[sigmundsauer]

Like many others, my prefered carry load is Speer's excellent 124 gr +P GDHP. I have fired a lot of this ammo and it is exceptionally accurate. Strangely, the first generation Speer GD bullets (124 gr) will not fully chamber in either of my P99s. I have some old Fiocchi 115 JHPs that would not chamber either. Both bullets have longer-than-normal, full-caliber bearing surfaces and I'm almost certain that it is because of the P99s short throat. Having examined the barrels on my P99s as compared to my SIGs the P99's rifling engages the bullet much closer to the chamber than in my SIGs. I've never had a bullet fail to chamber in my SIGs. At first I was rather disappointed but have reevaluated this peculiar "malfunction" and have determined that it is not that big of a deal considering that both manufacturers have redesigned their bullets and they no longer have problems in my P99s. Current generation Speer Gold Dot and Fiocchi hollow points work just fine in my P99s. I have tried most of the modern hollow point designs on the market today in my P99s and they all have chambered and fired reliably.

Has anyone else experienced this with first generation Gold Dots or other bullets?

Tim

 

[Albert Shear]

Yes. Speer had a recall because of out of spec. rounds. Then resold them with pasted dots on box and were marked "reclassified" and reduced the price.
The chamber of any barrel is reamed for the exact headspace. On modern semi's this is from the case mouth. Remember the older 38 super Colt headspaced on the case rim and accuracy suffered until it was changed.

 

[sigmundsauer]

Indeed I do have hundreds of this "reclassified" 124 gr +P ammo and it was causing the problems. I've only heard rumors of what the "out-of-spec" characteristics were and, until now, did not realize that it was regarding its dimensions. Interestingly, though, I've shot standard velocity (not "reclassified") loads with the same bullet and they too had the chambering problem - i deduced that it was the bullet design at the time with a rather long shoulder.

Thanks for the tip Mr. Shear.

Tim