I picked up some Independence .45ACP (Efinger's rip-off, $27.99/box)during the shortage and just got around to shooting it at BH this morning. All the casings were marked Speer. Anyone know anything about this stuff?

 

It was on the smoky/dirty side (though not terrible) but shot well with no misfires.

I've shot plenty of it in 9mm without any problems. Somebody told me once it was made by Federal?. Don't know though.

I suspect it is commercial reloads?

I suspect it is commercial reloads?

 

Nope, it's not reloads. I've shot tons of this stuff and the casings are marked with an "I".

I picked up some Independence .45ACP (Efinger's rip-off, $27.99/box)during the shortage and just got around to shooting it at BH this morning. All the casings were marked Speer. Anyone know anything about this stuff?

 

It was on the smoky/dirty side (though not terrible) but shot well with no misfires.

 

 

Something is not right here. They used to have a headstamp of *I*. A little looking says people are getting Independence boxed ammo with Federal, Magtech, Speer or Blazer headstamps. I have shot it and it works fine if a little dirty but it makes me wonder when there is so much variation in the brass manufactures.

Is it plinking ammo? The price seems high for run-of-the-mill FMJ commercial ammo

just looked it up, it is Federal ammo. so Federal/CCI/Speer, but is marketed at "target/plinking/practice" ammo. XD users report issues with it, and in one or two cases, did not make the minor power factor at USPSA.

Just checked my stash for Independence brand stuff and I have one box left of 9mm with a head-stamp of "I" and 2.5 boxes of .357 and .38 with "Blazer" head-stamps. I had never noticed the difference in stamps before. The "Blazer" stamps make sense if it's made by Federal.

I just put 150 rounds of Independence through my S&W 686 (.357/.38) the other day. All were headstamped "Blazer." I did have a problem with 1 round. It was deformed at the "neck" to the point that it wouldn't even load into the cylinder.

 

I recently had a similar problem with Winchester, where 1 round was deformed at the rim. It loaded into the cylinder fine, but when firing it actually caused my cylinder to jam and wouldn't rotate/feed that round into firing position.

 

I'm just glad my life wasn't depending on those rounds.

I'm just glad my life wasn't depending on those rounds.

 

This is why you always need to inspect ammo. I've seen faults you've mentioned with all kinds of ammo even the "premium" stuff. I had a drawer full of crinkled necks, no primer, primer crushed in sideways, no shot in shotshell, etc. Before I retired I was a LEO firearms instructor and used to go through at least 500,000 rds a year. All I'm saying is if you see enough ammo you'll see enough bad rounds. Of course if you find enough bad ammo from one manufacturer I'd spend my money elsewhere.

 

One instructor I knew advocated inspecting and trying all the rounds you were going to load for duty use by dropping them in the chamber or cylinder before loading them or loading magazines or speedloaders. Some people looked at him like he was smoking something strange but this only take a couple of minutes at most and you'll surprise yourself what got by a cursory inspection.

Federal, Magtech, Speer or Blazer headstamps.

 

Federal and Speer are owned by ATK and there is probably some connection there with Magtech and they use whatever brass is available.

Griz,

 

That's great advice. After my ammo incidents, all of my home defense ammo received an additional inspection and were loaded through the cylinder.

 

I was surprised to see that between two different manufacturers and within 500 rounds I found two defects that were severe enough to make them completely unusable. Of course statistics mean nothing to the individual.