Beware S&B ammo

[elwarpo]

Bought some S&B 9mm and out of 1 box I had 5 no ignitions and a squib. The no ignitions were solid primer strikes and I have fired thousands of rounds from the same gun before and several hundred afterwards with no issue. The squib stuck in the barrel is the bigger issue. I called and emailed S&B twice with no response, very poor customer service. Here is a pic of the ammo and primer strikes. I know some will say how they have never had an issue with S&B, well up till now, neither did I.

[Mark AP]

That’s to bad, hopefully they just had a bad batch of primers.

[RifleGuy]

Were you able to punch out the squib?

[10x25mm]

Those firing pin strikes look far off center, and a bit shallow. If the failures to fire were in a pistol with Browning-type, tilt barrel locking I would be looking for a headspace (or other out of battery) issue.

[Parkanzky]

That's too bad. I just bought 2000 rds of S&B 9mm. I love the efficient boxes they use.

[RifleGuy]

Those firing pin strikes look far off center, and a bit shallow. If the failures to fire were in a pistol with Browning-type, tilt barrel locking I would be looking for a headspace (or other out of battery) issue.

I have fired thousands of rounds from the same gun before and several hundred afterwards with no issue.

Probably not a headspace or out of battery issue.

[10x25mm]

Primer sensitivity drops off dramatically as the firing pin strike moves outboard of center. The priming pellet is captured between the cup and the anvil. The cup will transfer the firing pin blow to the captured pellet when the firing pin strike is off anvil, but very inefficiently. It takes a much higher energy firing pin strike to detonate the pellet when the strike is far off center, and thus off anvil.

[red442joe]

Those firing pin strikes look far off center, and a bit shallow. If the failures to fire were in a pistol with Browning-type, tilt barrel locking I would be looking for a headspace (or other out of battery) issue.

+1

Joe

[RifleGuy]

Primer sensitivity drops off dramatically as the firing pin strike moves outboard of center. The priming pellet is captured between the cup and the anvil. The cup will transfer the firing pin blow to the captured pellet when the firing pin strike is off anvil, but very inefficiently. It takes a much higher energy firing pin strike to detonate the pellet when the strike is far off center, and thus off anvil.

I have fired thousands of rounds from the same gun before and several hundred afterwards with no issue.

Possible answers:

1) Headspace issue fixed itself.
2) Dirty gun cleaned itself.
3) Inexpensive, mass produced, Czech Republic ammo had some quality control issues.

[10x25mm]

First step: headspace gauge the cartridges which failed to fire.

If they pass: Fire them in a different, known good pistol. If they fire, you can be certain that the off center strikes were the issue. If they fail to fire, you are left with some degree of uncertainty. Off center strikes can fracture a primer pellet, preventing subsequent firing.