Ever seen this with factory ammo?

[Fergy35]

Just opened a new box of Federal Hydra-Shok and in the first row was a bad round. Now I know I am not the most experience one out there but I have not seen this before.



http://i253.photobucket.com/albums/hh76/Fergy35/Federal Premium Round/IMG_0295.jpg

Just glad I saw it and didn't go loading up a magazine without looking. I do look over my ammunition before loading any into a magazine, but after thousands of rounds in various calibers with no issues I was almost thinking there was no need. Guess I'll keep looking.

 

[kingpin008]

Wow. That's pretty rare with self-defense ammo. I'd call up Federal and let 'em know, I'm sure they'd be more than happy to replace the box.

 

[Sam1911]

It happens, unfortunately. I've seen a handful of bad rounds come out of factory boxes, covering all kinds of errors.

Most surprising one was a .45 ACP at IDPA Nationals this year. Shooter had a round that didn't quite chamber and also wouldn't extract. When we finally ejected the stuck round, it turned out to be a case that hadn't been trimmed to length properly. When the round was chambered, the chamber crimped the extra long case (like 3/16" too long ) around the ogive of the bullet so only about 1/3 of the bullet's nose was peeking out.

(The description of what it looked like was extremely appropriate and hilarious -- but there's no way I'm repeating it here!)

Anyway, these things happen often enough and do escape quality control sometimes. That's why carry ammo and HD ammo get inspected as we're loading mags, right?

-Sam

 

[Birdhunter1]

Yes, besides cheap boxes of .22 lr rounds that sometimes have 5 out of 50 that will not fire I bought 2 cases of Winchester 20 gauge shells and the crimps were bad and unever, some wouldn't feed and when fired in a properly cleaned Remington 1100 I could fire 10 shells and get 8 different results. Got into reloading because of that and haven't looked back.

Once I had some .357 mag loads that were bent at the rim and the cylinder of a Colt Python wouldn't turn because of them.

 

[shooting4life]

I have only seen that kind of thing when using 22lr. I am sure federal will make it right.

 

[wcwhitey]

Be sure to call them, tell them while being polite. I had a problem with a box of CCI Lawman .45 in that a few rounds had the bullets pushed all the way in. Anywho, I called them and they asked me to mail them back. I did as per their instructions and was rewarded with 3 new boxes in return. The included note was very apologetic and included the statement "we added some product to compensate for your inconvenience". I happy ending!

 

[OregonJohnny]

On one of my childhood shooting outings with my dad, we took along his 1960's-era Beretta Model 70 (.32ACP). We bought a brand new, un-opened box of ammo from the local sporting goods shop (I don't remember the ammo manufacturer). Half way through the box, while loading a magazine, I came across a .380ACP round! Good thing it wouldn't even fit in the mag.

 

[Sato Ord]

Last time I had a problem with a round from federal the bullet didn't seat properly on one round and it caused a jam (prevented the cylinder from rotating because it was just a hair too long). Three things happened, I was forcefully reminded that you should always check every round before loading them. I was also reminded that revolvers can jam just as easily as any other pistol if you don't pay attention to details when loading. Lastly, I learned that Federal was more than happy to make it up to us by sending my friend, it was his 454 Casual, two full boxes of ammo to replace the one bad round in the box.

Oh yeah, I was reminded that 454 with 300 gn bullets really kick.

 

[Sam1911]

I was forcefully reminded that you should always check every round before loading them

Yeah, I look at like this: Who's more at fault? The manufacturer who let a couple of bad rounds per million or so (churned out by automated machinery at dizzying speeds) slip past the quality conrtol screener? Or me, the idiot who loaded his mags or cylinder by hand and didn't notice one bad round out of six or seven?

A squib load is pretty impossible to catch, but any of the more common crushed cases, flipped primers, damaged bullets and such things are pretty easy to pick up through a visual inspection.

And the manufacturers more than treat you right if you let them know.

-Sam

 

[Mike2]

Just goes to show you that this little high tech so called perfect world of computers and scanners and cameras that we live in ain't quite as perfect as they think..............I'm still trying to figure out who "THEY" are....

 

[mgkdrgn]

It happens ... not all that often, but it happens.

Personally, I visually inspect and WEIGH every single round that I intend to use for carry. Bullet seated? Proper length? Primer properly seated? Total weight (compare to the rest of the box)

If anything looks the least bit questionable, it goes in the "practice round" box.

That said, I recently went through 100 rounds of Federal 124 gr HST in 9mm. Weight variance in the entire 100 rounds was 1/100th of an ounce. That strikes me as some -serious- quality control!

 

[Master Blaster]

I have part of a box of Corbon 110 grain .38spl +P ammo that is defective. when I shot it out of my 642, the last two rounds in the cylinder backed out far enough to rub on the forcing cone, potentially tieing up the gun. The crimp was not adequate on all of the rounds in the box.

When I called Corbon, I was told that this was normal for a lightweight revolver. Funny I didnt have that problem with federal +P 110 or speer +p 110 ammo.

Corbon premium defense ammo ---- No thanks.