So, since only a half dozen folks showed up to qualify this morning ... I decided to take the opportunity to run 8-10 boxes of ammunition through my SW99 .40 in preparation for working on the next quarter's scenarios ... 
During this, I experienced a feeding malfunction where the slide stopped just out of battery. Now, while this was with the same line of "contract ammunition" that originally caused some feeding problems occasionally ... apparently due to a slight dimensional variance in the case head angle and thickness, according to S&W ... this one was different.
I couldn't make the slide go forward by shoving against the rear of the slide, as I could when the previous malfunctions occurred. The slide felt as solid as when it's locked forward in full battery.
A simple visual inspection of the round was deceiving ... At first it appeared the bullet might've been slightly set back in the case, perhaps caused by whatever had caused the feeding malfunction in the first place. Then, when the overall length of the round was found to be the same as the other rounds, a closer inspection revealed the case was actually longer. That's what made the bullet appear to be set back ... the case was too long, and the bullet had been set in the case so the overall length of the loaded round was correct.
It was correctly marked, the same as the rest of the brass ... which all fed, chambered and fired properly ... and the case wasn't damaged in any obvious manner. It was simply too long to fit in the chamber and allow the slide to lock in battery ... Obviously longer, now that we'd noticed it.
Thankfully, a tap-rack-bang drill would resolve this sort of problem ... and did ... but considering it was in a box of duty ammunition we'd inherited from another agency for training use ... and we'd recently switched over from using this bid contract ammunition ourselves ... it was sobering to think it might've been in someone's duty weapon magazine ... or personal defensive weapon magazine ...
I kept the round ... and I guess I'll simply add this to my list of things that happen with even the best quality ammunition. Did I ever mention that we've encountered bad primers in contract ammunition from each of the big three manufacturers?
It's always something ...
Take care ...
During this, I experienced a feeding malfunction where the slide stopped just out of battery. Now, while this was with the same line of "contract ammunition" that originally caused some feeding problems occasionally ... apparently due to a slight dimensional variance in the case head angle and thickness, according to S&W ... this one was different.
I couldn't make the slide go forward by shoving against the rear of the slide, as I could when the previous malfunctions occurred. The slide felt as solid as when it's locked forward in full battery.
A simple visual inspection of the round was deceiving ... At first it appeared the bullet might've been slightly set back in the case, perhaps caused by whatever had caused the feeding malfunction in the first place. Then, when the overall length of the round was found to be the same as the other rounds, a closer inspection revealed the case was actually longer. That's what made the bullet appear to be set back ... the case was too long, and the bullet had been set in the case so the overall length of the loaded round was correct.
It was correctly marked, the same as the rest of the brass ... which all fed, chambered and fired properly ... and the case wasn't damaged in any obvious manner. It was simply too long to fit in the chamber and allow the slide to lock in battery ... Obviously longer, now that we'd noticed it.
Thankfully, a tap-rack-bang drill would resolve this sort of problem ... and did ... but considering it was in a box of duty ammunition we'd inherited from another agency for training use ... and we'd recently switched over from using this bid contract ammunition ourselves ... it was sobering to think it might've been in someone's duty weapon magazine ... or personal defensive weapon magazine ...
I kept the round ... and I guess I'll simply add this to my list of things that happen with even the best quality ammunition. Did I ever mention that we've encountered bad primers in contract ammunition from each of the big three manufacturers?
It's always something ...
Take care ...