Close call with Winchester 9mm ammo

[Drcrimson]

Had a close call earlier this week at the range. My son and I were getting in some range time shooting a couple of 9mm pistols. My son was shooting primarily, so I was loading mags for him. I had a couple of the Winchester bulk 9mm packs of 100 rounds we were using (purchased in 2018/2019 time frame).

As I was loading one of the mags for my son, something just felt strange as I loaded one of the rounds. When I looked down at the mag the last round loaded looked much shorter. I initially thought maybe a defective round, but upon taking the round out of the mag and inspecting it was cleanly marked 380 acp.

Never had anything like that happen before with commercial ammo but it certainly got my attention. I was fortunate to have caught that 380 round. Just something to be aware of and check when you are loading mags.

 

[Frank Thompson]

Good Eyes!! Always be looking !
Safety is #1,,,,

 

[kwb377]

We had a case of Federal American Eagle .45ACP at work once that half the boxes were loaded with .40 S&W rounds (in the correct .45 ACP boxes). Sealed case from the distributor.

 

[Drcrimson]

That’s scary!

 

[Joe Friday]

Had a close call earlier this week at the range.

Good catch, but not really devastating...
Saw a thread a year or so ago about testing he very same scenario... And later found that some police ranges actually use .308 ammo to teach clearing jams...
The .380 and 9mm use the same diameter bullet, the difference is the .380 case is a little shorter than that of the 9mm. Depending on the design of the gun, either the cartridge will end up 2 mm farther in than it should be, leaving the primer out of reach of the firing pin, or the cartridge will be held to the breech face by the extractor which will probably allow it to fire, but the bullet will have to jump a 2 mm gap into the rifling of the barrel, which will cause utterly horrid accuracy. Plus, as otherwise stated, it probably won't have enough recoil to properly cycle the gun. Sort of like firing a .22 short from a .22 long rifle chamber... The bullet will have to jump the distance of the length of a .380 vs a 9MM (Which is 2 MM)

 

[Drcrimson]

I’ve read that also about 380 in a 9mm handgun but there is also the potential for the 380 case to split in that situation, which would not have been good. Not as potentially dangerous as a squib or something of that nature for sure.

I also read somewhere about someone training with 380 in a 9mm to teach clearing jams. My reaction to that is there has to be a better/safer way. Way to risky for me.

 

[Thesurfmurf]

Had a close call earlier this week at the range. My son and I were getting in some range time shooting a couple of 9mm pistols. My son was shooting primarily, so I was loading mags for him. I had a couple of the Winchester bulk 9mm packs of 100 rounds we were using (purchased in 2018/2019 time frame).

As I was loading one of the mags for my son, something just felt strange as I loaded one of the rounds. When I looked down at the mag the last round loaded looked much shorter. I initially thought maybe a defective round, but upon taking the round out of the mag and inspecting it was cleanly marked 380 acp.

Never had anything like that happen before with commercial ammo but it certainly got my attention. I was fortunate to have caught that 380 round. Just something to be aware of and check when you are loading mags.

That was a good catch for sure! I have also run into this but with Blazer and it was a 50 round box so I actually saw it before I tried to load it! I can’t believe in a 50 round box the Blazer QC department didn’t catch that one! It was during Covid beginning

 

[Frank Thompson]

Stuff will happen! I had a “similar” problem with Hornady.308 Ammo, in that, I tried to use it in my older Mossberg bolt rifle. Ammo too Long?!?
I had Always used Remington Core-Lok
And, it always worked-Great!
Couldn’t get the Hornady to fit in the
Push-down magazine! Called a Gunsmith friend and he said , “You have got some NATO Ammo!” ??
I even called Hornady. They gave me the ‘Dimensions’ (Length) of a .308
Round, sure enough, the .308 I had fell perfectly within those Dimensions!
Sooo, glad I didn’t wait till I got to the deer stand before cking my Ammo!
Really taught me about cking my Ammo-before you get to the field/range. The Remington “Cor-Lok” were just a tiny bit shorter, And they were within the allowed length for a
.308 !!
I learn something new about Firearms-all the time! They are FUN !