Factory ammunition failures

AL45

New member
An employee had a rifle bolt severely damaged while firing factory ammunition. He couldn't attribute the damage to anything other than the factory cartridge. He called the ammunition company and they refused any liability. He contacted the company that made the rifle, and to his surprise, they replaced the rifle. I have had many misfires with cheap .22 LR and cheap shotgun shells and once had a .308 round that when fired, displayed excessive noise, recoil, the case was hard to extract and where the bullet impacted is a mystery. I won't mention brands because I have no hardcore evidence of what is to blame and have no desire to bash anyone. All these incidents did involve top brands. Have any of you had potential dangerous situations with factory ammunition?
 
Have any of you had potential dangerous situations with factory ammunition?

I had a squib (primer fired, but there was no powder in the case) on a factory Remington 22 Jet. Lodged the bullet about 1/2" past the forcing cone. If I had not check, but instead fired the next round, would have been a very bad result.
 
I had some factory 308 push the primer about 1/3 of the way out of the pocket (at least that's what it seemed like at the time). Turns out that is a "low pressure" sign not a high pressure sign, but it was disconcerting to see.

Jimro
 
I have seen a Mossberg 590 blow apart in the middle of the barrel with factory ammo. We had been shooting all of our shotguns a good bit that day. Blew the heatshield 100 yards in the woods. Not even the factory is perfect. Comforting isn't it?
 
Just a bunch of .22LR not shooting. It's funny I was afraid to pull the trigger on my first reload, but now I feel safer, shooting my own reloads when compared to shooting factory rounds, which I haven't done now in a year and a half.
 
Going back about 25 years ago, I bought a new .45 ACP with a sought after brand name. The second range outing I was shooting Brand X ammo (which is now very popular). I had a round explode in the barrel doing considerable damage to the new gun. Fortunately for me, all the damage was from the breach forward. I called the ammo manufacturer and they requested I send them the remainder of the case of ammo. They told me to send the gun back to the manufacturer and they would pay to repair or replace the gun at the discretion of the manufacturer. The gun was repaired and the ammo manufacturer sent me two cases of ammo. I must admit that I was very hesitant to use that brand ammo again but I did and have never had another problem with that brand, which coincidently has become my favorite brand when I can find it. And, that particular gun has recently been reworked by my Master 1911 Gunsmith (after shooting over 150,000 rounds with it) and is among my top two favorite guns in my collection.
 
Rifle: Remington 40X
Ammunition: Winchester Super-X 22LR Match
Ruptured rim of case and had bits of brass hit my forehead.
Out of tens of thousands of rounds.
 
Over ~30-40 years, seems like most of the factory ammo squibs, likely a dozen, we're as another noted above, 22LR's, followed by 3 .50 BMG (all French "thick" primer issues), followed by 2 or 3 9mm, and 1-2 7.62x 39 (I believe circa 80's Russian). No shot shells or other rifle cartridges, no explosions. And I don't reload. Likely 99.99+% went bang first trigger pull.
 
new M&P compact .45acp ball/milspec 230 grain FMJ....

I was at a Gander Mountain range today shooting my brand new Smith & Wesson M&P .45acp pistol. My friend had a double feed with a factory made American Eagle 230gr FMJ.
I only put a small amount of LPX on the new .45acp & I honestly think it was "human error" on the part of my friend(limp wristing hold).
It may have been the QC on the American Eagle line of ammunition too.
The brass and cases looked flawless when I opened the box.

Every .45acp round I fired cycled with no issues.

I also heard of a aluminum alloy case CCI Blazer round cracking & rupturing in the cylinder of a DA revolver while a woman fired it.
The firearm was damaged & I think the woman had minor injuries.
This was in the early 1990s. The revolver may have been low quality too.

Clyde
 
does military surplus ammo count? years back I was given a bunch of 9mm what appeared to be middle eastern surplus rounds. Markings were all middle eastern font... FMJ and IIRC green casings.

fired a few rounds and then one barely made a noise and the slide didnt even recoil. I dropped the mag and cleared the chamber and checked the barrel, and nothing was in it. I packaged up all that ammo and gave it back.

Pistol has never ever jammed only that time. I've never considered surplus ammo for any caliber since...
 
One squib that was easy to pound out with a wooden dowel and a few bad primers.

Those were all in the 90s.

I mostly shoot reman ammo these days, that stuff tends to be real good.
 
Went to the range last week for qualification. We were using Blaser aluminum case ammo. It was underpowered and had 8 dead rounds in a box of 50.
 
With the ammo shortage being what it is & the commercial producers working 24/7 to try to keep up, I'm not a bit surprised there are a lot quality problems showing up. When you're running balls-out it's hard to catch everything. They need some breathing room.
 
Back when I was a kid, maybe 13 or so, I had a Remington core lock dud in my .270 as a finish shot on a blacktail forkinhorn. I didn't need it luckily, but sent the round in to The Big Green with a letter explaining how disappointed I was. They sent me an apology letter, a ball cap, and three boxes of ammo. I've been a Remington fan ever since.
 
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