# New warning label on 9mm ammo



## rustygun

I bought some federal 9mm luger 115 grain fmj rn ammo today at Wal-Mart , $22 for 100ct. box. I noticed on the package it has a warning "DO NOT USE IN FIREARMS WITH PORTED BARRELS OR PORTED RECOIL COMPENSATORS". I have the exact same ammo I bought maybe a month ago 50ct. box without that warning. The specs. as far as velocity, energy, and trajectory are exactly the same. I do not have a ported barrel or compensator. I was just curious if anyone else had noticed this or if anyone knew why the change.


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## TAPnRACK

From my understanding... those bullets are "plated", not "jacketed" as in fmj. The concern is the copper plating stripping off while entering the portion of the barrel with the ports. This could cause shrapnel coming out of port openings.

I've been researching porting and slide lightening lately because I'm considering having it done on one of my handguns.


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## rex

Odd.I didn't know those were plated bullets but........

I don't understand the plating stripping off though,that would require the bullet stiking the baffle wouldn't it?On a port I can see at the foward edge of the port,but not a properly reamed comp.


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## rustygun

Thank you, I see on their website they advertise it as GMJ (gilded metal jacket). The box says it is FMJ though. They say the GMJ bullets are cheaper to make and contain zinc. No big fan of Wal-Mart but couldn't pass up the deal. I have been paying $19 for a box of 50.


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## TAPnRACK

I'm referring to a ported barrel... not a ported comp that's threaded onto a barrel. I'll post pics in a bit.

"Gilded" means it's a mixed metal coating/jacket of normally 95% copper & 5% tin. 

The fact the box states it is not recommended for ported barrels may mean the coating or "jacket" is very thin to decrease costs. This is apparently a non-issue for non-ported barreled handguns. I've also heard of issues with fire/flame coming out of port openings.


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## TAPnRACK

Ported barrel... the bullet actually travels across the porting.









Ported Comp... assists in diverting gas, bullet does not touch ports.









Note: I'm not an expert on porting and comps... so if anyone has better info, please share.


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## DJ Niner

Federal added this warning several years ago, and it should be on both box sizes of this ammo (I have a couple of each in the ol' ammo drawer, and it's on both sizes). The warning is in a different location on the 50 round box vs. the 100 round box, though; is it possible you just missed seeing it because of the location change?


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## rustygun

Feeling dum thanks DJ, Going back to just reading posts.


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## JordanDebes

So is that ammo something to avoid? WM is the only place I have found 9 mm ammo that's not charging ridiculous prices.


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## rex

No,if you don't have a ported barrel they will be fine.The compensator threw me because the bullet isn't touching anything but in a ported barrel the front edge of the port could scrape material from the bullet-lead and plating are softer than jacket material.

Plated bullets help alleviate the problem of leading but cost less than jacketed,so it's an economic decision.Plated bullets can also exhibit less accuracy than a good lead bullet or a jacketed bullet,but it depends on how it's made.The lead core is normally soft lead that's been plated,a harder lead or jacketed slug is more stable.Ironically,Speer's very popular Gold Dot is a plated,not jacketed bullet,but is a very good bullet.

If they shoot well for you,the savings give you more ammo to shoot.Not as good as reloading but you get more for your money.The only chance for a problem I would foresee is gun functioning (depending on the gun) because I've found Federal's cheaper ammo is a little on the weak side,or target to midrange powered.

TAPnRACK,you're going to get a good blast out of the ports so watch it at night or dusk,they can blind you.It's just like the cylender gap on a revolver,it spews hot gas and flame so you don't want to be anywhere near it.If you reload,stay away from Power Pistol powder,it's aweful for muzzle flash and noise.I haven't played with ports or comps but I basically stole a Para with a Sheumann Hybrid Comp from a guy that didn't want it any more.Whenever I dig it out and fix the front sight I may play with it some.The front sight was loose in the dovetail and slid left,and when the slide returned to battery it would catch the sight and stop.Well,the guy didn't think and did it a few more times and the sight acted like a chisel and cracked the barrel right at the dovetail base in front,bummer since it's a $320 barrel.He said he wasn't going to put money into it and sold it to me for $100-hell yeah man.It can't be welded so I'm going to use the super duty red locktite in the dovetail and then have it drilled and pinned.It won't matter the pin can never be removed because technically the barrel is junk,but only in the ability to hold a sight.


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## DJ Niner

rustygun said:


> Feeling dum thanks DJ, Going back to just reading posts.


Hey, how do you think I found out about this? I said dang near the same thing to a buddy of mine, he pointed it out to me. Easy to miss, I can personally vouch for that, so don't worry about the oversight, just learn from it. I did.


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## DJ Niner

JordanDebes said:


> So is that ammo something to avoid? WM is the only place I have found 9 mm ammo that's not charging ridiculous prices.


In my experience, this ammo is actually pretty good stuff for target shooting (if you can find it); not only inexpensive, but it's usually one of the top 2 or 3 most accurate factory loads in my Glocks. As rex said, it's not the most powerful ammo, so if your pistol demands full-powered stuff to cycle properly, this might not work well until the gun smooths-out a bit. Before I saw the box warning, I fired quite a bit of it through my ported Glocks with no problems (NOT RECOMMENDED NOW, for obvious reasons), but the ejected casings didn't get thrown very far out of the pistol (more like they "fell" out of the ejection port, in some cases), one sign that this load is probably right on the edge of functioning reliably, power-wise. I shot a few IDPA matches with it, with no problems/stoppages, but I didn't have to knock over any heavy steel targets.


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## Tom442

Hey Rex: When you say "Federals ammo is a little on the weak side" - How does that work? Isn't 115g the same in any bullet? Or does something besides grain determine power?



rex said:


> No,if you don't have a ported barrel they will be fine.The compensator threw me because the bullet isn't touching anything but in a ported barrel the front edge of the port could scrape material from the bullet-lead and plating are softer than jacket material.
> 
> Plated bullets help alleviate the problem of leading but cost less than jacketed,so it's an economic decision.Plated bullets can also exhibit less accuracy than a good lead bullet or a jacketed bullet,but it depends on how it's made.The lead core is normally soft lead that's been plated,a harder lead or jacketed slug is more stable.Ironically,Speer's very popular Gold Dot is a plated,not jacketed bullet,but is a very good bullet.
> 
> If they shoot well for you,the savings give you more ammo to shoot.Not as good as reloading but you get more for your money.The only chance for a problem I would foresee is gun functioning (depending on the gun) because I've found Federal's cheaper ammo is a little on the weak side,or target to midrange powered.
> 
> TAPnRACK,you're going to get a good blast out of the ports so watch it at night or dusk,they can blind you.It's just like the cylender gap on a revolver,it spews hot gas and flame so you don't want to be anywhere near it.If you reload,stay away from Power Pistol powder,it's aweful for muzzle flash and noise.I haven't played with ports or comps but I basically stole a Para with a Sheumann Hybrid Comp from a guy that didn't want it any more.Whenever I dig it out and fix the front sight I may play with it some.The front sight was loose in the dovetail and slid left,and when the slide returned to battery it would catch the sight and stop.Well,the guy didn't think and did it a few more times and the sight acted like a chisel and cracked the barrel right at the dovetail base in front,bummer since it's a $320 barrel.He said he wasn't going to put money into it and sold it to me for $100-hell yeah man.It can't be welded so I'm going to use the super duty red locktite in the dovetail and then have it drilled and pinned.It won't matter the pin can never be removed because technically the barrel is junk,but only in the ability to hold a sight.


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## JayPee

More than anything else, power is determined by the powder charge, not the grain weight of the load. Some manufacturers will load a given load a bit slower or faster than other manufacturers will load that same grain weight load in the same caliber. I personally think that Blazer Brass 115 grain FMJ 9mm Luger is a bit hotter than other similar loads because it has more recoil, and I've fired other 115 grain loads that seemed downright wimpy. The two both had 115 grain bullets, but they obviously had powder charges that developed different levels of pressure, which is synonymous with power. Hope that helps.


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## Tom442

Ahh! Light dawns. Thanks JayPee. Clearly I need to get a book on the basics of ammo and guns.


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