Dud factory ammo

[gtmtnbiker98]

The last two range sessions have each experienced a dud round. I’ve been shooting since 1988 and other than one previous event a few years ago, I’ve never experienced a dud. Last Tuesday, I experienced a dud round of 115gr WWB when shooting my P320 Compact. It was confirmed a true dud when the same round wouldn’t fire through my Walther PPS.

Now today, when shooting 124gr Fiocchi .357 SIG through my P229, low and behold, another dud round. Yes, I know that it isn’t the greatest ammo, but it is factory ammunition. I just find this ironic.

[Hambo]

I think you've been incredibly lucky that in thirty years that's all you've had.

[hufnagel]

I'd say you're well overdue for a few then. Seriously depending on how often you shoot it's merely statistics that dictate how often you'll see a dud.

ETA: just looking at my notes, out of nearly 24,000 shot in 9 years I've logged 6 duds (center fire ammo only. .22lr's are a whole other league of problematic depending on the brand.)
That's a 0.025% failure rate. Given the mass production of ammo, that's pretty fucking impressive.

[SkippySanchez]

I had a Federal .45acp round with a shallow primer pocket years ago, and a Wolf 7.62x39 the bullet set back and didn't chamber.

That's about it.

Considering the millions of factory rounds produced every year it's amazing it doesn't happen more often. I can't think of any other consumer product with a similar track record.


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I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

[Totem Polar]

In the last year, not very many duds. However, comma, I have experienced boxes of .380 missing rounds, boxes of 9mm with several rounds having mangled brass/case lip openings, and a bulk box of .22lr with empties in it. 4 or 5 empties so far, and I’m only 1/2 way through the box of 350 or so. (For the record, the only .22 I’ve used this ammo with is a Ruger single-six, so it’s not like the empties got ejected into the box; they were in there when I bought it...).

Our factories have been running at capacity for a while, some stuff is going to slip through the cracks. JMO.

[willie]

Yes sir. You've been lucky.

[DpdG]

In the last few months I’ve personally witnessed 3 squibs (blocked bore) from 2 different cases, unknown lot#s, of .40 180gr Lawman. Today had a dead primer in 223AE- failed to fire after 2 hits from a known good rifle.

Setimes poop happens even with quality ammo. Just don’t shoot after a squib until you’ve manually checked the bore.

[LSP552]

I think you've been incredibly lucky that in thirty years that's all you've had.

I’ve had, or seen dud rounds from every major ammo maker. I’ve also seen primers upside down, and a variety of other really obvious problems over the years.

[scjbash]

A buddy of mine shot with me last weekend. When he pulled a box of WWB out of his bag I only half jokingly said that he should be sure to double check them.

Two rounds were missing primers.

[rathos]

Surprising. I only buy winchester white box when I want to practice malfunctions. If it does fire half the time it doesn't extract. The class I took last weekend we had a student shooting WWB that kept having issues. Gave her some of my ammo and the gun ran like a top. The fact that you haven't had that many issues makes you a lucky man, and I would say go buy a couple of lottery tickets.

[psalms144.1]

In a single range session a while back, I got two Federal 147gr Hydrashoks with bad primers (one seated backwards and one sideways!) and one bullet that was completely unformed - just a 9mm cylinder the length of a normal projectile...

[revchuck38]

A buddy of mine shot with me last weekend. When he pulled a box of WWB out of his bag I only half jokingly said that he should be sure to double check them.

Two rounds were missing primers.

A few months back, in a case of Winchester NATO-spec 9x19, I found a round with no primer and no flash hole in the case. I contacted Winchester and sent the round in to them, and they sent me a check for $16. Beats a sharp stick in the eye...

[scw2]

I had about 2-3 primer failures over probably a 2-3 box training session using WWB. Probably matched the total failures I've experienced over the past 2-3 years. At least they weren't squib loads or overcharged with powder...

[Wayne Dobbs]

In my experience over the past 10 years, Remington is the worst, WW the second worst. Federal and CCI-Speer have been very good. As a point of information, if you have a dead round that you need analysis on for cause of failure, DON'T try a second strike on the primer. The factory tech folks can do a good analysis of bad rounds if they are in original misfired condition. Likely not an issue for most of us, unless you have an evidentiary issue to resolve.

As for the WW with no flash hole, Dallas PD's FTU has a .357 Sig round that had that issue. It was discovered in an OIS. That was one of many issues with WW ammo and is the main reason they are a total Hornady department now.

[scjbash]

A friend of mine shot steel case Winchester today and had about a dozen failures to fire in 200 rounds. All were solid strikes. Combined with the extractor in his Glock shitting the bed and the poor guy was lucky when he made it through a drill with no problems.

[jiminycricket]

I've noticed for the past (4 years?) that WWB 115gr will every once in a while come with a round in which the casing is about a millimeter longer than spec. I've had to clear stuck slides for quite a few customers at the range I work at. Often you'll find that the primer strike is not centered due to the slide ever so slightly being out of battery but not enough to activate the pistol's disconnector. I've actually posted about it a couple years ago. I figured Winchester would have gotten their shit together by now.

[Chuck Haggard]

I've noticed for the past (4 years?) that WWB 115gr will every once in a while come with a round in which the casing is about a millimeter longer than spec. I've had to clear stuck slides for quite a few customers at the range I work at. Often you'll find that the primer strike is not centered due to the slide ever so slightly being out of battery but not enough to activate the pistol's disconnector. I've actually posted about it a couple years ago. I figured Winchester would have gotten their shit together by now.

Sadly, Winchester QC has not improved at all.

[Duelist]

Yesterday, I had a primer inserted backwards. First time I’ve seen that personally.

Came out of a case of 147gr Speer Lawman. Only problem I’ve ever had with a centerfire Speer cartridge. Stuff happens.

[OlongJohnson]

With the WWB cases I've inspected trying to get my M11-A1 to run it, I've concluded that it would be nearly impossible to make a gun so robust to out of spec cases that the WWB factory won't eventually ship a round that would make it choke.

I've had zero issue with UMC, although it does seem to put more soot on the front of the pistol than some others.

[Bill Lance]

Just shot about three hundred rounds of the steel from Winchester yesterday...one dud...and I did run it through again...definitely a dud.
Otherwise, it ran fine in that limited amount.