Federal Ammo - Near Disaster

Ive been shooting almost 100% federal brand products for nearly a year now (not much time in some peoples perspective) but not once have i had any issues with it . I use it frequently in my M14 and havnt had a single slam fire or a round fail to go off.

EVERY ammunition producer has had duds or quality control issues with certain rounds at some point in time , it happens when billions of rounds are produced , they dont have time to check EVERY single round ..

Live , learn , your not dead or injured , you acted accordingly , move on and change your shorts .. such is life.
 
Federal Came Through

I thought I should mention that the Federal representative phoned my friend and informed him that he would refund the cost of the ammo and pick it up for destruction.

Nothing happened for months. Then, payment came in the mail from Federal, for the full lot of ammo my friend bought. However, no Federal representative came by to pick up the ammo.

While it is good of Federal to refund the money, I have doubts about the way they dealt with the problem. It took many many months to get a refund. But the greater concern is that my friend has retained the remaining ammo he bought. My thought is that he may be tempted to shoot or sell the ammo. Given what occured, it seems possible the whole ammount he purchased might be defective. Federal should have taken it back.
 
i doubt it is the whole batch. pull it down for components if you are not going to shoot it. I would be very surprised if a federal rep would pick it up. they normally have you send it in.
 
This happens sometimes. Its not something to worry about too much. I must have put 5000 + rounds of federal ammo thought my guns and have never had a problem.
 
Great job on handling the situation accordingly....you more that likely saved your friends gun and also himself from getting seriously injured!

####ty deal on the factory squib load
 
ALFREDS said:
While it is good of Federal to refund the money, I have doubts about the way they dealt with the problem. It took many many months to get a refund. But the greater concern is that my friend has retained the remaining ammo he bought. My thought is that he may be tempted to shoot or sell the ammo. Given what occured, it seems possible the whole ammount he purchased might be defective. Federal should have taken it back.
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Your friend is an idiot. Federal handled this responsibly. Expecting them to send a car over to pick up a box of bad ammo is a bit much.

If I got my ass in as big a knot over encountering a single squib and publicly declared I would never again shoot a specific brand of ammo as a result I wouldn't shoot anyone's ammo including my own.:rolleyes:
 
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This type of thing is a lot more common than you may think. A new shooter may encounter it once and think the sky is falling but an experienced shooter will have seen this a few times over the years. No manufacturer is problem free and things do happen from time to time. Its for this reason that most experienced shooters will carry a rod/dowel and a mallet in their range bag.
Simple fix...A bit different reason for concern in an overload situation.
Good thing the OP caught the problem right away instead of blasting another one. Proof that the shooter must always be conscious of 2 things, did it go bang, and how many times has it gone bang.
Cheers
dB
 
When he pulled the trigger, the report of the pistol was muffled. The volume of the shot was half the norm. Thick black smoke came out of the pistol.
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IMO this would be an obvious indication of a problem to the shooter and to cease shooting and investigate further.

When you produce billions of rds, you do get the occasional dud.
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How true.
 
so let me get this straight you left the gun down on the table with the possibility it was a hangfire then picked it up? what would of happened if the gun went off on the table somebody could of gotten shot if u did that on my range i would of banned you for life . if the gun does not fire you HOLD THE GUN DOWN RANGE FOR 60 SECONDs. key word HOLD THE GUN

what where you stoned :onCrack:
 
WestIslandRifle said:
so let me get this straight you left the gun down on the table with the possibility it was a hangfire then picked it up? what would of happened if the gun went off on the table somebody could of gotten shot if u did that on my range i would of banned you for life . if the gun does not fire you HOLD THE GUN DOWN RANGE FOR 60 SECONDs. key word HOLD THE GUN

what where you stoned :onCrack:
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THE SKY IS FALLING- as long as the muzzle is POINTED DOWNRANGE , there SHOULD be no danger- that's WHY there are RANGE PROTOCOLS-
 
if u did that on my range i would of banned you for life
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You and I differ on this. What I would have done is explain to the shooter what he did wrong,tell him what COULD have happened explain & make sure he understands the proper procedure for future incidents.
It has been my experience that a number of people make mistakes but if they are treated as adults, they will not repeat the mistake . But that is my opinion and you are entitled to yours.
 
the way i was taught, if you have a mis or hang fire, you place the weapon on the ground IMMEDIATELY, pointed downrange and CLEAR THE AREA for 60 seconds-then go in and clear it , inspect the bore, etc- the REASON for this is you may get a RUPTURE of the breech , and it's better to clear than to lose a limb or worse- granted, that's for artillery, but it also applies to small arms- oh, and the WHOLE LINE CLEARS
 
Two points to confirm for those not familar with this situation:|
First: A "squib" is a round with a live primer and bullet but no powder. The ignition of the primer is just sufficent to drive the bullet out of the case and chamber and somewhere down the barrel.
Second: There are two indications of a squib - only a loud "pop" instead of the normal BANG but most signficant is: the squib doesn't produce enough energy to cycle the slide and eject the spent case. Also the primer alone doesn't develop enough pressure to seal the brass case tighly to the chamber wall and some of the black residue is forced BACK around the case - resulting in an extremely DIRTY looking piece of brass when hand racked out of the chamber

Squibs were common as dirt with PPC and Bullseye shooters - most carried a "squib rod" in their back pocket. A squib, even if shot is not a life threatening situation but it will bugger (ring) the barrel.

What IS a life threatening situation is a DOUBLE CHARGE in a .45!!!! Twice as an IPSC RO I had a shooter have that happen - in both cases the grips of the gun exploded like a grenade going off as a result of the double charged round setting off the closest two or three rounds in the magazine. The gun was a total mess and the shooter had MASSIVE wood shards in his hands. Older shooters will remember why the Pachmyr rubber grips with the steel inserts were so popular.
Beginning reloaders should be VERY cognizant of what causes a squib and the EXTREME DANGER of a double charge in any large volume cases using small powder charges such as .45 and .38 Spl.

And as "alfreds" did and "booters" confirmed - all shooters MUST be aware that anytime the gun makes a less than normal noise and if its a semi auto - doesn't cycle the slide - they must STOP and check for a squib!!!!
 
ALFREDS said:
I have never experienced anything like this with any other brand of aoomunition.
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Guess you haven't shot lots of other kinds then, i have, with most of them, if not all. Welcome to bulk production. Do want you want, but don't pretend its a reasoned response. If it makes you feel better have at it.
 
TwoTone said:
3. The next bullet pushes the stuck one out and nothing else happens, no damage, no injuries, maybe even no realization by the shooter that there was a potentially dangerous problem. It can happen this way, esp. when the stuck bullet is close to the breech.
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So you're saying the next bullet hits the stuck one close to the breech, and pushes them both out the full length of the barrel with no-one the wiser?
Not likely.
 
t-star said:
the way i was taught, if you have a mis or hang fire, you place the weapon on the ground IMMEDIATELY, pointed downrange and CLEAR THE AREA for 60 seconds-then go in and clear it , inspect the bore, etc- the REASON for this is you may get a RUPTURE of the breech , and it's better to clear than to lose a limb or worse- granted, that's for artillery, but it also applies to small arms- oh, and the WHOLE LINE CLEARS
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For a misfire/hang fire: why on the ground? Is that safer than on the bench at the firing line? Why should everyone clear the area? If it didn't go off, why should you assume that if it does, it will somehow grenade the gun?
And why would the whole line clear because one gun has a problem?
I'm not arguing, just trying to follow the logic.
 
well to speal of range regulations . '' at no time should a Loaded firarm be left on a table, all guns should be unloaded with the action open pointing upwards .... or was that just a bunch of B.S i was told in the safety course and the FQT range officer exam ?
 
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