Hi all I've been following this board for years but never posted. I had an experience this week and wanted to warn others so they don't suffer my fate.
I purchased some copper polymer ammo from my local gun store, I chose it because it was the least expensive option and just wanted to do some plinking. The website for the company is https://www.polycaseammo.com/project/inceptor-rnp/. I was shooting a Sig MCX with 9 in barrel with a Silencerco Harvester attached. I have previously used this combination with SigSauer 220g subs without any problems. The first thing I noticed was that copper was fouling the action and I was surprised as the MCX is piston driven and has always been remarkably clean compared to my gas guns. The fouling became worse and started to interfere with the action, I was running the gun fairly dry so I added a drop or two of Slip2000 to the BCG and it ran better. At about 35 rounds I had a baffle strike that destroyed my suppressor. When I removed the suppressor it was still tightly fastened to the barrel. I believe that one of the rounds exercised it's frangibility in the barrel and came apart in a big way with fragments striking the baffles and then blowing out the end of the suppressor.
They advertise it as being useful in a wide range of weapons and for use in suppressed systems, but I will never put their round into my weapons again. Even without the baffle strike, copper deposition into the action, barrel and suppressor was absolutely unacceptable.
Last edited by mrtatohead on Thu Jul 06, 2017 1:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
My phone doesn't take great photos so I don't know how well you can see the copper fouling, but it covers the BCG components, the interior of the upper and the lower.
There is a good chance your suppressor can be saved if the damamge did not occur in the area of the SN. Your suppressor manufacturer or one of the specialist here might could help. It is amazing what can be done.
i'd also be sending a nasty email to the ammo company about owing you a new suppressor - or a lump of cash large enough to cover one - if silencerco cant fix things for you.
Reloading info shared is based on experiences w/ my guns. Be safe and work up your loads from published data. Web data may not be accurate/safe.
This disclaimer will self destruct in 10 seconds.
I received an email and phone call from Polycase today. They were remarkably stand up. They asked for the lot number from my ammo said they've not seen these kind of failures before but that they would make it right. They told me tonight that they shot 100 rounds of the same lot number through a piston gun without replicating the fouling I experienced.
The serialized part of my can looks intact. Hopefully silencerco can work some magic and save my suppressor.
Now if I can just find a way to get all the copper out of my weapon, life will be good! Metal shards in an action seems like a bad idea....
Sorry to see it happen, tough way to gain experience. Hope that Polycase will help you out some.
You might want to take a look at all the parts of your Rifle that contact the bullet. Looking at the bolt where it rides over the cartridge while extacting, I wonder if that might have compromised the jacket? Or something else was damaging the bullet in the loading process.
Here's the takeaway.
You had bullets coming apart bad enough to jam the action in 30 rounds or less and you kept shooting. My guess would be if you looked at holes in paper targets, you would have seen key holing. Possibly even copper fouling on the end cap of the suppressor.
Not defending crap ammo, just pointing out you missed some very clear warnings that you were headed for trouble. It is the shooters responsibility to make sure that what they are running down their barrel is safe.
Update: Silencerco is going to try and repair my can under warranty, dropped it off at their factory today. I'm amazed that anyone has a warranty like this anymore, it certainly wasn't their fault but they're taking the hit without batting an eye!
Polycase has also said that they are willing to (forgive the pun) bite the bullet and pony up to repair/replace my can.
Dellet: In retrospect you're unquestionably right, I should have stoped shooting when I noticed the fouling but I treated it like my army rifle and oiled it up more when it functioned poorly. I wrongly assumed it was just dirty Ammo and a very lightly oiled action.
I don't think it was jacket damage though, these are frangible rounds and the pieces of round that were left in my suppressor were kind of crumbly composite material. Also I didn't recollect any keyholing but after your comment I pulled out my targets to double check, and was unable to find any keyholes on any of them.
Still having trouble getting all the copper out of the action, I bought some hoppes stage 2 for copper fouling tonight and am going to give that a try.
I think you'd be crazy to use that ammo again, but in the end, it's your call. Just don't be surprised if it doesn't bite you in the butt again if you do.
Glad both companies were willing to try to help. But that doesn't change what it did to your equipment.
When those totally ignorant of firearms make laws, you end up with totally ignorant firearm laws.
