Ammo reviews are a rare thing. It has to be an interesting or new load, but I’m writing out of pure rage today. Rage at wasting money on what has proven to be one of the most unreliable ammo brands I’ve ever experienced. The company is called Magtech and is part of CBC Global Ammunition. CBC Global Ammunition seems to own several budget-friendly ammo brands.
I’m attracted to Magtech because it consistently produces .32 caliber ammunition, including affordable .32 ACP, .32 S&W Long, and .32 S&W. I’m a .32 nerd. While I complain about .30 Super Carry’s price, I will toss over handfuls of money at various other .32 caliber rounds. When I do so, I don’t expect a whole lot. I buy cheap ammo, and I expect cheap results.
Cheap results are the ammo, which at least goes bang. I don’t expect the most consistent velocities or accuracy. I expect it to fire, extract, eject, and feed again. That’s all I need from ammo that I put through antiques, oddities, and fun guns. If you can’t do that, I’m unsure why you exist.
My Magtech Experience
I’ve shot Magtech on and off for years. It’s fine in most cases. However, in the last few years, I’ve gotten into revolvers, which have consistently driven up the price of ammo. I’ve also gotten into .32 revolvers, guns like the S&W 432 UC, which can shoot .32 H&R Magnum, .32 S&W Long, and .32 S&W .32 S&W.
From there, I dived into older .32 revolvers because, well, why not? That’s where I found my first issue. After buying 500 rounds of Magtech .32 S&W, I learned about something called hard primers. About 25 percent of my ammo failed to fire on the first try. About 10% refused to fire at all. At 29 dollars a box, out of 500, 50 would not fire at all, which equals the cost of a box of ammo.
I also purchased a few uber-cheap and old .32 S&W revolvers. The old .32 S&W ammo is hard to find, and I’ve only been able to find Magtech ammo. I purchased a box at a dollar a round—fifty dollars for a 50-round box. I wish only ten percent had failed. Of that box, one of five would fire on the initial trigger pull.
It’s easy to say, well, that’s just old guns. I also tried this stuff in the 432 UC, a modern revolver that can safely handle the .32 S&W. It doesn’t fire in that modern revolver, either. It’s unacceptable to have this high failure rate when paying a dollar a round.
It all seems to come down to hard primers or primers that don’t ignite. Hard primers seem to be the problem with the S&W Long, while on the standard .32 S&W, it seems to be failure to ignite. I say this because I’ve had firing pins hammer a deep hole into these primers, and nothing happens. It’s certainly primer-based.
What About The Automatic Ammo?
I’ve also purchased a fair bit of Magtech .32 ACP. It’s an exposed lead round—not a jacket in sight. However, it works. It’s gone bang in several different semi-auto handguns. I can say that with over 300 rounds down the pipe of a P32, there have been zero problems.
Whatever is wrong with revolver ammunition doesn’t seem to translate to automatic ammunition—or at least the .32 automatic ammunition. I know I’ve fired Magtech 9mm and .45 ACP, but never in significant numbers, and I’ve never had any problems.
Fixing production
I hope Magtech can fix this primer problem, but I’m out. Aguila makes S&W long, and I’ll stick with the Mexican take on .32 S&W Long instead of the Brazilian take. It sucks to see a competitor knocked off the board, but sometimes you can’t do anything about it.
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