Winchester Ammo Incident
 

There seems to be a consensus that WWB 115 gr. is ideal for Lugers. I use it and was therefore interested in this incident where an apparently overloaded Winchester round damaged a pistol. He was shooting .40 Winchester 'range ammo', I assume that means WWB.

http://www.hkpro.com/forum/hk-handgu...0-blew-up.html

As this seems like a rare occurrence I will keep using WWB but likely experiment with other brands. For example Blazer Brass 115 gr. as it has slightly less energy and muzzle velocity (323 FP and 1150 FPS) than WWB (362 FP and 1190 FPS). My guess is any FMG in this energy range from a major manufacturer would work as well in the Luger as WWB.

I am not bashing or recommending any ammo brand, just passing along information I found interesting.

That is definitely an interesting case. It almost looks like the round fired out of battery. I would love to see the brass case that did the damage, as that would give a lot of information. It well could be a double charge of powder, but that would be very rare, considering the factory inline loaders, but weird things happen everyday.

Another possibility is a squib round(no powder, or not enough powder to force the bullet out of the bbl.) on the round prior to the kaboom!!

Thanx for the post. Some folks here have had problems with Remington 115gr FMJ ammo in their Lugers(jamming).

If you scroll through the thread they show a picture of the brass case. If you go to near the end, the HK reply to the guy is "our firearm was not the issue" while Winchester tells him they will be sending him a new pistol and complementary ammo, suggesting that Winchester's round was the issue.

It was first, a 40 cal S&W, a cartridge known to operate at high chamber pressures. It blew out at the feed ramp and extractor cut, the unsupported portion of the barrel/chamber. High pressure? Maybe. Another possibility is a poorly formed and drawn case, with a defective web. I don't buy into the "double charge" theory. A double, in my experience, would have caused more damage at the chamber. This blew the case, and vented into the magazine well, cracking the plastic frame, and popping some other parts loose. I think it was a bad piece of brass.