I've easily fired 15,000 rounds of S&B ammo over the last 6 years in .380, .38SPL, .357Mag, 9mm, .40S&W, .44Mag, .45ACP, 7.62X25, .223Win, .22 Hornet, .30 Carbine, and .308. I never had a bad round, and it was my standard plinking ammo until I moved back to Northern Maine last June. (Nobody up here carries it.). Yes, it can be a bit smelly and dirty, but I found that it was nowhere near as bad as Blazer, UMC, or Wolf ammo in those regards.
It could be that S&B had a batch of .38SPL come out with a weak crimp. Wouldn't be unusual. I think that every manufacturer has had bad batches over the years. Some of them were problems much more serious than weak crimps.
In regards to Plainsman's problems. S&B has notably hard primers. Any lightening of your hammer spring very well could cause light strikes and FTF, as it would with any ammo using hard primers.