Apparently the fine folks at Hornaday have made a slight calculation error during the loading of some of their 500 S&W handgun ammunition, called by some the most powerful handgun ammunition on the market today. The effect of that slight miscalculation is that you can now blow up your handgun (“excessive chamber pressures” in damage reducing spin-speak). Make the jump for the press release.
Grand Island, NE – Hornady® Manufacturing announced the recall of seven lots of 500 S&W 300 gr. FTX® Custom™ pistol ammunition. Hornady ballisticians have determined that some cartridges from Lot numbers 3101327, 3110256, 3110683, 3110695, 3110945, 3111388, 3111885, may exhibit excessive chamber pressures. Use of this product may result in firearm damage and/or personal injury.
Product Recall Details:
Item number 9249
500 S&W 300 grain FTX® Custom™ Pistol Ammunition. These lots were shipped between September 9, 2010, and October 17, 2011.
Included Lot Numbers:
- 3101327
- 3110256
- 3110683
- 3110695
- 3110945
- 3111388
- 3111885
The lot number can be found printed on the lower portion of the box label.
If you own any of these Lot numbers or have any questions regarding this recall, please call 800-338-1242. Hornady Manufacturing Company will make all arrangements associated with the return and replacement of this product.
“you can now blow up your handgun”
That stinks. Legally, do to some special manufacturing regulations aren’t the ammo and firearm industries exempt from many common consumer legal responsibilities and liabilities?
IANAL, but as far as I know the laws currently on the books are to prevent the Brady Bunch et al. from suing manufacturers for criminal use of the product. Those are just the regulations I know about.
If the product has a defect (in other words, does NOT work as intended), I would think the manufacturer is still liable. In this case, ammo is supposed to push a projectile forward, not explode in all directions.
No- ammo and gun manufacturers regularly pay damages for faulty guns and ammo (and many times for faulty owners).
Hornady has identified a problem, issued a recall, and appears to be doing everything to rectify the situation. Hopefully, this problem was determined before someone got hurt.
Thanks!
Paging Joe Matafome
Nick could have just called him and saved the trouble of posting. On the bright side, it looks like Joe will be getting a whole bunch of new .500 ammo.
Joe, how many of these bad boxes do you have? Maybe you should pull the bullet and powder from one of them and compare it to a batch that’s within spec.
I don’t have any 300 grain ammo, but I’ve got a bunch of 600 and 700 grain from Ballistic Supply. I buy all my 500 ammo from them and they’re great people to deal with and they make a top quality product.
holy crap guys!
Do you remember the post I made about my Hornady 454 casull 300 grain copper hollowpoint that misfired (squib) and left a molten slag of copper between my cylnder and barrel and froze the action on my wheel gun?
I had to use a vice to hold my gun and both hands to free the cylnder and use a dremel to grind the copper off of the barrel. None of the copper stuck to the cylnder.
Now I wonder if Hornady has made other “miscalcuations” with some of their other bullets?
Has anyone else had ANY problems with ANY Hornady bullets?
Please add a comment because I am sitting on a few hundred rounds and I don’t want to kill myself shooting them!
I use Hornady Critical Defense in all my pistols and have never had an issue.
I’m glad you have good luck with it. I’ll still never forget the first time I shot my Ruger SP101. Bought a box of .357 CD rounds and jammed on round 3.
“But you were firing a revolver, revolvers don’t jam!”
They do when the primer falls halfway out of the spent round. I was mortified at how many times it happened in that particular box. Didn’t have a problem with the Remington Gold Saber I bought.
I had some Hornady .460 Smith Ammo – 200 gr. at 2300 fps. Hornady
decreased the velocity from 2300 to 2200. I’ve shot both with no problems,
but I definitely noticed the velocity reduction. Hope their hot .500
ammo doesn’t hurt any shooters or their handcannons.
I actually got the ammo recall email from Hornady prior to the notice
from TTAG, so Hornady is definitely making an effort to get the word
out.
Just put a time delay on those cartridges and sell them as hand grenade conversion kits. Fixed.
I don’t really get the .500 S&W thing. Maybe in a carbine, in grizzly country. Otherwise, I put it in the category of extreme hobbyist cartridges, like the .50 BMG, etc. .44 Mag is plenty, but fairly shootable in a heavy revolver. Not that I’ve shot the .500. I’m sure it’s a lot of fun, and enhances one’s sexual prowess. I’ll take anyone up on an offer to try.
I shot a S&W 500 a few years ago at a local indoor range during a fund raiser for St. Judes Hospital. It is certainly a two fisted gun. And, yes, my wife mentioned an uptick later.
Not everyone was happy however. Some crackpot woman doctor protested the idea of a gun range hosting a fund raiser for a children’s hospital.
I’m sure it’s a lot of fun, and enhances one’s sexual prowess. I’ll take anyone up on an offer to try.
Try which?
I appreciate that Hornady likely caught their own mistake and moved aggressively to correct the error. If more companies did this, we wouldn’t have as much need for all those trial lawyers you folks so revile.
Too many companies just do the math…we’ll have to settle x number of lawsuits for y amount each…and if it’s less than what they think they’ll make in profit, they keep selling the dangerous product (usually a pharmaceutical). Who cares how many people die? A corporation’s first duty is to its shareholders, not its customers.
Of course, Hornady is, I think, privately held, and hardly a corporate behemoth. Kudos to them, in any event.
*Hornady.
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