Kel-tec P3AT problems... ammo or gun?

[essayons21]

Shot my Keltec today, which doesn't get much range time for obvious reasons to those who shoot them. First magazine was Hornady Critical Defense, supposedly high dollar defensive ammunition. It had been sitting in the gun for a few months and needed to be shot at the range before being replaced. Second round wouldn't shoot, nice primer strike, but nothing. Reloaded tried shooting it 2 more times, firing pin hit the same spot, still nothing.

Then I shot about 100 rounds of Remington 88gr JHPs, and had two identical problems. Good looking primer strike, but no matter how many times I tried they just wouldn't shoot. Comparing the firing pin strikes on a fired case vs the rounds that wouldn't fire, they were not noticeable different.

Both these boxes of ammo were bought during the ammo craze of 2009-2010. Is this just poor ammo QC or something wrong with my kel-tec?

 

[rcmodel]

If you are getting good depth on the primer dent and they didn't go off, it is most likely the ammo, or how it was stored.

One thing to check though is fouling in the chamber.

If the round stops short of the headspace shoulder in the chamber due to accumulated powder fouling, some the firing pin energy / speed has to be used up to finish seating the round in the chamber before it gets around to denting the primer.

rc

 

[essayons21]

Hmm. The first problem was the 2nd round out of a clean gun, so I doubt fouling was the issue. Storage was in a sealed ammo can in a climate controlled house, for no more than a year. The gun maybe had 200 rounds through it before this.

Anyone else with a Keltec or similar design have this problem?

 

[Al Thompson]

I'd chuck a .38 brass brush in a drill and polish the chamber a bit. Flitz also helps.

FWIW, I found that my P32 really runs better when I used a grease to lube the slide rails....

 

[Shadow 7D]

The lint can definably cause a problem, why I grease the insides, lightly oil the rest and put dry lube where the lint seesm to hide. Many people have issue with such little guns due to limpwristing, But I really doubt that's your problem, if the gun shoots other ammo fine, maybe you need to change, or call Hornady and see if they will send you a box.

 

[chihuahuatn]

Ammo, Ammo , Ammo

http://www.defensivecarry.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?93690-Hornady-Critical-Defense-ammo/page2

and google search,
Mike

 

[MICHAEL T]

I go with the ammo problem