# Defective factory ammunition -- check your ammo, folks!



## DJ Niner

In the last year or so, I've seen and heard a lot of reports of "bad" (defective) factory-loaded ammunition, and last weekend, I had an experience of my own in this area. I thought I'd put up a thread with some photos of defective ammo, so folks are more aware that defective factory-loaded ammo DOES surface from time to time, and to give them an idea of what to look for when loading-up for target-shooting or defensive uses. Over several decades of serving as both a military and civilian Range Safety Officer, as well as spending a lot of time shooting/hunting/competing, I've seen and handled more than a few rounds of defective ammunition. I've taken photos of some of it, and even kept a few of the defective cartridges for educational use.

Some of the following photos are not mine, but as far as I can determine they are all legitimate and have not been modified to misrepresent anything. I've tried to get permission to re-use certain photos for educational purposes from each owner when the photos were originally posted online. If anyone is aware of any of these photos being used in conflict with the owner's wishes, PM me the details, and I will investigate and take it down, if necessary.

Lets start with primer defects. The primer is the tiny impact-sensitive metal-covered explosive charge at the rear of each cartridge, which is struck by the weapon's firing pin or striker, causing a flame to squirt through a small hole, igniting the main gunpowder charge in the case's larger chamber. In relation to defective ammunition, primers can be missing, seated upside-down, or even crushed sideways into the primer pocket in the case. Usually, a primer defect means that the cartridge will not fire at all.

.40 case with an upside-down primer:










A lineup of revolver cartridges with upside-down, or sideways-seated primers (some of these may have been reloads, not factory-loaded):










Military-issued .38 Special handgun ammo, and 5.56mm rifle ammo, with primers seated sideways:










Note the soot stain on the case heads -- when struck by the firing pin, the primers in both of these rounds detonated, but the flash never reached the gunpowder (exiting the side/rear of each case), so the bullet never left the weapon. (I still have these cartridges, and I was present when the attempt was made to fire each of them).


----------



## DJ Niner

Next up -- obvious case defects. Some case defects will prevent the round from loading/firing. Others may allow the case to be loaded, but when fired, the empty case cannot be easily removed from the chamber (this will often cause a serious, hard-to-clear stoppage in an autoloading pistol). The good news is that most case defects are easily seen, IF the shooter is paying attention when handling/loading the weapon or magazines. Some defects, though, are very difficult to see, even if you are looking for potential problems.

Crumpled case mouths are fairly common, and are usually caused by the base of the bullet snagging on the edge of the cartridge casing as the bullet is pushed into the case during the loading process. The resulting deformation can be large and obvious, or small and hard to see. In many examples, the case is so bulged or out-of-round that it cannot fully seat into the chamber, and the gun jams quite severely. It's best to detect and remove these rounds BEFORE loading weapons or ammo-carrying devices:



















Rim deformations are more rare, in my experience, but because they affect the rearmost area of the case, sometimes the round will chamber and fire, but the empty cannot be extracted. This can cause a stoppage in the cycle of operation of autoloading weapons (often with a live round jammed behind the empty case), and also really screw-up the sequence of events required to reload a revolver.

Some of these revolver rounds would probably jam the cylinder on closing; others might misfire, or fire but fail to eject during reloading:










The 9mm round on the left jammed a Glock rather severely; we had to tap the slide repeatedly with a hammer to get it unlocked/open:










Two different views of a .45 ACP case that was somehow manufactured with no rim at all. Because it has been fired, I assume it was loaded into the magazine, fed properly up the feed ramp when the previous round extracted and ejected, it fired properly, and then got stuck in the chamber because there was no way for the extractor to pull it out (incorrectly manufactured case on the left, normal case on the right):



















This case rim was probably damaged by a machine during the manufacturing or loading process, but it still made it into a box of ammo:










In the area of "difficult to see" case defects, I offer these examples. How about a case that's just a little bit too long? Check out the center .357 SIG case in this lineup:










And below (at center), the .40 cartridge that caused my most recent headache. Same basic problem as above, but the case is only .012" (twelve-thousandths of an inch) too long. It prevented the slide on my Glock from closing/locking completely, which interrupted the firing cycle and prompted me to investigate the cause of the problem. Luckily, I was just slow-fire target shooting at the range; if this had happened during a self-defense situation, or if I had been in a hurry and just slammed the slide with my hand to force it closed, the consequences could have been much more serious -- such as a jammed-closed or even a blown-up weapon:










In addition to the above examples, factory ammo occasionally shows simple dents in the side or rim of the case. Sometimes, this may be caused by a problem at the factory; other times, it may have been damaged while being shipped or stocked onto the retailer's shelf. Shooter-caused dents are pretty common, too; dropping a loaded revolver speedloader or autopistol magazine on the concrete will often cause damage to one or more rounds, but it may or may not be severe enough to prevent safe and reliable functioning of the ammunition. When in doubt -- throw damaged ammo out! (In a safe and approved manner, of course.)


----------



## DJ Niner

Finally, the bullet in your cartridge can have problems. Dents, dings, shaved-off areas, missing crimp grooves, flat spots -- a lot can happen to a bullet on the way to your weapon, and ultimately, your target. Make sure you find obvious bullet defects before they cause you problems.

Almost looks like someone missed lunch at the .22 ammo plant (how did THAT one get past QC?):



















As far as I know, seating bullets backwards in the case does not improve accuracy OR reliability:










Another oft-seen problem with bullets is compression into the case (bullet seated deeper than normal). A deep-seated bullet will almost certainly cause increased pressures at firing, which can rupture the case and/or damage the weapon or shooter through the sudden uncontrolled release of high-pressure gasses. Bullets can be pushed deeper into the case by production problems like insufficient case neck tension, or shipping/handling difficulties like boxes being dropped onto a hard surface. Along the same lines, shooters have been known to occasionally drop ammo boxes, speedloaders or loaded magazines onto unforgiving concrete floors and the like. No matter the cause, any cartridges with deep-seated bullets should not be fired.

CHECK YOUR AMMO, FOLKS!

(If anyone else has photos of defective factory ammo they'd like to share, feel free to add them to your posts, below.)

.


----------



## Gunners_Mate

great thread man, I honestly haven't seen any of these (statistical probability requires me to say)...yet

only ammo defects I've seen were user induced. dented rounds from slamming a 30 rd mag into an m4 with the bolt forward is the most common, a casing ripped to shreds by a gau from someone standing on the belt... stuff like that..

good to get my eyes on some possibilities so I can know what to look for from factory.


----------



## DJ Niner

Bumped because someone was discussing this kind of problem recently.

Photos have recently been re-hosted with new links; please let me know if there are any problems.


----------



## Bisley

A few years ago, when Walmart was still selling 550 round bulk packs of .22, for about $15, I bought a box of Remingtons with faulty crimps. You could spin the bullet around in the case, on every round. Surprisingly, the cartridges still operated perfectly in my old Remington Speedmaster, with no noticeable degradation in accuracy. They all fired into a circle of about 1-1/2 to 2 inches at 50 yards.

Also, I had 3-4 (so far) Rio shotgun shells (dove loads) with wrinkled, bulging cases on my last dove hunt, last year. They all came out of the same case of 10 boxes, and I have previously fired several cases of these shells, without a flaw. Just a momentary glitch in the assembly line, I reckon.

Beyond that, the only flaws I've had in handgun ammo (not of my own making) were a few misfires that usually ignited the second time I tried them, and one Winchester white box .45 ACP squib load that happened when I was renewing my CHL. The squib round must have made it nearly all the way through the barrel, because I was doing a 5 shot timed fire sequence at 15 yards, and I failed to interpret the reduced sound/recoil, and then the extra recoil when the next round pushed it out the end of the barrel. Very fortunately for me, the only ill effect was that my silhouette showed two flyers that almost missed the entire target.


----------



## rex

Thanks for resurrecting this DJ, great examples of an oops. I joined here after that post and never saw it, excellent post though.


----------

