is return the ammo to me!I again repeated that right after their ammo failed to fire I shot Gold Dots, Federal American Eagle and UMC without one failure. Didn't matter -- it's my gun. I told him that I had done some research online and found that others were having the same problem with Critical Defense ammo -- I'm not the only one and only then did he admit that they have had numerous returns of that ammo for the same reason -- failure to fire. But he refused to do anything but return the ammo. I asked him to explain why my gun didn't have a problem with any other ammo and he said he couldn't comment on other brands.
So I'm getting the ammo back. Don't know what I'll do with it but you can bet I'll never trust my life with it. I know Hornady is a good company but this is really disappointing. I'll stick with Gold Dots that have NEVER failed!
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3,220 Posts
With a 1 in 3 failure rate, my first suspicion would have been light primer strikes. That's just too high a rate for primer failure. My first move would have been to try it in another 9mm as a test.
You should try talking to Kahr about evaluating your firing system.
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