Very distinct sound and was glad to have new shooter with me so they could hear what it sounds like. Took gun apart and got the bullet out,only went in inch

my question is this. do ammo companies care to hear about ammo issues, i realize it can be rare or one off situation

Gun - Sig P238 , 380 auto

Ammo - Armscor 95gr FMJ, single box of 50rds.


I stopped shooting and not sure if i want to keep rest of ammo box

thoughts  ????

1" squib means no powder at all, just the primer. You can weight the other rounds to see if they're charged or not. For factory loads, better not to shoot them - report them. You'll likely get more free ammo than that as a "sorry gift" from Armscor, and/or discount coupons worth more than the remaining rounds in that box.

I had one with Winchester white box a month or so ago. Informed Winchester. Had to send them the projectile and remaining ammo back. They sent me 2 boxes to make it right.

The variation from case to case is likely more than the powder weight.

Post the lot # please.  Probably on end of box.

Contact Armscor and let them know.

A primer will push a 230 grain 45 bullet out of the case and into the rifling.  Ask me how I know.

Interesting - I was under the impression squibs with factory ammo were all but unheard of, and that it was something that only occurred to sloppy reloaders.

Plenty of factory squibs.  Millions of rounds of ammo produced every year.  Always some slip through.

Unlike cigarette manufacturers that use x-rays to check the tobacco density in 100% of the cigarettes coming of the line ammunition is NOT checked that well.

Should it be? Maybe.

Even probbaly.

It would be a very hard task though.

X-rays with enough energy to go through both sides of a brass case are NOT going to be affected much by powder.

It would take something at the level of neutron activation analysis to check.

The answer is you cannot afford the ammunition.
Even the military could not afford the ammunition.

The machinery runs faster than you can even see with your eye.

The noise is deafening.

A protracted roar of metal on metal.
A 'room of jack hammers' sort of gets the idea.

Depending upon the load components, there can be greater weight variances between mass produced components than the amount of the powder charge.

If the empty weight of each primed case and bullet were known and matched, then weighing would be a valid general powder charge check.

Variation in weight of brass can be greater than the weight of the powder charge.

I've had a factory Hornady round with no powder in it.  It was a .204 Ruger, and since I fired it in a bolt-action, there was no sound that I could hear through my ear-pro, and the bullet didn't even budge.  The only way I knew that it actually fired the primer was by pulling the bullet, and verifying that the base of the bullet and inside of the case were covered in soot.

No doubt. I consider Hornady and Black Hills to be some of the very best if not the best ammo manufactured in any caliber. Shit happens to every manufacturer.  Yesterday I was practicing drawing from my holster and putting 14 rounds into a B-27 target @ 10 yards with PRVI 115gr 9mm. The first round out of the barrel let off a blast of sparks so bright it looked like a star burst in front of me with a noticeably extra loud report. I thought for a second that the barrel and slide ruptured. I set the pistol down. The target was fresh and there was a hole center mass. I've always trusted this ammo and consider it to be some of the best as well. Nothing really happened, it performed, albeit with extra concussion and excessive muzzle flash; but its the first time it ever scared me... The fact that sparks fell from the muzzle and stayed lit while floating to the ground kinda makes me think it could have been the wrong powder was used. It came from a 1K round case lot. The rest of the 200 rounds I put thru the P-01 went off as usual...

Ever weighed pistol cases and checked their variation?

You might find a larger rifle case but are not going to find pistol cases with their much smaller charges.

I got a cartridge with an upside down bullet seated in it once.
I load my own....slower, for sure, but I visually check EVERY cartridge for powder level.
Never had a squib, over 20k cartridges and still counting.

I don't know what one would do in a rapid fire sequence; trigger finger working as fast as the sight picture can be acquired....all automatic reflexes....would mean a blown up gun for sure....perhaps worse.

I've never had a factory squib but when I first started reloading I made one.

I have had 1 in my whole life and it was just very underpowered.  The projectile was lodged less than an inch from exiting the barrel and the case jammed.  I knew it was a squid immediately because it was the second round I shot and only one hole was in the target.  Glad I did not just clear the jam and crank off another round but it would have probably done me a favor by blowing up my G37 that I spent so much money shooting 45GAP ammo through.  I saved the projectile but no telling where it is after all the moves.

In 35+ years i have had two rounds not go off.

A 158 JHP .357 mag from Remington.
No priming compound.

A 148 HBWC Winchester that only made it about 1 inch up the barrel of a Python .38 target gun.

I have loaded a couple hundred thousand .45 and .38 target loads for 3-gun Bullseye.

Every one one gone bang as desired.

Had a RCBS inline years ago.
Now use a 4x4.

Stopped competing for medical reasons.
MS will screw up your shooting badly.

Besides shaking the lack of proprioception (knowing the position of your body) ruins muscle control.

It's a real issue in the full auto/bump fire world.  Particularly if one has a $20K RR.  Trash the upper, no issues.  Bulge the $20,000 lower?  Ouch.

A real concern w/ the belt-fed 9x19mm upper.  Straight blowback.  Even a squib may cycle the action.

I find this statement to be bull....

I personally have loaded 1000 .40 rounds and after separating by head stamp was able to separate out approximately 50 rounds that were undercharged and 2 that had no charge. All the rest have since been shot.

For the most part total weights of loaded rounds after seperating varied by not much more than a 1.5 grains. Everything from 1.5 to 2.5 out of range was shot without a single squib. Everything 2.5 or over was pulled and powders weighed, the missing powder was what would be expected based on their weight.

My theory is as such;
Using a middle of the road charge on load data that provides a broad range between min and max charges will negate most under or overcharges that can't be found by weighing them.

By using a charge that has a range of one gr between min and max allows for an error of a half gr each way and still within published data. Undercharges will still expel the bullet. Develop a load by going down til you find it doesn't have the juice to cycle the gun and you'll see what I'm saying.

Cool. And we're talking about factory loads in factory environments, with industrial processes - but thanks for chipping in with your handload experience on small production hand presses.

Sorry I think you missed the point... factory or not My point was OP could reliably check remaining ammo for undecharged cases. Reloaders use the same mass produced components factories use. Doesn't matter what press was used the ammo could be checked. I understand the PITA it would be for any ammo company to do that. But, if I could do it with a batch of 40s from a bad day of reloading on the ammo plant... my opinion it's possible to be done at a factory.

No, you need to be careful about giving bad and potentially dangerous reloading advice to people.  I just went and grabbed a handful of random .40 Federal brass.  Within the first few I weighed I found a good bit of variance and found some that were off by as much as 4.6gr.  And guess what my normal powder drop is for .40...you guessed it, 4.6gr.  So if you're relying on weighing each round to determine if there's powder in there you could get a piece of brass that's on the heavy side and really have no powder.

I'm sorry, I don't mean to come off as rude, but you really need to work on your reloading technique if you loaded 1,000 rounds and found 50 that were uncharged and 2 with no powder.  There's a much better and easier way to determine if there's an issue with your powder drops - look in each case as you're seating the bullet.  If your press is set up to the right height and you have a light shining down into the case this adds no time at all to the reloading process.  I can't imagine spending all that time weighing each round after reloading and if I were so unsure on whether there was powder in each round that I felt the need to weight, well I'd look into my reloading process and fix something.  I'm not saying this to be a jerk, but to try to help you improve your reloading process.