[SeventiesWreckers]

Well, I had some old ammunition that needed shooting up, and since some of it was hard cast lead, and some hand loaded semi jacketed hollow points, I elected to leave the G21 at home & give the Springfield a workout. Now, this is really old stuff, I thought I shot it all up a while back, but missed some. About 145 rounds. A couple of years ago I noticed I was getting some split cases, which came as no surprise, since I loaded this batch back in Feb of 1976. The splits always were the same, and the bases never showed any distortion, so I wasn't too concerned with a base blowout, the XDM barrel is fully supported, and deserves the credit it's given. (Note the $5.00 tag for primed new Winchester brass)

I just hustled it through the target to burn it up, and then dug some of the bullets out of the sand, to post some pics illustrating why the modern stuff we have is so much better. No case blowouts, all of it fed, and only a couple of split cases. The barrel in the XDM held up just fine, & I even got a pretty even ejection pattern. People ask how long they can store ammunition? Not quite as long as this. Decades of heating & cooling will work harden brass, & make it brittle. All these were brand new unfired when I hand loaded them, and this is how long they lasted. All gone now, and I'll be happy to replace it with some brand new fresh factory stuff. A good day.

I was just shooting a ten yard target, and had no big expectations on groups or patterns. The trigger does need some work to get a crisper break, which would make it much more fun to target shoot with. And for this go around I was really paying more attention to how the gun was operating, looking out for squibs, and anything else out of the ordinary. The rest of the XDM is fine, and I do enjoy banging away with it. It's a pleasure to use.

Anyway, the Semi Jacketed 225 Grain Hollow Points were Speer. No a bad bullet for 1976. But not bonded, so as soon as they encounter anything hard, they shed the jackets & the front 3rd. Pretty much turning themselves into 180 or so Grain solids. Not up to todays standards, but just what we had in the mid 70's. Just an illustration of "The Good Ole Days".


Enjoy the bullet wreckage.

 

[SeventiesWreckers]

That is an old school bullet SW...I remeber them days !!

Thanks for sharing...

Your Welcome Shooter, No problem. They never did feed well in my 1911, and random jams are irritating. That's mostly why I had them so long. The XDM fed them fine though, no feed jams at all. I wouldn't recommend seeking out 37 year old ammo to shoot, but the XDM handled it like brand new ammo. It does illustrate jacket failure pretty good. Some of the newer shooters might enjoy looking at our old bullet tech. We've come a ways.

 

[SeventiesWreckers]

Did you have any leading in your barrel? The reason I ask is because I often shoot .452 sized 200 grain LSWC through my XDM45 and have never had to clean any lead out of the grooves.
Those bullets are very accurate in my 1911's but do leave a little lead to remove.

No, no leading problems. The hardcast I was shooting was some that I bought from B&B in North Hollywood. They used to load them in .45 acp, and wadcutters in .38 Special for the LAPD to practice with. They were a good high quality cast bullet, and I don't recall them ever leaving much behind in a barrel.

I shot some S&B, and UMC FMJ, right after the ones in the picture. And it cleaned up pretty easy when I got home.

 

[SeventiesWreckers]

HMM,Looks like you might have been here.

Somebody had some issues alright. Never made it to Africa though, so that's not one of mine. I mostly just put anti-withdrawal fuses in the biggest ordinance I could locate, & proceeded to leave. Sometimes you'd hear something in the distance later, sometimes not. Can't win 'em all.