smith and wesson 986 and 9mm nato ammo... beware

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BOBA FETT

New member
i got some 9mm nato ammo from walmart...was at the range and the first round locked the gun up...managed to get the cylinder open,noticed the casing was stuck in the cylinder..i tapped the casing out with a dowel and a hammer ... i tried to fire another round in case it was just a fluke..gun locked up again...got the cylinder open and had to hit the casing out with a dowel again....i will stay away from 9mm nato from now on...the gun shoots everything else great..
 
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P5 Guy

New member
Interesting, I assume you are referring to the Winchester NATO?
What other ammunition have run thru this gun?
 
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BOBA FETT

New member
the ammo i used is called ZQl 9mm nato ..i got it at walmart....i have use lots of other brands with no problems..i guess the 9mm nato pressure is making it expand too much in the chambers..
 
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P5 Guy

New member
Have you tried any +P 9mm?
Run of the mill 9mm range stuff, then NATO, then +P and the +P+ in increasing pressure.
That is making me wonder about some things. I'd imagine that S&W would have made this revolver capable of handling +P defense loads.
 
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Venom1956

New member
the ammo i used is called ZQl 9mm nato ..i got it at walmart....i have use lots of other brands with no problems..i guess the 9mm nato pressure is making it expand too much in the chambers..
Click to expand...

Idk, I would guess dirty powder and out of spec brass. Its cheap bulk ammo from turkey. I've noticed junky WWB causing the 986 to bind up and aluminum cases.
 
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BOBA FETT

New member
all i know is that i was shooting both federal range stuff and ZQl nato...the federal worked great ,the nato locked the gun up... lol
 
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P5 Guy

New member
Can you measure the cases that stuck against any of the other ammunition you have fired in your revolver? The batch of ZQI NATO may be defective. Brass is too 'hard' and lost its elasticity.
 
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AustinTX

New member
As others have said, I think Winchester 9mm NATO ammo would work just fine. All bets are off with the sort of cheap bulk ammo you're using.
 
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Venom1956

New member
Yeah I think you are confusing the "nato" in the name with it being something different then regular 9mm. Its not. Its just a particular loading of 9mm. Its completely with in 9mm threshhold and less powerful the +P ammos.

You simply are having issues with poorly made ammo. I'm pretty positive the 986 can handle any hot commercial load easily.
 
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