bullet setback (old hydroshocks)

**Last Resort** · December 4th, 2009, 08:03 PM

I chambered my .45 tonight (rock island commander) and had a failure to feed, the slide wouldn't rack through. This continued to happen when I cleared the jam, reloaded the mag, and tried to rack again. I finally noticed that the federal hydroshock round was noticeably shorter than the rest. I switched to a different round, and the bullet chambered just fine. I tried several more times and it eventually did the same thing. When I unjammed it, that bullet had now developed a setback. The .45 was just field stripped and cleaned, and I had no problems with it at the range. I was not using this ammo though. I realized that I've had theses hydro shocks since I purchased the gun (personal defense rounds). Is it possible these rounds are having setbacks due to old age (they are something like 3-5 years old). Should I toss them all? (I got rid of the ones I deformed).

**Al-Mumit** · December 4th, 2009, 08:19 PM

Might just be your gun that's doing it. 1911 and similar guns have a tendency to do this in my experience. I'd be surprised if it was the ammo, but if it'd make you feel better you might want to buy a new box and test the theory.

You said these rounds are old, have they been chambered before? Repeatedly chambering a round into a semi-auto firearm inevitably results in setback.

**Last Resort** · December 4th, 2009, 08:27 PM

Thanks for the info. What do you guys do when you carry daily? Do you keep your gun at home with a round chambered so you don't have to continuously chamber the same rounds? I know some rotate through the first round in the magazine, but it seems even with rotating, you would end up re-chambering the same round on a weekly basis (8 round clip).

-Thanks

**Nic** · December 4th, 2009, 08:53 PM

I keep a round chambered. If I notice any setback, I eventually take it to my pistol range and let them dispose of it.

**Al-Mumit** · December 4th, 2009, 09:14 PM

Originally Posted by Nic

I keep a round chambered. If I notice any setback, I eventually take it to my pistol range and let them dispose of it.

This. I go at least monthly and expend any rounds that've been chambered.

**Flash** · December 5th, 2009, 12:10 AM

How's your Google-fu? This issue of setback was the subject of a couple of threads earlier this summer.

The long and the short of it was that some rounds have setback in some pistols, and some rounds have not (yet) set back in other pistols.

It seemed that the more often a particular cartridge was cycled through certain pistols, the more likely it was to experience this. Some pistols did it more frequently than others, some types and makes of ammunition were more likely to exhibit this setback.

But thus far, nobody has been bold enough to declare that "XXX" ammunition in such-and-such a caliber would do this in "YYY" pistol, without fail.

So, when the smoke is all cleared, it comes to this:

"Do not cycle the same round too much, check regularly to see if you have setback, and if you do, dispose of that round suitably (either by diassembly and disposal, or cooking it off in the burn-barrel or something similar) but don't risk firinng it and having a KaBOOM! due to insufficient internal case volume at time of firing."

My personal observation is that this condition is far less likely to occur with my J-frame S&W 38SPL than it is with my KelTec P-11 in 9mm.
Astute, huh?

Flash

**Last Resort** · December 5th, 2009, 01:30 PM

Thanks for the help guys. It seems like my 1911 commander likes to do this. I'll follow the guidelines on here, and dispose of any setback rounds at the range in the proper manner.