These cartridges would not fire.

[aaaaa]

I took 10 rounds of this brand X ammo to the range (among other stuff) and ran them in my S&W 442-2 (with lock). Of the 10 rounds 6 would not fire, even though I tried to fire them 2 or 3 times. I ran the same brand X ammo in the Bond Derringer .44 Special with no misfires out of 10 rounds.

From the image below, does it looks like the gun's firing pin was doing its job? Note that I also ran about 40 rounds of Winchester white box through the gun and did experience two misfires but those fired on the second try.

I plan to go back and see if these six will fire in my 442-1 (no lock). If they don't fire in the 442-1 I will try them in my Bond Arms derringer .38 Special barrel.




One lesson from the range session is that while my dry firing has been encouraging, at the range it was not so good. I could get some tight groups at 5 yards but only with a lot of concentration--something one does not necessarily have in a SD event.

 

[Howland937]

Did you load them or buy the ammo already loaded?
Sure they're small pistol primers?

 

[Reloadron]

Strange but some of them look to have light primer strikes. The left top and bottom center , however, look to be good strikes. All I got is try them in another .38 Spl or .357 Mag gun and see what happens. If they do fire note the primer strikes before and after. The primers look to be seated fine.

Ron

 

[aaaaa]

Did you load them or buy the ammo already loaded?
Sure they're small pistol primers?

These were purchased online from a company that hand loads them. The listing on their web site says,

 

[Howland937]

These were purchased online from a company that hand loads them. The listing on their web site says,

View attachment 1197906

I see. The Starline brass threw me off. The primers don't all appear to be well struck even after the 2nd or 3rd time. That you had a couple of light strikes with Winchester ammo also makes me think your problem is not the ammo specifically. Depending on what primers they load their ammo with, it could be a combination of the ammo and your pistol.

 

[243winxb]

Weak hammer spring? Check firing pin protrusion. But first- Clean and lube gun with a light oil.

Most misfires are from slow firing pin velocity.

Dry firing may damage parts if no snap caps are used. Peening happens.

 

[Mostly Lead]

I took 10 rounds of this brand X ammo to the range ...

Note that I also ran about 40 rounds of Winchester white box through the gun and did experience two misfires but those fired on the second try.

Same issue (didn't fire on first strike) with two different brands of ammo - I'd be looking at the gun and following @243winxb advice.

 

[drband]

Broken FP tip? The indents don’t look right for single or double strike.

 

[L-2]

Post 1,
There are various options to do or try.
-Try, yet, even more brands/models of .38 Special ammo;
-Send the 442-2 back to S&W;
-try some of your own gunsmithing/armorer work, which would, if you're handy, consist of merely replacing the firing pin with one slightly extended; here's one:

Power Custom Extra Length Internal Firing Pin J, K, L N-Frame

The Power Custom Extra Length Internal Firing Pin helps eliminate misfires. Fits new style S&W J, K, L and N frame revolvers. Requires fitting by a...

www.midwayusa.com

You didn't say if there were already any modifications (such as lighter springs) done to your 442-2. If there has been, change things back to stock for the time-being.

I like how you've also got a 442-1 and a Bond Arms derringer, but unfortunately, you apparently didn't have those two guns with you the day you got the misfires with the 442-2.

 

[1KPerDay]

Those look pretty light to me.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Have you changed any springs out in it? Not much hammer mass on a 442 so that could be the issue if it has been modified any.

They may have simply used hard primers if they intended it for the SASS crowd who are using SA stuff which hits with authority.

 

[cfullgraf]

My 642 began mis-firing after a number of years of shooting.

A new main spring corrected the problem.

A relatively easy fix.

I did not do much dry firing.

 

[Bazoo]

They look light to me. If you had misfires with another brand of ammo, It's definitely the gun.

 

[aaaaa]

I bought it as a used gun and have not made any modifications to it. No idea if the previous owner did.

My dryfiring is with snap caps.

We'll see how the 442-1 performs with same ammo. Hoping to get over there tomorrow.

Of course, now that the primers are dented, most any gun will light strike them if it hits in the same spot, right?

 

[film495]

isn't there a strain screw for the main spring that can be used to adjust tension? could be loose. just a thought.

 

[Bazoo]

isn't there a strain screw for the main spring that can be used to adjust tension? could be loose. just a thought.

642 (all J frames) has a coil mainspring on a strut.

 

[Bazoo]

I bought it as a used gun and have not made any modifications to it. No idea if the previous owner did.

My dryfiring is with snap caps.

We'll see how the 442-1 performs with same ammo. Hoping to get over there tomorrow.

Of course, now that the primers are dented, most any gun will light strike them if it hits in the same spot, right?

I don't think so. My experience is that light struck rounds fire just fine the next go round in a non-light striking gun.

 

[film495]

642 (all J frames) has a coil mainspring on a strut.

interesting. yea - check pin protrusion or to see if it is broken. maybe also too much space beetween cylinder and recoil shield.

 

[WestKentucky]

Did you just run the cylinder a second round or did you unload and reload the rounds. If the former then there was no chance to hit a fresh spot on the primer to ignite a partial dud, and it may be at least in part an ammo issue. If the latter then you may have ammo with totally dud primers but you probably also have a gun mechanical issue.

It’s really hard diagnose “small factory” (for lack of a term) ammo these days because when supplies were short a couple years ago people got components from less reputable sources and some of those have had an abnormally high fail rate. Another thing of note, and it may just be me, but those rims look just a tad bit off. If they are thin by even a few ten thousandths then that puts a serious disadvantage on the firing pin as it now has to reach further before finding a hard spot. This also lets the ammo move around in the chamber some which can act as a shock absorber. To try to eliminate as many issues as possible, I would say to measure rim thickness on the cases and see if there is a difference between rounds that went and rounds that didn’t. Also, be careful with motions before shooting and see if that plays a factor. Muzzle up puts ammo against the blast shield and a gentle lowering onto target keeps the primer tight to the hammer, but it will move when the hammer hits. Muzzle down will move the ammo forwards in the chamber to a hard stop by interaction between the rim and the cylinder which doesn’t let it absorb any of the primer strike but it requires the hammer to reach further before striking thus potentially losing some momentum.

Carefully look at the cylinder on the gun too, if there are any signs of work done after initial build (toolmarks, polishing, etc) I would wonder if somebody tried to modify it for moonclips. Pull the grips off and check the mainspring to see if it’s dragging anywhere, broken, rusty… If the gun is older and has dried up lube in it then you can blast that out with a number of high power cleaners. I tend to use gumout carb cleaner on dried lube, but there are a lot safer and better options, gumout is just always handy for me.

 

[.38 Special]

Those strikes look marginal to me.

 

[Pat Riot]

Your primers hits look like the ones I had when my 442-1 had finally decided it needed more attention. I was getting light strikes and misfires.

I installed an Apex Tactical Duty / Carry Kit in my 442 and the problem was solved.
It ran on factory springs from Jan. ‘97 when I bought it until late 2021. That’s a real good run but I cannot tell you how many rounds I had put through mine up to the point when the springs weakened. The kit comes with an extended firing pin, which I did install. The factory firing pin looked okay but I had no reference for whether or not it was worn so I changed it.
If your handy with working on your own guns the kit is pretty easy to install. IF you decide you want to go that route.

https://www.apextactical.com/j-frame-duty-carry-spring-kit

 

[Targa]

Like Pat said, get the Apex kit. J frame Smiths should just come with them as standard equipment.

 

[aaaaa]

Checked firing pins on both guns. They look about the same and do not appear to be damaged. Possibly slightly less protrusion on the 442-2.

Both have about the same space between cylinder and recoil shield.

i have four brands of ammo I can try. At least I know my 442-1, which I also bought used, is like new, not shot much and well cared for.

I'll look into some of the things advised above. Going to take some time.

I tried the pencil firing pin test. I use a dowel about 13 inches long and it will jump out of a semi-auto, but in both 442s it only lifted about 3/4-inch. I would think it should hit harder than that. I did it with the cylinder open, dowel down barrel, and fire with the cylinder release held back.

 

[5-SHOTS]

Have you checked the cylinder for abnormal back and forth play?
If there is no back and forth play in the cylinder, I would proceed to replace the firing pin, perhaps with a slightly longer one as has already been suggested, and the hammer spring with a factory power or slightly extra power one. Since, I understand, you purchased both of your 442s used, it's possible that the previous owners installed reduced power hammer springs to make the trigger lighter and this is causing light primer strikes, especially if you are staging the trigger.
Installation of those new parts is fast and simple and should solve all the problems.

 

[trackskippy]

Id buy a couple of boxes of something with a better/known rep and see how things go. WWB and the others of an unknown rep arent the best thing to base things on.

If you're getting misfires with ammo of a known quality, then you probably have a direction to go. Personally, Id call S&W and tell them I was getting misfires and they will probably take it from there. If they find the gun was messed with, you may or may not have to pay for it, but at least the gun will get fixed.

Or, you can fart around trying to figure things out and keep dumping money into it.

I've had a couple of 642's over the years and never had any issues with them. They were both bought new and were stock. The one I still have has had a lot of rounds through it (at least 500-1000 rounds a year since the mid to late 90's) and barring the occasional bad primer (99% of what I shoot are my reloads) its always gone bang when the trigger was pulled.

WestKentucky brought up a couple of points about the small company and/or "remanufactured" ammo. Ive run into both problems as far as primers and shells go. I bought 10K's worth of Remington primers on sale at $20/1000 back when everything else was $32/1000. I just assumed they were primers (what could go wrong ) and started loading and rotating them into the queue. Once I started running into them I figured it out pretty quick. 5%-10% failures and restrikes didn't do anything.

As far as the cases went, Remington was involved in things again, and this time, their brass was out of spec and the rims were too thick and would cause the rims to drag on the recoil shield and tie up the gun when you tried to pull the trigger or even thumb cock the gun. Ammo came from Sportsmans Guide and wasn't "Remington" ammo, but some other company that had loaded it and it was cheap.

Again, Id get a couple of boxes of well-regarded brand-name ammo and see how it goes. Take your other 442 along with you too and see how it does with the same ammo.