Collins Cartridges

[jgedmond]

Can anyone report on the quality of 5.56 or 9mm ammo from this reloading shop in Conroe, TX?

 

[PopsXD9sc]

Shot a lot of Collins 40 and 9mm about a year ago. IIRC only one fail to fire; primer wasn't pushed all the way in. Price used to be good compared to factory ammo; don't know how it compares to Blazer Brass now though.

 

[bvillars]

bought couple thousand rounds in december of 9mm and had good luck with it. even fired in a tec 9mm ( fmj) 45 fed ok in a uzi carbine a couple of stovepipes cleaned and seemed ok

 

[Vellcrow]

The stuff may have been good a year or so ago, but we see a lot of it every now and then at Red's; my vote...stay far away from it. It is the first ammo I have seen to choke up a Glock, and I needed a hammer to tap the stuff out.

Every time a see the little baggies come on the range, everyone with them has a handgun jam up. So far, there have been Glocks, Rugers, XDs, and Berettas that I have personally seen issues with, and it was not the gun's fault.

 

[Ranger60]

A shooting buddy bought some of their pistol ammo and had a 1 out of 3 failure rate. Neither he nor I will buy anymore. And it was in a Glock that has zero problems with anything else.

 

[TexMex247]

Collins cartridge company

IME CCC ammo shot just fine in all of my guns. True, this was a few years ago when they were producing less of it. The .223 ammo I bought was 55gr SP ammo with mixed LakeCity headstamps they all fed, fired and ejected just fine from my mini-14. The groups weren't exceptional but fair enough for plinkin'. The 9mm ammo was 115gr fmj bullets which also shot reliably. Now, if you are shooting a glock or AR-15 these same bullets may have given you some trouble but in my guns, no problems. He supposedly uses Camdex machinery which is similar to what the big four use.(fed,win,rem,cci.) I haven't bought any recently but would recommend them if reloads are all you've budgeted for.

 

[texas1willy2]

At the early part of the ammo mess I bought about 500 rds. of 223, and had zero problem. The problem I ran into was when I wanted to buy a bunch the waiting list scared me away.

I did see a good deal at SSA and thats one of the better companies. (new ammo)
Silver State Armory - ON SALE

 

[jgedmond]

Collins Cartridges 223 Range Report:

I got out to the range today to try the Collins Cartridges 223. As others have stated, they are packaged in 100 round ziplock bags. I inspected 25 random samples and found a few dings in the cases, but nothing major. All brass was stamped LC (Collins web site says they use once-fired LC brass). There was no sealant around the primers or bullets and the case necks were not annealed.

I shot at Carter's Country on Treaschwig in the late morning. It was about 90F and partly cloudy with little to no wind. Wind direction was across my field of fire.

I shot 25 rounds at 50 yards off of sand bags using my Colt LE6920 with an EOTech 516 that had been previously zeroed at 50 yards. I shot in groups of 5 per magazine. For the first 10 shots, I took my time aiming and for the last 15, I tried to shoot as rapidly as I could get back on target.

The 25 shot group measured 4" vertically and 2" horizontally. There were 2 shots that were significantly higher than all of the others. Ignoring those resulted in a 2" x 2" group. No feed or ejection problems. Excellent performance comparable to commercial cartridges that I have used (mostly Am Eagle XM193 and PRVI M193). I will be buying more of these rounds for plinking and range practice at $38/100 - YMMV.

 

[TxSgt1911]

It's been several years, but I've fired both .223 and 9mm from this place. The 9mm failed to eject about 20% of the time, resulting in a stovepipe or double feed when fired from my Glock 17 that literally feeds everything. Also about 1 round in 10 would not allow the slide to go fully into battery. As for the .223 - I bought 100 rounds several years back. The 5th round fired from my Colt A-2, the case split and jammed in the chamber. It took a mallet, wooden dowel, and a lot of elbow grease just to get the bolt back and get the split case out. As previously stated in the last post - YMMV, but I'm never buying their reloads again.

 

[Army 1911]

I have fired over 5k of .45acp from them over the last 2 years. The last batch I bought seemed to be lacking in the QC department. FTF of about 75 out of 3000. Reson was crimping issues. This 3k is not part of the 5k in the first sentence.

When the father got sick, quality went down and prices went up. Last batch was only a buck per hundred cheaper the Winchester white box 100 packs from Wallyworld.

It is cleaner than WWB and is good range ammo. Would not use it for SD though.

 

[jgedmond]

I agree completely and would never use this ammo (or any 9mm 115gr FMJ) for personal defense. Since I never get to Wal-Mart when they have ammo, I view this as a comparably priced alternative for practice and plinking.

I'll let y'all know how the 9mm 115gr FMJ checks out next time I get to the range.

 

[Bily Lovec]

Ive shot thousands of rounds of CCC over the years, in many calibers.

what most of you dont realise is Art Collins died a few months ago and they shut down their website for a couple of months. thats prolly when the waiting list started.

I have gotten 2k rounds of CCC ammo since art died from an order placed before then. Ive shot about 800 rounds of it with "0" issues, accuracy has been acceptable.

 

[jgedmond]

Thanks for the update. Someone mentioned Art's death above, but did not say exactly when it happened. The 223 that I reported on was ordered earlier this month. I shot a small amount and it all worked perfectly.

I may get a chance to try the 9mm that I ordered at the same time later today. I'll report on that when I can.

 

[jgedmond]

I got a chance to shoot about 70 rounds of the Collins 115 gr. 9mm using my USP9f. This batch of 500 rounds was ordered and received in early August as a test of ammo quality for range use.

I was shooting in a pistol bay drawing from a holster, practicing magazine changes, shooting multiple targets, etc. So I cannot comment too much on the accuracy although when I maintained aim on a single target for 2's and 3's, the accuracy was pretty good. No failures of any kind and I would give the ammo a definite thumbs up pending shooting more rounds.

Forgot to mention earlier, very clean ammo. Much better than WWB and Ranger 9mm NATO.

 

[jgedmond]

I got to shoot another 70 rounds of the 115 gr. 9mm reloads, this time using my P30. This gun is a little more sensitive to low powered rounds and I had two stovepipes and a FTF.

The FTF was caused by a deformed case and bullet. Apparently the bullet and case were not aligned when the bullet was pressed in. One side of the case was pushed down and the gilding on the bullet bulged outward. I am damn glad it didn't feed or I would have had a real problem.

I will be examining every round before I shoot it from now on.

FYI, also shot more of the 223 and it performed flawlessly.