Lost River Ammunition Company 44 Bear Load FAILURE

[JCS271]

As some of you know, I live in Grizzly country and have the occasional one wander around my house. So I carry one of my bear guns daily when I'm outside. I generally use Underwood or Buffalo Bore heavy for caliber hardcast rounds.

I had read some good reports about Lost River Ammunition Company So I placed a large order for 10 mm, 40 caliber, and 44 Magnum hardcast ammo.



I ordered the 300 grain bear load for my Smith & Wesson 4 inch 629.



A cursory examination showed that they came nicely packaged and appeared to be well made.

I didn't have a chronograph available but the recoil impulse felt appropriate for the advertised 1100 foot per second load.

After firing the first five rounds, I examined the sixth round and it showed obvious bullet creep compared to a fresh round that I put in there for comparison.



I left it in the cylinder and fired several more rounds. That round continued to creep and was soon protruding from the face of the cylinder sufficient to bind up the action.



It took significant Force to get the cylinder open. And shaved off a little bit of lead in the process.




This is completely unacceptable for a premium loaded bear round.



The crimp was completely inadequate and my $130 worth of Premium carry ammo is unsafe for anything other than range plinking.

Less than 2 hours after they were delivered I fired off an email to Lost River and it has now been 3 days with no response. That too is unacceptable.

I still have not tested the 10 mm or .40 ammo but at this point even if they work well, they'll probably be the last rounds of lost river that go through one of my firearms.

Very disappointing!

 

[Steve300xcw]

I bet he gets back to you. Not everybody is glued to the computer 24/7.

 

[Kyguy]

Why don't you shoot the rest of them and report back if the issue was isolated to one round or if it happened to multiple rounds?

 

[JCS271]

If the owner gets back to me I will let him make that call. It didn't occur to me to look earlier, but I imagine the number five round was also jumping the crimp but I will never know.

My concern is that this batch was all done at the same time with the same level of crimping and I take my bear ammo very seriously, so truthfully I'll never carry this ammo outside of my house simply because I don't trust it.

Frustrating situation all the way around.

 

[texag10]

The owner is pretty active on pistol-forum.com. I think he has had some health or family issues recently.

Doesn't change anything about the issue, but it might explain the current lack of response.

 

[JCS271]

I always enjoy his posts on a number of forums. We had very prompt communications all through the ordering and shipping process......

 

[pacoalcracker]

This is not uncommon for heavy loaded ammo in lightweight revolvers to jump the crimp after a few rounds are shot. Thats why you check and/or rotate your ammo. Perhaps the poly coating made the matter worse and I'm not sure why you would need that coating anyways. Its not really of any benefit for a defense use ammo. The only thing I see that caused this is that the crimp is further up the bullet than normal so the round will fit in the shorter cylinder of your Smith revolver. This does not allow for as deep a roll crimp, making the crimp grip on the bullet weak. However, that is the only way you are getting a 300gr hardcast bullet into that shorter cylinder. Not really the ammo makers fault, really. Perhaps it's better to get a 270gr hardcast instead, which will be just as good at a bit more velocity. You can also just rotate your ammo too, which is what many do.

 

[JCS271]

I am familiar with and agree with everything you posted. However according to the owner and his advertising, this load was specifically developed in and for Smith & Wesson revolvers. That was the only reason I jumped ship from Underwood to test a few boxes of this brand.

And my Underwood loads are also 300 grain but about 150 to 175 ft per second faster with zero issues of bullet creep.

 

[pbroski]

You could have a friend with a crimp die put a heavier crimp on.