hey all. first post in a while on here.

just wondering about your experiences with federal 9mm aluminum ammo in your classic P-series Sigs.

using the gun I shoot most, a W. German P226, I always get good groups with the ammo but they all go left. I've ruled myself out as a factor since other ammo I have tried from federal as well as other manufacturers doesn't seem to have this issue, and I have no problems shooting the same groups dead center with those other ammo types. I have only been using the 9mm variety so far of federal aluminum, and I have tried it in other 9mm sigs (that I can shoot straight with), and have had the same issue of my groups going noticeably left. this is consistent across of the dozen or so 200 round boxes I've gone through

other than that small gripe, federal aluminum in 9mm has been pretty good for me. never jammed on me or FT-anything, ever. this was especially a pleasant surprise with my stainless slide sigs, which have occasionally failed to cycle on anemic ammo such as this

what are your guys' experiences with it?

No experiences in Sig P series guns, But I've bought and shot over a 1000 rounds of it, about 8 years ago. It fed fine in everything I had (about 7 9mm's) except my CZ 75 SA and would stove pipe every other round when I never had a failure in that gun in 6,000 rounds before or after with brass ammo, and was good range ammo, had a strange ammonia like smell to it.

I've had no issues with it.

I had no problems with it , seems like good range ammo .

I just fired another 200 rounds of it yesterday in my 365, making that 400 rounds from my 365 with 0 issues. So far for me its been good to go for me.

From experience; never, ever, run aluminum cased ammo in an open bolt gun or a weapon with a fluted chamber.

I've never had any problems with it in any of my P226's.

No issues with either the 9mm or .45acp.

I shot a lot of it early last year. Matter of fact, I would buy it and shoot it as my match ammo. It is accurate enough and ran into no issues with a non-German P226. (Not sure why guns being German or not really matter due to current production guns being as robust as the fabled pixie dust German pistols)

It appears that all of the Federal aluminum 9mm ammunition is 115 grain. When you compare your results against brass case ammunition, is that 115 grain as well? Typically, bullet weights will change POI vs POA in a vertical direction, but other factors could be in play here.

I have not shot any of the 9mm aluminum case ammunition, are the overall lengths different than that which they load for their brass ammunition? Perhaps they use a different propellant as well? Does the recoil feel the same?

I was shooting one of my 9mm P320s at my local Izaak Walton last year, slow-fire, and it as shooting left at about 20 yards. I was shooting my reloads, 124 X-Treme plated round nose bullet, with about 5 grains of AA #5. I had another shooter try it, with same results for him. He loaded up some of his reloads, which were 115 gr X-treme plated hollow points, loaded over Tite-group, and it came right back on target for both of us.

Certainly not a scientific test, by any means. But, the point is, accuracy is affected by a number of combinations and components. But, at least your results were consistent.

I think the Federal Champion aluminum is the same as the Blazer aluminum. They put a different label on it to be a Walmart exclusive.

I haven't shot a ton of it, but never had any issues with what I did shoot.

I used Federal Aluminum case 9mm in a IDPA match August 7, 2016. I’d bought 6 boxes. It blew up in my Sig P320 Compact twice. The extractor blew out of the gun the second time I fired it. My back up gun was a M&P Shield, the next box blew up in my Shield. I stopped and borrowed ammunition from members in my squad and completed the match.
I’ve never used it again, period. S&W ended up replacing the Shield under warranty, Sig repaired my P320. Federal customer service treated me poorly and dragged their feet. They made me it feel it was my fault and then the pistols fault. After submitting pictures, original boxes of ammunition, and receipts, I still had to argue with them. Finally I was going to get witness statements when they finally paid for the bad ammunition, they sent me replacement brass ammunition, and reimbursed me for the cost I paid to repair my Sig. The entire process took months and left a bad taste in my mouth. Not one time did their CS ever apologize. I’ll pay a few more pennies and buy brass.

When I consider the dynamics of what's going on in a firearm chamber, the value of my handguns and, more importantly, the value of the bits of my body: I tend to shy away from aluminium-cased ammo just to save a buck or two.

quote:

Originally posted by Roughneck6:
S&W ended up replacing the Shield under warranty, Sig repaired my P320.

Interesting.

When my Shield frame split while using factory ammunition with no signs of ammunition failure, S&W refused to warranty the pistol.

They were kind enough to offer to "replace" it for greater than retail cost, however.

I have shot a ton of Blazer through a P220 SAO. No feeding issues, but we did get a bad lot of ammo. After the primer would hit, the propellent would burn a hole through the side of the case. It would act like a blow torch and burn holes into the chamber of the barrel. The ammo supplier bought me a new barrel as well as numerous other barrels for an assortment of Dept. guns.

I have shot many thousands through my 229 and 225 without any problems at all. I went to a 3 day school years ago and fired over 2k rounds and it was flawless.

quote:

Originally posted by tigerbloodwinning:

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I shot a lot of it early last year. Matter of fact, I would buy it and shoot it as my match ammo. It is accurate enough and ran into no issues with a non-German P226. (Not sure why guns being German or not really matter due to current production guns being as robust as the fabled pixie dust German pistols)

Agreed on the equal reliability between German and non-German P226. I only thought to mention it because of the differences in weight between the stamped carbon steel slide and the milled stainless slide. Occasionally I’ve had anemic ammo like this fail to make my stainless slide P226 cycle

That is a very fair assessment with the slide differences.

I purchased a couple of boxes of Federal aluminum 9 mm during the ammo drought. It ran fine in my XDs and through conversion barrels in my P220, P226, and P239. It would not extract from my one year old P938. I loaded a six roundmag and it failed to extract 2 of 2 rounds fired. I unloaded the mag and reloaded with Federal brass 115gr and the P938 ran flawlessly. The same gun would not run steel cased Tulammo, so I suspect a tighter than normal chamber.

As an aside, aluminum cased .357 won't extract from my Colt King Cobra (original), the chambers aren't rough, all other case materials eject properly.

Not a problem with my DW 715

Both are stainless, though probably not the same metalurgically speaking.

Stick like glue to the King Cobra.

no issues with using alum in my p2205T or Glock.