Freedom Munitions, Reman 223

[stemoo01]

Took the AR to the range today, went through a couple of black hills 223 boxes without any issues & then cracked open my first box of Freedom Munitions Reman 223.

Few rounds in & it jams, I was struggling to clear it (charging handle wouldn't retract) when the range officer popped over & gave me a hand.

Got it up and running but 4 or 5 rounds later it again failed to chamber the round:



This time I manage to clear it & take a look at the bullet:



Initially I thought this was a cracked case with a bullet wedged inside it (I've little experience with 223, under 1000 rounds):



Before finishing up for the day I showed the range officer the bullet & with a little twist he revealed what had actually happened:



The round shot before the failure had split in two, as it was extracted the top half remained wedged in the chamber and a fresh round was rammed into it....

My guess is that the 223 reman brass was weak & unfortunately FM's QA didn't catch this before it was reloaded, hence the split case.

I've shot a reasonable amount of their 9mm both new & reman without any issues so it's a shame for this to happen with the first box of 223

Luckily I only had the one box.

This could well be an isolated incident/batch issue, but if I was to order any significant amount of 223 from them today I'd spend the extra few bucks to get new & only get a few trial boxes of reman.

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Hoji]

Thanks for the heads up. I have shot hundreds of their 9mm, .357 mag, and .45 ACP without incident. I was getting ready to go in on a pallet of their new 5.56. May just buy a couple of boxes and test them out first.

 

[Major Kong]

I have shot a good amount of their .233 and 5.56 reman stuff and haven't had any issues.

I also had some of their reman .45 ACP and noticed before I put it in the magazine of my 1911 that it was seated way deep in the casing.

 

[mitchntx]

I had similar issues with 556 and Freedom was very receptive when contacted and got a full refund.

 

[Dawico]

That is a very odd spot for a rifle case to split. Usually it is at the neck or the head seperates, one end or the other not the middle. That piece of brass must be very brittle. Not a good sign.

 

[Maxpower]

I had problems with some of their 9mm reman, will not be buying anymore

 

[gdouthit]

Call them they will make it right. I just got off the range and was shooting reman 40s&w with out a hiccup

 

[mitchntx]

I had similar issues with 556 and Freedom was very receptive when contacted and got a full refund.

I was wrong ... my issue was with 300 BLK, not 556.
And they made it right.

I have shot a lot of Freedom pistol rounds without an issue, though.

 

[gdouthit]

I paid about 12.60 a box for all that 40. Everything around here is 20a box ;p

 

[stemoo01]

I've had no problems at all with their 9mm.

Even with this issue I'm still a big fan of FM, ~$10 a box is really significant when shooting 300+ rounds a week.

I'll probably just add a few bucks to each order to get new rather than reman.

 

[cajunautoxer]

Rudy is real good on making thing right if there is an issue. Send them a email

 

[Orbie]

5.56 M-193 55 gr. FMJ New Box of 200 = $66

I feel confident in ordering it seeing that stand behind their product. Guess I'll order some with my fingers crossed.

 

[stemoo01]

I've had no issues with new 5.56 & they did replace the box of 223 reman. Still a fan of fm, but I do keep an eye on the brass for issues. I think it's free delivery at the moment too.

 

[Orbie]

I did get the free delivery.