Hornady Critical Defense Initial Feed Issue

[Cooper]

I hit the range today with an assortment of ammo for my P64 and each and every time when a full magazine of Hornady Critical Defense was inserted into the handgun with the slide back (or closed), it failed to feed after pulling the slide back and letting it slam foward with its full strength. The slide would not go forward at all. Each time I would have to take out the magazine and drop the loose round out. It would initially feed with five rounds in the magazine, but not six. I never had any problems with any of the round nose or even the Silver Bear 9 mm 94 grain HP. Just had the issue with the Hornady Critical Defense. Once the pistol was was properly loaded, all Hornady rounds would feed properly, just that initial round going into the chamber was the problem.

P64 configuration: cleaned with original springs, and two different magazines.

Thoughts/suggestions? Should I skip the Hornady rounds forever?

[Curly1]

Try installing a stronger recoil spring.

Can you load 1 round in a mag then top off with a full mag of 6 for carry?

I just bought some of those rounds and am waiting to get to the range to see how they work myself.

[Cooper]

Thanks Curly for the comments. After my range visit I realized I did not try one in the chamber and 6 in the magazine. My trigger and recoil springs should be arriving today in the mail, I ordered a variety of both. I will up the poundage to see if that makes a difference. I have two more boxes of Hordady CD to experiment with.

[p64-1973]

I must have got lucky with mine. I ordered two boxes of the Hornady 9mm Makarov ammo and ran twelve rounds thru mine without a hitch. It seems to burn cleaner than the Silver Bear HP's I usually use in these guns. Wish it was as cheap as the Silver Bear!

[Frank Mucciolo]

That's how I carry my "little spit fire," one in the chamber and six in the mag, it worked flawlesly, safety off. In fact I was thinking of just removing the safety altogether and than not have to worry about the safety on or off. A Southern Yank.

[juniustaylor]

Frank, the safety is what keeps the firing pin in the slide. I had heard mention of one feller on here that thought about pinning his safety in the fire position. It has been some time back, several months ago I suppose. Don't know if he ever did.

[Cooper]

I did some range work and tested various things following the installation of a 22 lb recoil spring and an 18 lb trigger spring.

The recoil spring does seem to help the Hornady feed issue.

However, it seems that the magazine has a little movement, front to back, and if the Hornady Critical Defense fails to feed, I just have to move the bottom of the magazine forward just a little and the round chambers.

Any thoughts on how to tighten up the fit of the magazine?

Thanks!

Cooper

[badgerjfr]

cooper thats an interesting one. i will be checking back for a fix to that and ill have to check my mags to see how lose they are. interesting.