How often have you experienced a dud round of factory ammo?

[armed85]

I've seen the topic of autoloaders jamming pretty often. One topic I don't see too often is ammunition failing to fire. Revolver advocates often point out how if there's a dud round, you can simply pull the trigger again which will rotate the cylinder to a new round. On an semiauto, one must remove the dud round manually. So how often do dud rounds occur?

Rimfire doesn't count here folks

I have yet to experience a dud round. I throw a snap cap in my mag every now and then for malfunction drills however.

I shoot 9mm. Brands are Winchester white box, Federal American Eagle, Federal Hydrashok, Monarch (Serbian brass cased), Speer Gold Dot, CCI Blazer, and CCI Blazer Brass.

 

[WinchesterAA]

I've had a few duds here and there. Mostly decades old .38spl wadcutters and one instance of insanely hard primer.

 

[TAB]

Other then some accent surplus and rim fire I've had a total of one. Loaded it again and it went bang.

 

[Triphammer]

The ammo's fault? Never. Commercial reloads? A few.

 

[Arkady]

Average? Maybe once every 12 months or so. Winchester White Box, usually--but that is almost all I shoot for practice ammo.

I consider a dud to be a round that two different guns can not set off.

 

[Feanaro]

Very rarely, outside of .22lr. Have one rather odd round of Remington .357 mag that appears to have a defective primer. It is seated too high and mis-shapen. Other than that, can't think of any.

 

[Hook686]

I experienced an incomplete shell case formation. The brass was incomplete at the neck. I did not try to fire it in order to see if it was a dud.

I also experienced an inverted (upside down) primer. I did not try to fire that one either to see if it was a dud.

Both of these were name brand hunting ammunition, maybe 25 years ago.

 

[NWdude83]

Rarely.

 

[lvcat2004]

9mm, 308, 17HMR, 45 colt, 454 casull, 7.62x39...ZERO

22LR...every once in a blue moon.

And my experiences have been all factory new, non-reoloaded ammos.

 

[NWdude83]

Forgot to mention I shoot cheap stuff btw.

 

[shadowalker]

Yes, Wolf Ammunition in 40 S&W, and 9mm, now I reload and refuse to use ultra cheap ammunition.

 

[easyg]

I've been very lucky, I've never had a dud round.

 

[loop]

I'm real cautious about some WWI-era .303 Brit ammo I have. Sometimes it goes click, start counting, boom...

Same applies to some 8mm Turk WWIII ammo. If it doesn't fire we hold the weapon on target and count to 10 before we flinch.

Never had recently-made, quality ammo fail to fire.

You have to watch handloaded lead that has been exposed to extreme temps. The wax can melt and drift down to the powder. That is particularly important when it comes to light charges in large cases - ie: .45 acp with powders like Bull's Eye, Clay's or Tightgroup.

In the case of .22 rimfires, I can't even begin to count how many have failed.

 

[Dick1911]

I've never had a dud or a squib load - and I shoot the cheap stuff. Wolf, White Box and Blazer....

 

[Tim Burke]

I've had a Federal Hydra-shok in 45 fail to fire with 2 attempts; it had a good FP strike the first time. Had a Federal American Eagle in 9mm with the case mouth on one side crushed like an accordion. Didn't fire it. Had a PMC in 45 not fire in a Glock, but the striker hit looked light. Have seen a 32 ACP w/o a flash hole, and know of another one in 9mm. I don't know the makers, but I figure those had to be factory ammo.
I've had a lot of S&B 9mm fail to fire, always with light FP strikes. I only shoot that in guns that give the FP a really solid whack. The single type of factory ammo that I've shot the most is probably S&B 45 ACP, 230 gr FMJ, followed by Federal American Eagle in 45 ACP, 230 gr FMJ. I've never had any issues with either of them.

 

[MaterDei]

Only with 22, which happens quite often. I've never had a centerfire dud.

 

[10-Ring]

In 22lr, I find one now and then but with everything else, next to never

 

[jonnyc]

I've had 2 or 3 over about 23 years of regular shooting. Then there are another 2 or 3 I wouldn't even try to chamber (read: A-Merc!).

 

[aquapong]

I have two American Eagle .40's that were underloaded, but never had a complete non fire. Thank goodness they both made it out of the barrel.

 

[Mad Magyar]

Not yet, but my buddies "reloads"......

WWNPHD? What Would Neal Patrick Harris Do

Find a "real-man" for his needs....

 

[ZeSpectre]

I had one WWB round that the primer had popped out and the box was full of powder that had leaked out of the round.

One 30-30 round that the bullet just dropped out of the case when I picked it up out of the box

And if memory serves correctly I've had a couple of rounds of Remington UMC that just wouldn't fire.

Not a bad record at all for the many thousands of rounds I've fired in my lifetime.

 

[brickeyee]

One time in about 35 years.
A Remington .357 mag round had no priming compound (found after taking the thing apart).
I have never even had a squib in all that time and have loaded almost 1,000,000 rounds

 

[BridgeWalker]

Six or seven in a Remmy .22lr valu pack.

Other than that none, except for some old Israeli Surplus 9mm, and I think the problem there is that I was using it in a pistol rather than a carbine, or so folks on here told. That was about a 70% failure rate.

 

[Dilbert]

13 times

Once I had 13 duds in a single box of Remington 10mm (this was about 15 years ago). I sent the ammo back to Remington. They sent me back a letter saying it was defective primers,,,,,, and a check for $50. Other than that I've had no misfires that I can remember with fresh factory or reload ammo. With some 50 year old military surplus there may have been a few, but I don't remember any right off.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

With factory new or commercially reloaded centerfire ammunition? Once - a round of American Ammunition (headstamped A-MERC, not to be confused with Federal American Eagle) had a primer in sideways. I've had a small number of .22 rimfire duds.