Stumped with Ruger P95 Pistol(s)/Ammunition Problems

[KS Shooter]

Everyone, I am looking for some reloading guidance on how to solve an issue that is very irritating. I didn't put it under the reloading section because it is more generalized. Sorry but there are a lot of details.

To start with, my youngest son and I were shooting our P95 9mm pistols today and ran into some FTE's and FTF's.

1st - I shot 17 rounds of reloaded ammunition from my pistol using a mecgar magazine with the last round being an FTE. The reloaded ammunition was 115 FMJ using 4.9 gr. HP-38 powder.

2nd - we shot 5 new Winchester 115 FMJ's from my son's pistol using one of two ruger factory mag's (15rd) with no failures.

3rd - we shot 5 new Winchester 115 FMJ's from my son's pistol using the second ruger factory mag (15rd) with one FTF.

4th - we started shooting 17 rd's (reloaded) from my son's pistol using his mecgar 17 rd magazine. During firing of the first 5 cartridges we had two FTE's. We transferred the magazine to my pistol and fired 5 more cartridges with 3 FTE's. The, we transferred the cartridges from his mecgar to my mecgar 17 and using my pistol fired 3 rds with no issues. Finally we loaded my mecgar magazine into his pistol and fired the remaining 3 rds with two FTE's.

Questions.

1. is this a pistol extraction issue/only?

2. is this a magazine spring/magazine body ?

3. is this reloaded ammunition issue? if so why start now with the additional pistol?

4. they talk about bending the extractor, and if so, bend which direction?

5. where to buy replacement springs/extractors?

I have been reloading ammunition for about 30 years and didn't have problems until we purchased this new/used P95 for my son. I have shot probably about 500-1000 rds from my P95 with occasional FTE's but not like this.

My reloading procedures:

1- resize, de-prime, clean primer pocket, uniform primer pocket using K&N primer uniforming tool, de-bur flash-hole from inside of case, drill out flash-hole with 0.080 drill bit. Tumble 2-3 times (prior to, and in between procedures) and wash cases to clean with heated vinegar/backing soda mix. Cases are hand-primed with a lee hand priming tool using either CCI or Wolf primers. Typical load is either 115 gr. FMJ with 4.9-5.0 gr. HP38 powder or 124 gr HP with 4.6 gr HP38 powder. I don't have problems shooting these loads in my Hi-Point 9 mm carbine. One of the pistols was new in 1995 (mine) and the other manufactured in the late 1990's. I use these same initial reloading procedures for spec'cing out 7.62x51 Nato cases for shooting M118LR.

thanks in advance
KS Shooter

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I'm guessing most of your issues are powder choice. hp38 is fast for a 9mm auto pistol. something like aa#5 or aa#7 is better. I was a huge fan of aa#7 with 147 grain lead in my p85 ruger. I won't tell you the load but it hauled really well. You need a medium speed pistol powder that is rather dense to get good power and reliability from a 9mm.

two questions...

did your primers flash on the ftf's??

did the pistol fire properly or act similar to a squib on the fte's??

if either is yes you've got to go with a slower powder...

 

[KS Shooter]

Lefty7mmstw,



two questions...

did your primers flash on the ftf's?? I guess I am ignorant here - what do you mean by flash? (can I assume that if there is not enough gas pressure to cycle the action, then the ftf's are caused by this).

did the pistol fire properly or act similar to a squib on the fte's?? - the pistol fired/sound (?) normally if that is what you are asking.

I have used AA powder's in the past but they were to dirty and left to much unburned residue that is why I have gone to HP38. A lot of people on the net in the past reviews hailed it as a good 9mm powder.

thanks

KS Shooter

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I was wondering if you has flash over on your Fail To Fires.. that's usually caused by very little powder in the case and not quite enough primer to get it going. You should notice a bit of charred powder and a spent primer if you break the ammo down.

On the fte's, it's very likely there isn't enough thrust from the fired case to properly cycle the action all the time. The only time I've encountered this is with mild trap loads in my 3 1/2" auto loading shotgun. It is possible to have mild loads do this to a pistol too though.
Another question here-- are factory rounds cycling the action decently?? If not you may have an issue with the pistol. If factory ammo works, you will need to switch to a bit slower powder.

 

[KS Shooter]

Lefty7mmstw

I think we narrowed down the problem this afternoon to the pistol. I had my brother fire 9 reloaded cartridges fairly rapid fire without any hitches using a glock 26. And he said that they do not recommend shooting reloads in glocks. So now we are focusing on the pistol's extractor as the issue/problem.

in regards to your comments on the flashover's. For all of my loads the powder is hand loaded into the case so I know that I don't have any issue where the press cycled incorrectly or indexed wrong causing a light load. I use single stage presses for reloading everything I do.

thanks

ks shooter

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

It's good to hear you've made some headway...

As to the flash over, I wasn't talking about light charges.... it can happen occasionally with normal charges too in some cases.... especially in cooler temps...

 

[Greyfox]

Everyone, I am looking for some reloading guidance on how to solve an issue that is very irritating. I didn't put it under the reloading section because it is more generalized. Sorry but there are a lot of details.

To start with, my youngest son and I were shooting our P95 9mm pistols today and ran into some FTE's and FTF's.

1st - I shot 17 rounds of reloaded ammunition from my pistol using a mecgar magazine with the last round being an FTE. The reloaded ammunition was 115 FMJ using 4.9 gr. HP-38 powder.

2nd - we shot 5 new Winchester 115 FMJ's from my son's pistol using one of two ruger factory mag's (15rd) with no failures.

3rd - we shot 5 new Winchester 115 FMJ's from my son's pistol using the second ruger factory mag (15rd) with one FTF.

4th - we started shooting 17 rd's (reloaded) from my son's pistol using his mecgar 17 rd magazine. During firing of the first 5 cartridges we had two FTE's. We transferred the magazine to my pistol and fired 5 more cartridges with 3 FTE's. The, we transferred the cartridges from his mecgar to my mecgar 17 and using my pistol fired 3 rds with no issues. Finally we loaded my mecgar magazine into his pistol and fired the remaining 3 rds with two FTE's.

Questions.

1. is this a pistol extraction issue/only?

2. is this a magazine spring/magazine body ?

3. is this reloaded ammunition issue? if so why start now with the additional pistol?

4. they talk about bending the extractor, and if so, bend which direction?

5. where to buy replacement springs/extractors?

I have been reloading ammunition for about 30 years and didn't have problems until we purchased this new/used P95 for my son. I have shot probably about 500-1000 rds from my P95 with occasional FTE's but not like this.

My reloading procedures:

1- resize, de-prime, clean primer pocket, uniform primer pocket using K&N primer uniforming tool, de-bur flash-hole from inside of case, drill out flash-hole with 0.080 drill bit. Tumble 2-3 times (prior to, and in between procedures) and wash cases to clean with heated vinegar/backing soda mix. Cases are hand-primed with a lee hand priming tool using either CCI or Wolf primers. Typical load is either 115 gr. FMJ with 4.9-5.0 gr. HP38 powder or 124 gr HP with 4.6 gr HP38 powder. I don't have problems shooting these loads in my Hi-Point 9 mm carbine. One of the pistols was new in 1995 (mine) and the other manufactured in the late 1990's. I use these same initial reloading procedures for spec'cing out 7.62x51 Nato cases for shooting M118LR.

thanks in advance
KS Shooter

If you don't already do so(you said you resize but didn't mention this), when loading 45ACP and 9MM a final step of applying a taper crimp using a taper dye is highly recommended for feeding reliability. In addition to a taper dye, I believe Wilson may still sell a "finished bullet" test due that can be used to check a finished round. If the loaded round is inserted in the test dye, with the base flush with the bullet head, it's good to go. Since I started using a taper crimp about 25 years ago, if my pistols feed factory loads reliably, it feeds my handloads with the same reliability.