I'm pissed with my damn B&T's. I have a KH9 Covert pistol and an APC9 SBR that won't feed the ammo I have on hand. I've tried Federal HST 9mm 147gr, Hornaday Critical Duty 9mm 124gr and 135gr. No matter what I try with these rounds, both guns refuse to work with these 3 rounds. Every other round is some type of failure to feed. With my KH9 Covert, most of the time the failure happens when a round is on the left side of the double stack magazine, but will fail to feed from either side (just more often on the left side of the ammo stack in the mag). The ammo typically jams in the receiver without the round being fully stripped from the magazines.

The Federal HST 9mm 147gr is my carry pistol ammo, and I use it in all of the 9mm handguns in my collection. I've never had a problem with probably 20+ 9mm pistols, it's only these 2 B&T guns that are giving me issues with this ammo. At first I thought it was due to the hollow pount design of the HST, so when I was at the gun store the other day, I picked up the Hornaday Critical Duty in the 2 different grain weights. I figure that the Hornaday Flex Tip bullet that isn't a true hollow point might work in these B&T's. I was completely wrong. None of it feeds.

I haven't tried any FMJ ammo yet, but I was hoping to use something that has good expansion like the HST. Have any of you B&T owners experienced problems with HST ammo and ither types of bullets? If so, what do you use now? I'd like to use the guns for home defense and as range toys. If FMJ ammo actually feeds in these damn things, then that's fine for the range, but it's not my preference for home defense (I'll just keep a pistol handy instead). I'm just surprised that these highly praised Swiss guns can't feed the same ammo that all my other pistols love.

I have also a KH9 SD and a GHM9 SD, but I haven't fired either of those pistols yet. I'm just worried I'm going to have the same shitty results as the other B&T 9mm's. I have 5,000+ rounds of Federal HST, so it would be nice if either of these 2 pistols can feed that ammo. I'm going to take the KH9 SD to the range tomorrow and see what happens.

Any help is greatly appreciated! If I can't find a solution, then I'm selling all of my B&T PCC's and I'll find something that actually works (I'll still keep my B&T APR308S, SPR300 SBR and VP9, those 3 guns work very well!).

B&t translucent dual feed mags in both?

No experience with JHP but generally speaking sub guns aren’t optimal with JHPs …

My APC9K eats any ball ammo I've given it. Haven't run JHP. B&T mags.

Yes, in the APC9 SBR. The KH9 Covert came with a unique B&T FDE magazine that I'm using, but it's the same as the translucent mags

I asked because in my experience, the B&T mags suck. My GHM9 and APC9 had issues with FMJs using the B&T mags, so it's no surprise JHPs have issues. Failures to feed, bolts gouging rounds, mags falling out, etc, yet both could be instantly fixed with Glock mag lowers.

Are there any after market magazines that will work with the B&T magazine compatible lowers? I really don't want to switch over to Glock magazine compatible lowers

Another thread of more B&T issues.

Absolutely blows my mind that people shell out this type of money for these guns and they can’t do anything better than an $800 Stribog.

I understand KCI make some that some people prefer to the B&Ts as they have steel feed lips. The Beretta PMX mags may work too as it's based on the B&T P26. That said, I have no experience with either.

I shoot 147gr HST, Gold Dot 147gr, and Gold Dot 124gr through my APC9 Pro SBR (w/ B&T compact 3-lug suppressor) and have no issues.  100% reliability so far with a few hundred rounds of each through it.  Have not shot it unsuppressed.  I also run Speer Lawman 147gr TMJ as my primary training/target round, and it has been 100% reliable as well.  Using B&T translucent SMG mags.

The gun has been exceptionally reliable and it’s a joy to shoot.  If this has not been your experience, it sounds like something could be wrong with it.

Hope you figure it out!

Thank you for the response! I'll order some of those magazines and see if that helps solve the issues. It's great if a magazine change will solve my problems, but then I'll also lose my cool B&T FDE mag that matches my KH9 Covert, lol. Cerakote will quickly solve that one!


Want to trade SBR's? Lol

Unbelievable how we pretty much have the exact same stuff and yours functions properly, while mine is unusable garbage. If Gold Dot works in your gun, I'll buy some and try it in my gun. I bet I'll have the same issues though, but I'm willing to try anything.

If nothing works, then I'll see if I can send the guns back to B&T for troubleshooting. I truly appreciate the responses, I'm going to try aftermarket magazines and new types of ammo. If anyone has any other suggestions, please post them! Thanks for the help, gentlemen!

Saw on the Facebook group a guy having feeding issues with his KH9. In the post someone commented that the KH9 wasn't designed to feed hollow points/flat nose ammo because it didn't have a feed ramps. I have a GHM9 gen 2 that had feeding issues with B&T mags but didn't with Glock mags. I run KCI B&T mags in my APC9 Pro, SPC9, and Beretta PMXs with zero issues.


I have to agree, I own a lot of PCCs and a good amount of them don't like JHPs and flat nose ammo.

I have an APC9 Pro SD, a TP9 an APC9K Pro an APC 9k Pro SD and the KH9 Covert. The only trouble I’ve had with them is the TP9 won’t take the Federal HP. I haven’t had any problems with the Gold Dots in either 147 or 127 in any of the platforms.  Candidly I haven’t tried the Federal HP’s on the other platforms but that’s a factor of I just have more of the Gold Dots. If you need a good self defense ammo you could always try the Ft Scott TUI.

I think OP's issue is more common that people are willing to admit, and it's not limited to just B&T's.  My Stribog can have this problem too, though I've been able to fix and mitigate that. In particular, in the Stribog, the recent curved magazines have been much more reliable.  While the curve helps, at the same time they also modified the dimensions of the feed lips, which I think is what really fixed the magazine issues there.  So if you have a recent Stribog running curved magazines, it runs like a Swiss watch.  

But to the heart of the matter, why is OP (and so many other people) having issues with 9mm PCC with HP ammo that even cheap handguns run all day long just fine?  The common denominator and kind of obvious answer when you look at it closely - is the double-column feed lip magazine approach.  In a pistol, the ammo is aligned in a single point directly in-line with the chamber of the gun.  That round is in contact with 2 feed lips to keep it straight, plus a 3rd contact point with the round below it, pushing it up.  And aligned right straight into the chamber.  In most PCC's, the rounds are offset left and right from the chamber of the gun, and don't have a bottle-neck or such that naturally allows reliable alignment manipulation during those first few moments of critical strip/feed movement.  And only have two contact points, with only one of them being an actual fixed magazine feed lip.  So, they jam.  

IMHO, the common perception that double-column mags are superior to PCC's that run pistol mags, is in error.  It seems to me there are far more problems with those double-column feed lip mags and a 9mm cartridge profile, than pistol magazines - for this rather obvious reason.  The rounds aren't lined up with the chamber, and it's only engaged by one feed lip for alignment during feeding.

Back to my Stribog, I've found that even with the improved magazines, there are many JHP's that it still won't feed.  JHP's that every pistol I have runs just fine - every pistol I have also runs a single-stack mag feed lips.  My Stribog absolutely hates conical-tip bullets, like HST's, etc.  I don't even try any more.  It can be random seeming what types it likes.  It takes rounded small-hole JHP's fantastic good - that basically have an FMJ profile.  It will take some 147's that are darned near full-length cylinders with an open-mouth that's just huge, and run those great too - which I can't actually figure out.  

Also, sometimes, with some HP's it'll run them fine, except for the very last round.  Again, this goes back to the concept of using double-stack feed magazines.  Where the other 29 rounds are in contact with one(1) feed lip and and the surface of whatever round is stacked partly below it, and that's it.  On the last round, that 2nd contact point is against the follower, and I guess the follower isn't quite shaped like a live round after all, and in some HP, that controlled feed isn't the same.  So, not a huge deal - for the most part I just don't run HP's that have issues at all.  But if I do run other HP, I've kind of gotten in the habit of just running an FMJ as my last round.  Figuring if 29 rounds doesn't take out the bad-guy I guess he's armored or under cover, so maybe the FMJ round #30 will do better?

To OP having issues, try ammo with a more rounded bullet nose profile.  Also, try alternating rounds with FMJ's, as the profile of a round-nosed FMJ round as the second contact point during feed, might work better  (might not, but easy enough to test).

I have to agree with lazyengineer and that's why B&Ts with feeding issues often get resolved with Glock magazines. I noticed on my GHM9 when used with Glock mags, the rounds bypass the feed ramps and have a more direct path to the chamber.

Most PCCs in my experience (specifically Stribogs) can digest Gold Dot 124 JHPs, which just happen to be one of the best, so win-win.

Now that you mention it. I did notice Lawman 147gr flat nose and Gold Dots did run better in my PCCs than other JHP/Flat nose ammo.

They are when designed properly they are superior, for example, MP5, MPX, Scorpion, etc. B&T’s & Stribog’s aren’t and are known to be crap.

I’ve mostly ran FMJ out of mine. 124gr NATO but the few times I’ve ran some 124gr +P IMI black dot JHP and 124gr +P Federal HST and it ran fine. Though it saw maybe 500-600 rounds of JHP.

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B&T is hardly crap. Beating out all those other options to win an Army contract.

So says the man not using B&T mags Do you realize I was referring to their mags, hence the quoted text in my post above??

Exactly. Those mags are the ones the Army selected. I’m not opposed to B&T mags, I bought this set up because I have several P320s so it made sense to use a lower for mags that I already have plenty of. I do plan on picking up a B&T mag lower when they are back in stock and on sale.

Regardless of what anyone chose, B&T mags suck in my personal experience on 2 B&T firearms (see above). If you think I’m the only one, do a search, otherwise, enjoy the kool-aid.

You seem to be emotionally invested in this topic. I never said anything about your personal experience.

I’d take a Stribog over a B&T aaaaany day.
Bog shoots much softer and from most accounts I’ve seen, the B&T doesn’t seem to be any more reliable.
The Stribogs only weak point is magazines (just like B&T), and a new lower that takes scorpion mags fixes that. And you’re still in for cheaper than a B&T.


Maybe one day people will stop overpaying because “SwISs mADe” and realize it’s a mediocre PCC.

If it is the magazines like my Stribog I would recommend a lower that accepts scorpion magazines there cheap plentiful and reliable. My Stribog eats flat nose hp ect now. Idc how many people flame B&t they make excellent guns with major eye candy appeal

I hope you figure it out either way I would keep and enjoy the gun.

Scorpion lower option 1

Scorpion lower option 2

So says the one blindly pimping B&T mags without having used them

How do you know I haven’t used them? You’re assuming I haven’t. Nobody is pimping anything. You said the mags were junk without any qualifying information except you say so. I pointed out that the APC9 beat out multiple other designs to win the Army’s SMG contract with the mags you said were junk. If they were junk as you claimed they wouldn’t have beat out those other designs. You may have got mags that didn’t pass QC, I don’t know but based on the results of the competition and my own experience with them, they are not junk. Something tells me Aberdeen proving grounds has better T&E facilities and protocols than you or I.

*deleted* - apologies for the derail, I hope the OP finds a solution, mag related or not.

Most pistols have tilting barrels and very generous feed ramps.

My P7 doesn't.  The P7M13 has a double-stacked mag the very carefully taper to single stack column at the top (in a way only HK could.possibly come up with).  It's a fixed barrel with no feed lips.  Never jams.

Man the p7 is the last example that I'd try to pass off as an example of good engineering.

There are plenty of double stack double feed mags that have a very positive feed angle. MAC, sweedish k/m76 mags... its a function of the feedlips themselves, not if the magazine tries to merge them or not.

I have never had one with b&t mags, but my ghm9c with sig mags is boringly reliable. The main defensive ammo I bought for it was a case of the 147 hst and it has never had a failure in hundreds of those or thousands of assorted fmj. Was a little nervous to buy one after reading about all the people having issues.

The accuracy is actually unexpected as well. With HSTs I'm putting round on top of round at 50 yards. This is basically from a pistol length barrel.