Factory ammo failure.

J

Jbotto

New member
On a recent shooting day, I had something that had never happened to me before. I had a factory (name withheld) round fail me in a big way. I went to pull the trigger, and poof. Primer ignited, but no boom followed. I've had a reload squib before, so I knew the noise... I stopped shooting, opened the cylinder and then noticed all this yellowish powder coming from both the barrel and the cylinder. Sure enough the bullet was wedged in the barrel and a chunk of this unburnt, yellowish powder was shoved in tight behind it. My gunsmith is only about 5 minutes from my range, so I packed it in and took off to his place. He asked me if it was a reload, and said it was not. It was the ammo he sold me the day before. His eyes kind of opened up after that. With a rod and vice, he punched the bullet out and that plug of yellowish unburned powder along with it. From our deductive reasoning we decided that one of the machines got over-oiled or something of that nature where something foreign made it in to the charging port and contaminated the powder. This ammo is something I've personally shot nearly 300 rounds of of the same lot, and have a buddy of mine who has shot another 200 rounds of the same lot. We like it for the brass in our pistols, so that's why we bought so much. All rounds up to this one has been problem free and good quality ammunition. So my questions to all you shooters out there are as follows:

Have you ever had this happen with factory ammo?
What would your next steps be?
This was the ninth shot out of a box of 50, shoot the rest?

Thanks in advance guys. Just wanted to let this one out, but without trashing the company, since up until now, I've been more than pleased with the quality of the ammunition I've purchased from them. Even with great quality control, the best companies have one item slip through from time to time that doesn't stand up to the reputation.
 
I had that problem very recently with factory stuff...One of the mods here helped me out on how to clear the barrel.

I shot the rest of the ammo from that batch, no problemo.
 
Contact the factory. They will want to know the lot number so they can track down any issues, and will likely reimburse you for the box of ammo. I've done this once myself with a bad batch of factory ammo, they sent me a shipping label and I got a full refund.

Contacting them is important, since if they find an issue they may end up sending out a recall notice for a particular lot of ammo and saving other people from having similar problems.
 
That's more likely a primer failure ! It had enough energy to push the bullet into the barrel but not enough to ignite the powder ! Yes I've experienced it and I've seen others too .I've had primers give higher or lower pressure than the rest of the box also.You could notify the maker Then only use the ammo for practice or dump it .
 
Anytime a company makes millions, if not billions, of a product there can be the occasional mistake. Do report it to the company.
Just so you know, according to what records are available, during the early days of metallic cartridges about 3 out of 50 rounds would fail on average. I've never seen a reason given but my guess is bad primers.
 
That's more likely a primer failure ! It had enough energy to push the bullet into the barrel but not enough to ignite the powder ! Yes I've experienced it and I've seen others too .I've had primers give higher or lower pressure than the rest of the box also.You could notify the maker Then only use the ammo for practice or dump it .
Click to expand...
mete, I don't think it's a primer failure, as there was chunks of yellowed powder... Powder is normally gray colored. That's what made me think it was a contaminated powder charge.

I did try to call the company today, but was trying at 4:45, so I got to leave a message. I'll give them a few days to get back to me before I try again.
 
I also have experienced a couple misfires recently. One was a bad primer in PMC .45 Auto. When I pulled that round apart there was powder unburnt and the brass was shiny new inside the case.
The other was ULTRAMAX .45 Colt and that one when pulled apart was cole black inside the case and no powder no nothing but the soot from the primer and the bullet was firmly seated in the case, although I never thought to measure it before pulling bullet, but it looked perfectly seated.
I had a misfire with a .270 Win reload a few weeks ago that was some leftover's from a batch I had loaded about ten years ago for a trip out west.
The bullet never moved and the primer burned but no powder and I do not crimp .270 Win reloads.
So as you can see this happens.
 
I don't think I ever had a failure in commercial ammunition but I have had at least one cartridge that was damaged. It had a distinct dent in the side of the casing that looked like it had been almost punctured with a sharp pointed punch. But that's the only one I can think of.

I've had failures to fire with old surplus ammunition (probably .303) but that's to be expected. I have also come home with brand new store bought ammunition only to find that the box was short one round.
 
I've failures, but never had a squib with factory loads. Still, I know it happens. Let the manufacturer know, and give them the lot number.
 
I had some factory rounds sans powder. Contacted the company and they sent me a shipping label to return the unused rounds. Received double the number of boxes back from their customer service dept!
 
I have a box of .30 Carbine from Winchester that are duds. Some won't fire at all. One left a bullet stuck in the barrel of my Ruger Super Blackhawk.
 
The ones that didn't fire at all probably poped the primer but didn't push the bullet out.
How well indented are the primers on these, "Duds"?
if you have more unfired cartridges you should be able to hear powder in them when you shake them, or be able to tell by weighing them if you have a good scale.
Pull one of the duds apart, you will probably see soot from the primer if the primer was struck well.
 
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