[Geezer]

Earlier this year I purchased two boxes of .223 Coyote brand Ammunition for use in my Ruger Mini-14 Ranch rifle. The first three rounds were surprisingly hot, but not so much as to cause concern. The fourth shot resulted in a catastrophic case falure. The explosion blew the five round mag completely out of the rifle, and froze the bolt in place. The blown mag was in three pieces. The bolt required a mallet to knock it loose. The failed case had a case separation around half the diameter, and another crack running from the base to the case neck. There was no damage to the rifle (thanks Ruger). I changed over to some Winchester ammo to verify that everything was still OK, and it functioned perfectly, as usual. I disposed of the remainder of the ammo, under the belief that I had a bad lot. This weekend I had another failure - not as bad, but it still locked up the bolt and had case base separation. This failure was from a separate lot from the first failure. I did some checking on Coyote brand ammunition and discovered that they are reloads, but are supposed to be loaded to SAMMI (?) specs. I consider them too hot, and unsafe to use - ever. Please consider, and beware !! Oh, the Ruger is not at fault.

 

[P95Carry]

Thx for the heads up Geezer. I have to say in my ignorance I had never come across that ammo!!

Did you pass this info back to them - any comments? They ought to know about it for sure. Whether ''bad batch'' category or indicative of sloppy quality control across the board - it is bad.

Do you have any left? I'd want to pull two or three rounds and compared powder charges for consistency and also try and guess the powder type - then relate that to load tables - just any way to try and see how hot they are going with them.

 

[David III]

Geezer -- purchased where? I thought Coyotee ammo hasn't been manufactured in some time. Is yours labeled as remanufactured? The last I saw of it was all remanufactured, made by the now-defunct 3-D ammo company that was purchased by Hornady. I've seen a lot of Coyotee ammo fired with no bad results, but that's when it was in regular production in the 1990s. Makes me wonder what you were sold....

 

[Geezer]

The ammo was purchased at a small gun shop in Weatherford Texas. There was no mention of reloads on the box, but the brass markings were a mix of several different brands, including military. P95, I could kick myself for not doing what you suggested - I had all the equipement there, and it never crossed my mind. The junk is buried.

 

[AirForceShooter]

post this warning on every gun site you belong to.
This is scary.

AFS

 

[P95Carry]

the brass markings were a mix of several different brands, including military.

Hmmm - well even there we have scope for inconsistencies due to variances in case capacities and thus even with a constant powder drop - pressure differences. Case sep' occurrences are bad juju!

Oh well - it's just good ol' Bill's Mini held up thru the abuse!! :smile:

 

[CLASS3NH]

Thanks for the info....I'll keep an open eye out for this stuff, should it come into the Store as trade..

 

[rstickle]

Thanks, I've never heard of it, but will sure pass the word, and stay away from the stuff.