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New to me

wvhunt
I was told when shooting a new pistol FMJ should be used for awhile due to hollow points causing jams? Does this sound as if it has any truth behind it? If so can you please explain?

Thanks-
Jonathan
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Comments

9 comments

Date Votes
  • beantownshootah
    Well, trying to make sense of this, SOME guns are poorly finished, and have rough throats or feed ramps.

    With a gun like that putting a 1000 rounds through the gun might functionally polish these areas and enhance feeding reliability with less than perfect bullet shapes.

    Of course you can achieve the same effect by manually polishing the areas too.

    But most service-type guns nowadays. . .nah.

    Assuming its been properly cleaned, if the gun won't cycle hollowpoints reliably out of the box, chances are pretty good it won't do so after a few hundred (or more) rounds have been put through it.

    Edit: For what its worth, I've NEVER heard this recommendation before from any gun manufacturer. If it were important, you'd think they'd put it in the instruction manual, right?
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  • wvhunt
    Thanks, I figured it had something to do with the feeding ramp as the cartridge entered the chamber, however it just didnt sound like it would be a problem.
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  • jar
    how can that question be answered without knowing what kind, brand, caliber of gun he is talking about?
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  • wvhunt
    I was told this in general by someone.
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  • cpermd
    They are wrong.

    CP
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  • coledigger4
    My Colt Sporter AR 15 would not reliably feed hollow points until after I had shot a few hundred fmj bullets. All factory loads, the hollow points worked fine in other AR's, but mine would jamb with them. It now shoots them just fine.
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  • Bert H.
    The big questions is... why do you want to shoot HP ammo in a semi-auto pistol? Ball ammo is what they were designed for, and that type of ammo will do anything you need it to.
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  • rjc
    I agree with Bert. I have owned and shot MANY semi-autos over the years and every time one of them hung up it was with some fancy bullet. I finally decided to just use jacketed ball. All of my guns are high quality manufacture and well maintained. The only auto I've owned that NEVER jammed is a Colt .32. I've never shot anything in it except ball. If the gun is being used for self defense, I want to have the best reliability. I would rather put an extra ball round into the perp than have the gun jam. If you need to shoot fancy bullets, use a revolver.
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  • beantownshootah
    quote:Originally posted by Bert H.
    The big questions is... why do you want to shoot HP ammo in a semi-auto pistol? Ball ammo is what they were designed for, and that type of ammo will do anything you need it to.


    Well, in fact most of the recent-design guns will run just fine with most bullet shapes, and were specifically designed with barrel-integral feed ramps to do so.

    I've never had either my CZ-75 or my P99 choke with hollowpoints (though then again, I've never had either one choke on anything, period).

    Why would you want to use hollow-points?

    -For hunting.
    -To reduce the risk of overpenetration indoors.
    -For possible defensive terminal ballistic advantage.

    You can debate whether or not there is a significant advantage to using hollowpoints, but as long as they cycle your gun reliably, and your gun has reasonable power/penetration there probably isn't much DISADVANTAGE to using them.

    Alternatively, if there were no perceived advantage to hollowpoints, then why do the FBI (which has spent gazillions of dollars studying and testing bullet effectiveness) and virtually every large domestic police force use them, despite the fact that they cost 2-3x what ordinary FMJ bullets cost?
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