Hornady Critical Duty

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dpollard

New member
I was given a box of Hornady Critical Duty 175 gr bullets a few weeks ago for my .40 S&W. These are the bullets that have a hollow point but the hollow point is filled in with a little rubber tip (FlexLock Technology), which is supposed to aid in reliable expansion.

On a whim, I put my .40 in my range bag today along with these bullets just to see how they fired. I was able to get about 3 rounds out and the gun started mis-feeding. The rounds that did fire it felt like the slide had a hitch in it, it was not sliding smoothly. What I think is happening is the FlexLock tip is catching on the feed ramp and sticking a little bit and it's taking just enough momentum that is it causing the mis-feeds. The new round would get about halfway up the feed ramp and lock up the slide.

Has anyone else had this problem with these bullets in this caliber? The gun I am firing them out of is a Smith and Wesson M&P and it feeds reliably any other bullet I have put in it. Even today I had my lead bullets with me and they fed fine, before and after I tried the Hornady's.
 
I have several boxes of Critical Defense 40 cal bullets but have not shot any,(saving for HD when at home) I always shoot FMJ at the range through 3 of my 40 M&P's. I think I will have to try a mag full through both my FS M&P and Shield.
 
Originally Posted By: RiflemannI have several boxes of Critical Defense 40 cal bullets but have not shot any,(saving for HD when at home) I always shoot FMJ at the range through 3 of my 40 M&P's. I think I will have to try a mag full through both my FS M&P and Shield.

I don't shoot a 40 or CD ammunition, but I WILL say...

... if you carry a self defense pistol, ALWAYS run a full box through it with a tight hold and a whimpy hold, to make sure it is 110% reliable.

You don't want a feeding or ejecting problem to show up at a bad time.
 
Originally Posted By: CatShooterOriginally Posted By: RiflemannI have several boxes of Critical Defense 40 cal bullets but have not shot any,(saving for HD when at home) I always shoot FMJ at the range through 3 of my 40 M&P's. I think I will have to try a mag full through both my FS M&P and Shield.

I don't shoot a 40 or CD ammunition, but I WILL say...

... if you carry a self defense pistol, ALWAYS run a full box through it with a tight hold and a whimpy hold, to make sure it is 110% reliable.

You don't want a feeding or ejecting problem to show up at a bad time.



After my experience today, I cannot agree with you more!!! I just assumed they'd run in my gun, afterall, they are Hornady! Really glad I checked them out before placing my life in their hands.

To those that posted above, I'd highly suggest you run the bullets in your gun and make sure they work.
 
I also had failure to feed issues in my 9mm. My impression was the load was under powered to cycle the action. On target I got very pronounced vertical stringing at 15yrds. The bullet itself seems to be a great product. Powder, primer or crimp issue is the normal culprit in stringing from my understanding.
 
No way am I gonna trust my [beeep] with something i know as not being 100% reliable. Its definitely a good idea to test self defense ammo.

 
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Heck after reading this, I will burn through a few boxes of my defensive ammo to check it out. I have 8 boxes so I can always get more. Great topic,----Riflemann
 
IM going to try a box in my glock22 I have the 168gr bullets.i have used the hydrashock ammo for years with good results.
 
I use Critical Defense in my Bodyguard .380 and .45 XDS, and Critical Duty in my Kahr CM9 w/o issues. Just goes to prove every gun is an individual. That said, I'm also a big Speer Gold Dot fan.
 
After doing some reading online I found that this is a fairly common issue in the .40 round. In fact, someone even suggested Hornady has redesigned the bullet to alleviate this problem:



Quote from a user on a different Forum I found via Google:

"I contacted Hornady directly and got this response:

'We changed the shape of the 40 S&W bullet in February 2013 and the lot numbers that would contain this bullet will be #2130052 and higher.'

Maybe it's more rounded because the old style was getting caught up on the bottom of the feed ramp? I know that's what I had a problem with early on but then again, my PPQ wasn't really broken in at the time. I recently shot 3 mags of Duty during my last range trip and had zero problems with it.

I haven't tried the newer stuff yet, just wanted to put this out there for anyone using it."
 
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I haven't used them in a .40S&W, but have in 9mm, .45acp, and .380auto. Nary a hiccup for me.

Also shot them a bunch out of .357mag revolvers, but as you might expect, I haven't had feeding issues with them.
 
I think that the Zombie is the same ammo, my 40's have digested the 165's with no issue. If you want to see something impressive, shoot one of these Zombie 165g at a 5 gallon water jug at a distance of 10'. It will blow the entire jug up, and blow the jug off the table!

No matter what the pistol you shoot, please use several mags full of the ammo through the pistol. You never know what a pistol might digest or if you have a bad magazine.
 
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