Beware S&B ammo

[elwarpo]

got an email from magtech today (S&B and Magtech are owned by the same company), so will see how things go.

I also plan on second striking the rounds in a Glock and Sig to see if they go off.

[RifleGuy]

What would cause a primer strike to be so way off center?

I just looked through a pile of range brass a friend brought me. A lot of the primer strikes are off center.
A lot of the primer strikes also have significant wipe marks that looks like ejection began as the striker was still contacting the primer... all Glock-style rectangular striker marks.
Very few primer strikes were centered, but most were closer to center than in the pic elwarpo posted.

[elwarpo]

Was that the 115 or 124 grain that you had issues with?

115 grain

[10x25mm]

I pulled out the calipers and it seems all primers are inset .0025 to .0045". Overall length and case dimensions are good. Here are some more pictures of the primer hits. What confuses me is I have fired the same S&B ammo before and after this box without issue (different lot though). the pictures really do not show the primer hit right, they are deeper by eye than in the picture.

The squib and the fact S&B did not answer my email and voice mail really bothered me.

Attachment 74363Attachment 74362Attachment 74364

The 0.004 inch primer inset is entirely normal. Manufacturers create some primer inset to prevent slam fires. SAAMI specifies pistol primer inset as 'Flush to 0.008 inch' inset in Z299.3 on page 26.

These firing pin strikes are completely off anvil and this explains the cartridges' failure to fire.

Would really like to see the firing pin strike on the squib round cartridge case. An off anvil firing pin strike could have resulted in a slow burn of the priming mix instead of detonation (and the attendant squib), but this is extremely uncommon. Usually only occurs under very cold conditions, such as those experienced by aircraft cannons.

It appears that your pistol was attempting to fire in an out of battery condition. Why? Most likely, some kind of very solid debris caught between two surfaces which are supposed to be line-to-line when in battery, but separate when the action is open.