Hornady .380, doesn't fit into the barrel of a Sig

[Jacurso]

I took a client out to shoot his newer .380 Sig the other day.
His Federal HS ammo worked fine....no issues. We only had 12 of those and switched to a new box of Hornady Critical Defense. These rounds would not fully fit into the barrel....even when done one at a time manually, with a locked back slide. Ergo, the slide would not close with a round in the tube. Tried pushing the slide closed with both thumbs to no avail.
The rounds appear to not be seating into the barrel, when done manually.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

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[40calruler]

Which Sig .380? I have the 238 and a 230 and both have had no issues with Critical Defense.

 

[Jacurso]

It is a 290 RS. Like this one........
<broken link removed>

 

[Just Jim]

Sure the ammo was 380? People often get 9mm mixed in with their 380 and the slide won't go to battery. Fellow I know did this and had to get a smith to un jam the gun.

 

[40calruler]

Yeah that is odd I use Hornady in most every gun I have for carry. I had a 290 for a while and it shot it fine. I did not care for the gun but it shot every kind of ammo I fed it. I would check on what Just Jim said there.
I have and have had a whole lot of Sigs. If it is a constant issue they will take care of it for you. Their CS is pretty good. They had my 230 repaired and back to me looking new in 2 weeks.

 

[Jacurso]

Sure the ammo was 380? People often get 9mm mixed in with their 380 and the slide won't go to battery. Fellow I know did this and had to get a smith to un jam the gun.

Absolutely.

.380 marked on the gun, the box and the head stamps.

 

[Jacurso]

Yeah that is odd I use Hornady in most every gun I have for carry. I had a 290 for a while and it shot it fine. I did not care for the gun but it shot every kind of ammo I fed it. I would check on what Just Jim said there.
I have and have had a whole lot of Sigs. If it is a constant issue they will take care of it for you. Their CS is pretty good. They had my 230 repaired and back to me looking new in 2 weeks.

Since the gun handled the Federal ammo just fine....I'm thinking a bad box of Hornady.
I'm going over to the guy's house tonight and mic the cases and blacken the bullet and insert it into the barrel. I've been shooting for 50 years and teaching for 40 and have only seen this happen on crappy reloads.

 

[Jacurso]

During a PPC match many years ago, a guy was shooting .38WC Factory Match Ammo with two failures to fire in the same box. Three strikes on the primer of each...and nothing.
Boy was he pissed. Top shooter in the state at the time....and still won the match.

That's another story, but illustrates that the factories can error too.

 

[mjbskwim]

I would guess you are right ,Jacurso. I mean come on ,1mill rounds out and there could be a bad batch
I'll bet Hornady makes it good for you and then some.Don't really want this on a gun forum were potential buyer might see it!

 

[Jacurso]

Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Thanks everyone, I'll let you know what I come up with....

 

[DieselScout]

I would guess you are right ,Jacurso. I mean come on ,1mill rounds out and there could be a bad batch
I'll bet Hornady makes it good for you and then some.Don't really want this on a gun forum were potential buyer might see it!

I had some .22-250 ammo from Hornady blow a primer and get stuck in the chamber. I contacted Hornady and they requested I send the ammo and spent cases back. I had to drive to the UPS distribution center to ship it. While it was in transit I inspected my gun and found some dirt in the chamber, enough I was fairy sure that is what caused the over pressure. I contacted Hornady before the ammo was recieved by them, told them what I had found and emailed pictures. They went ahead with the test on the ammo I sent back and found the rest of the box tested fine. From the spent cases they determined the chamber on the rifle was on the tighter side of the SAAMI specification, but within limits and agreed it may have been the dirt. They also told me they would ship me new ammo for my trouble once they ran .22-250 on the line again. About 2 months later I received a package from them with not one box of ammo, but two!

This sealed the deal for me and I am a Hornady fan for life. I figure all companies can screw up, but it how you fix the screw up that really tells you about a companies character.

 

[mjbskwim]

I haven't had any problems with Hornady and with the accuracy I have had with their ammo,I would have to have a real bad experience to not buy their ammo
Their reloading stuff is another story for another thread

 

[Jacurso]

I had some .22-250 ammo from Hornady blow a primer and get stuck in the chamber. I contacted Hornady and they requested I send the ammo and spent cases back. I had to drive to the UPS distribution center to ship it. While it was in transit I inspected my gun and found some dirt in the chamber, enough I was fairy sure that is what caused the over pressure. I contacted Hornady before the ammo was recieved by them, told them what I had found and emailed pictures. They went ahead with the test on the ammo I sent back and found the rest of the box tested fine. From the spent cases they determined the chamber on the rifle was on the tighter side of the SAAMI specification, but within limits and agreed it may have been the dirt. They also told me they would ship me new ammo for my trouble once they ran .22-250 on the line again. About 2 months later I received a package from them with not one box of ammo, but two!

This sealed the deal for me and I am a Hornady fan for life. I figure all companies can screw up, but it how you fix the screw up that really tells you about a companies character.

You bet. Good story.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Since my Sig P290RS (9mm) eats everything from dirty reloads to Critical Defence to Speer Gold Dots to HydraShocks I have to agree that it's probably a bad box of ammo, perhaps coupled with a chamber on the tighter end of the specs. Good luck with problem solving! SRG

 

[Jacurso]

Since my Sig P290RS (9mm) eats everything from dirty reloads to Critical Defence to Speer Gold Dots to HydraShocks I have to agree that it's probably a bad box of ammo, perhaps coupled with a chamber on the tighter end of the specs. Good luck with problem solving! SRG

Thank You.

 

[brentb636]

Since Hornady makes a different sized bullet for the 9mm Makarov, it's likely that somehow the wrong bullets got loaded into 380 brass. I have Critical Defense ammo for the Mak, and know for a fact that it won't fit in a 380 chamber.

 

[Jacurso]

Well, these will go down the back of the barrel, just not fully. The case is sticking out slightly.

 

[Certaindeaf]

That's too bad, of course. It shows/serves to show us to not be complacent, as we all are guilty of. I'd recommend that folk drop check actual carry rounds.