A few months ago I asked if any members had any experience with American Sniper 124gr JHP ammo, no one had ,I took a chance and bought 1K rounds at .39 a round, after 3 trips to the range with 4 different 9mm guns it's a no go on these rounds , I hate to bad mouth this company, as it's associated with Chris Kyle's widow, I don't know how much she actually has to do with the day to day running of the company, but I've had no response from American Sniper , Bought them from Battle Hawke and they refuse to refund, or replace, the ammo will not chamber in 2 glocks one wahlter and one PSA carbine/pistol AR , all other ammo chambers and fires fine, 2 out of 10 will chamber and fire, even had a few get stuck in the chamber and had to knock out with a rod , just ran a box through a lee factory crimp die with out crimp and most needed alot of effort to bottom the die out , tried some blazer brass factory just for comparison and they cycled through the die with no resistance, so I can't recommend this particular ammo , their other ammo has gotten good reviews.
-
Having trouble using the site?
Contact support
9mm ammo problems
- Thread starter ironman56
- Start date
Ugh, hate to hear that.
Just some food for thought... but I run all my pistol loads through a 100 hole Min Chamber case gage that also helps with spotting seating depth issues and helps me box load the ammo into standard boxes like the MTM, which in turn work with speedloaders.
If I was faced with 1000 rounds like you described and thought they were at least safe to run other than some sizing issues, I would screen them all through such a gage so that you don't have that issue while shooting.
You would still be faced with the remedy for the ones that have issues, but by then you would have a pretty good idea of which dimension(s) cause the issue and can sort the rejects out later.
I hope they take this stuff back and send you good ammo, but we all know how things sometimes don't work the way they are supposed to.
Where on the case is it jamming? I’ve seen some factory rounds that could use a taper crimp. Is that the issue here?
I'm a reloader, I've run 50 thru my lee factory crimp die , the instructions with the die says it will insure all rounds that pass thru it will be to spec , it appears that whoever loads these for american sniper doesn't properly size their brass or the bullets are over sized and cuase the case to expand when the bullet is seated, I'll test fire the 50 I've resized and if they function OK I'll just resize all 1000 of the lot. I can't even find a proper phone # or email address for american sniper , the one I did find was for their apparel and they haven't responded.
Appears to jam on the case mouth , some of the rounds have the bullet pushed back into the case , actually had one fire out of battery on the AR pistol , that was exciting, case had to be extracted with a oversized bore brush , the case head was gone never to be seen again , and my off hand was burned a little , but otherwise no damage.
Apply a taper crimp to the rounds and see if that fixes it. Btw, the 9mm FCD will size factory new brass, so the resistance is normal. Measure the cases and compare it to fired brass.
Plunk test.
Look on YouTube. If you haven't heard of it before, it'll make sense once you watch two or three videos. I'd start there. If all the rounds pass the plunk test, then the next thing to look at is to polish your feed ramp.
With as many different guns that these rounds DON'T seem to work in, I doubt polishing the feedramp in any of them is going to solve the problem though.
Start with the plunk test. That should tell you a lot.
BTW, the majority of the resizing doesn't happen on the factory crimp die, it happens on the resizer/decapper. And yes, I have had universally good luck with Lee Dies. I prefer them.
Are the rounds reloads ? If so, what are the headstamps of the brass. I reload a lot of 9mm from once fired brass. From headstamp to headstamp, I have seen as much as 0.025" variation in overall brass length. This plays hell with being able to get a consistent crimp. I have a method of dealing with it which works quite well, but that's for another conversation. If "A/S" is reloading once fired brass and end not sorting or trimming, it's likely to have problems.
It could be that the shorter brass is not having it's (belled) mouth crimped enough and the mouth is open wider than it should be. Look at the mouth of a round that won't pass the plunk test. Does it look like it was well crimped ? Run your finger/thumbnail over the mouth. Do you feel a burr ?
Look on YouTube. If you haven't heard of it before, it'll make sense once you watch two or three videos. I'd start there. If all the rounds pass the plunk test, then the next thing to look at is to polish your feed ramp.
With as many different guns that these rounds DON'T seem to work in, I doubt polishing the feedramp in any of them is going to solve the problem though.
Start with the plunk test. That should tell you a lot.
BTW, the majority of the resizing doesn't happen on the factory crimp die, it happens on the resizer/decapper. And yes, I have had universally good luck with Lee Dies. I prefer them.
Are the rounds reloads ? If so, what are the headstamps of the brass. I reload a lot of 9mm from once fired brass. From headstamp to headstamp, I have seen as much as 0.025" variation in overall brass length. This plays hell with being able to get a consistent crimp. I have a method of dealing with it which works quite well, but that's for another conversation. If "A/S" is reloading once fired brass and end not sorting or trimming, it's likely to have problems.
It could be that the shorter brass is not having it's (belled) mouth crimped enough and the mouth is open wider than it should be. Look at the mouth of a round that won't pass the plunk test. Does it look like it was well crimped ? Run your finger/thumbnail over the mouth. Do you feel a burr ?
Last edited:
I'll Google the plunk test , thanks for the heads up . American Sniper claims to use all new brass, all the same head stamp, supposedly moved or are moving their operations from the cezk Republic to the US , so maybe they've got some bugs to work out , just wish there was some way to contact them.
Do the rounds case gauge?
if they don’t, I would post pics.
if the seller will not allow a return, ask for a credit
if they don’t, I would post pics.
if the seller will not allow a return, ask for a credit
Buy your ammo with an AMEX next time. If it doesn't work/you're dissatisfied, just reverse the charges.
As I said, I reload all my ammo. But........I could give a shit where it's made. If I was sold a "standard" product, I'd expect it to work. If it didn't, I'd expect the manufacturer to make it right.
^^^
Your chamber is the only thing that matters. A case gauge is not your chamber. There is more to reliability than case dimensions.
For sure.. CZ/Tanfos are notorious for short throats and some factory ammo won’t work in them.
My reloads for 9mm are shorter than most, due to running Tanfos, and they work in everything because of it
135gn TC bullets from Blue Bullets
My reloads for 9mm are shorter than most, due to running Tanfos, and they work in everything because of it
135gn TC bullets from Blue Bullets
Finally got to the range to test the rounds I sent through my lee factory crimp die , no dice , still had some stovepipe fte and some primers that failed to ignite, about 30 rds out of a G19 and a PSA pistol AR that's feeds every thing else I've ever tried , so guess it's back to trying to reach American Sniper for some kind of response. The range I went to is where the eclipse festival was held in burnet texas , and damn they're still cleaning up that place 9 days after the shutdown , still some tents and trailers and piles of trash bags and dumpsters full of trash , hope it was all worth it.
The importer is United Forces Enterprises , I goggled them and was able to get a address but no email or phone # , probably wasting my time , I did find some other online complaints on the same ammo , wish I had found them when I was researching before my purchase. One guy said he was able to get a PCC with a strong hammer spring to fire them with out issue.
