20 Sept. 2017 update:

Remington Customer Servive must be busy.

I sent photos and text with this story to Remington.  On 12 Sept., I got back  short note:

"We have received your E-Mail......Ticket: 69xxxx has been created and you should receive an initial response shortly.

Thank you and best regards,
Remington Customer Services"

Zippo response to date.

Deja vu much

I have some Winchesters on my desk that look like that.  I also have photos of the spalling inside the chamber.  

You may be able to just send photos to them on their website for them to take action.  I know Winchester does it that way, but I just haven't done it yet. 

Is there more than one bullet in your barrel?  If so, the barrel may be fucked. There were three in the Sig Mosquito barrel that I had ruined.  It bulged so bad I couldn't open it.  Sig had to replace the barrel and Remington paid for it.  

Life is too short for cheap ammo.  I neck-bearded all of mine to buy CCI.  

I had one exactly like that a couple of years ago except the bullet cleared the barrel. Felt very strange when I fired the bad round so I stopped and checked. Haven't bought any Remington rimfire since.

I've seen reports of the same thing at least a half dozen times in the last couple of years.
Could be dangerous depending on the firearm involved. I doubt you would see a kaboom in a pistol that substantial using rimfire but I'm not interested in trying.

Oh the horror OP. And to make it worse you actually have one of the totally non-user friendly PRE MODEL 4 pistols that are SOOO VERY DIFFICULT to take apart and put back together again. Oh dear lord how will you ever recover from this disaster?

J/K I do feel ya though. I think the recent number of qc problems that are coming to light with 22 rimfire ammunition is in large part due to the unprecedented demand of the last 6-7 years for 22 ammo. Not excusing it by any means, but I can see how it COULD happen simply as pressure mounted during that time frame to meet customer demand.

But given the recent qc issues we have all seen and read about with Remington (and others) products since they were, as a company, sold to bean counter holding companies, I must say sadly, it does not come as a huge surprise. In over 45 years of shooting rimfire pistols and rifles (well over 200 bricks of ammo) I have had maybe 50-75 misfires and only one blown case. It was in a Clayco (Chinese copy of a CZ from back in the 80s) that blew out the extractor. I guess I have been fortunate, but quality ammo has always my first choice. But I have shot a ton of that same ammo over the years as well. Hopefully no permanent damage was done to the gun, or it gets fixed if there was.

OTOH, is there any possibilty that it was a slightly out of battery ignition due to crud in the firing pin channel and or the chamber of the Ruger? I ask because I have seen a few cases of that happening over the years. I have encountered a few instances of FTFire in a couple of Mark x pistols I owned in the past. Cleaning them fixed that right up.

Just wondering.....since rather than leaving them cocked after cleaning I usually retracted the bolt just a tiny bit OOB and dropped the hammer to take the pressure off. IIRC the newer Ruger Marks have been designed to allow for dropping the hammer without it pounding on the chamer mouth, but I could be mis-informed. Not like it hasn't ever happened before My experience is mostly with Mark IIs and an early Mark III.  

Post up the final outcome please.

You're Ruger is turtling...

Thanks for the heads up.

Rem, Win, and Fed bulk ammo quality declined long before Sandy Hill and the subsequent demand. I have been a member of the rimfire central forums for a long time and this ain't no mystery. 

The Win I had explode,  spalled and spattered on the range divider hard enough to hit me in the side of the face.  People around here poo-poo we, the old fuckers,  as eye protection notzees, but it is often their child's eyes that they are risking in the photos they post on the arfcom.  It was bad enough to do eye damage and nothing to take lightly.  The Win bulk pack I fired was ironically through my Ruger 22-45, a gun built like a battle ship.  My immediate concern was I had just ringed another fucking barrel just like the Mosquito that the Rem trash had destroyed for me just a few weeks earlier.   Luckily there was nothing at all in my barrel.  

CCI.  Highly recommend. 

(looking for the chamber photo...........)

Here's the tater photo (I have several more).  The case head is what ricocheted off the wall and hit me.  I found it and have it in a baggie.  I haven't sent photos to WinW, because I really don't want a coupon for any more of their shit-assed ammo. 

The Remington 100 packs of 40 grain round nose may be of dubious quality, but they are not cheap.  Dick's/Cabelas/others have them at top of the lines prices.

The culprit bullet in this case was pushed forward out the end of the barrel with minimal effort and no damage after taking out the bolt.  I did not fire it again after the smoke and "pop" from the wrong end of the barrel.  The case was still in the chamber.  Loose to remove pulling the bolt back.



Stripping a Ruger I can do blindfolded, more or less.  I've had a late 1950's RST-6" since I was an older infant.  A family friend sold me cases of 40RN HS Golden Bullets, one case a year, at 25 cents over what a case cost, through 8 years of college.  I shared them with nobody and he did it for no one else.  In the 1950s-1960s-1970s, ONE misfire from bad priming in a brick was unusual.  Often there were none in a brick.  The RST-6 was worn inside to death and put away for nearly 40 years until Ruger rebuilt it to new.  Quality of Remington went to H in about 2007.

After the replies, I looked in the action.



The burst case was the 23rd round fired from the box of 100 through a freshly stripped and cleaned pistol.  There is a bunch of yellow powder grains and some black in the rear of the barrel.  It is possible it accumulated from faulty burning during the first 22 rounds or it could be from the blown case.  I don't know which.

Looking at the firing pin mark of the blown case, it seems lighter:



Than the firing pin marks on four other fired cases I saved:



Un-burned powder holding the bolt partly open would also be a reason for a head burst.  The firing pin got to the case and the strike was hard enough to fire the primer compound.  The burst case where the metal wings split is an even "clam" opening around part that did not tear, but is bulged outward the same amount as the torn out wings.  You just cannot see the non-torn bulge part.

This burst case could be caused by crappy brass like from Remington's 2007 problems causing a burst from metallurgy, OR, it could be caused by crappy powder that won't burn right left in the action holding the bolt open leaving a ring of unsupported brass just ahead of the case?  Got me.

Oddly enough, a few days ago, a Glock Advantage Arms kit and a Beretta M9-.22LR burned 200 rounds of this ammo without a hitch.

To the comments below, I would add:

4.  Immediate action is for when someone is shooting at you.  Diagnose ANY recreational non-standard firing event before firing another round.  

I cleared the pistol and tried to look down the barrel toward the illuminated bolt face.  The round nose peeking at me was the obvious reason for not seeing down the bore.  That may well have saved me a bulged barrel.  

My pistol cleaning rod in a 4" can would not reach from rear to front so I just went home.

Anybody around my range, shooter or watcher, has to have eye and ear protection: kid, adult, whoever.  Every time.

Not exactly sure what you are meaning here, but my Dad has rimfire ammo made in the 50's and 60's that is more reliable than what they are selling now.  I have used plenty of his ammo growing up that has survived the washer and dryer and still killed squirrels the next day, never a misfire.  

Some of the defects in my Winchester defect baggie have three hard primer strikes in different positions without firing.  I started saving the lot number information, for various brands, a long time ago, because I knew I would have some ruined guns at some point.  Most of the bulk pack ammo is just annoying non-fires, but as I get older and have a few hard to replace rimfire irons and  I just cannot be taking any chances.  



Thread recap:  

1. Buy quality ammo

2. Wear eye protection

3. If you ignore step 1, use an easily replaceable gun, save lot numbers,  make your kids wear eye protection. 

Un-burned powder in the photo above was most likely from the burst case in the Ruger.  Reason:

I had fired 100 rounds of the same ammo through a Beretta M9-22LR previous to the Ruger incident.  I got it out to clean last night.   There was some smoke blackening of the Beretta breech face- rear of barrel, but not much.  Just the usual oil-smoke discoloring.

There was NOT even a single grain of un-burned powder in the Beretta from 100 rounds.  All 100 had fired normally and functioned 100%.

The lack of un-burned powder in the Beretta tells me the Ruger burst case happened in one firing cycle and was not the result of accumulated debris holding the Ruger bolt open part way.

Something else caused an apparent failure to close all the way.

20 Sept. 2017 update:

Remington Customer Servive must be busy.

I sent photos and text with this story to Remington.  On 12 Sept., I got back  short note:

"We have received your E-Mail......Ticket: 69xxxx has been created and you should receive an initial response shortly.

Thank you and best regards,
Remington Customer Services"

Zippo response to date.


Off to try some CCI MiniMags today.

Updated:  10-6-17  REMINGTON .22LR SUCKS WORSE THAN I EVER IMAGINED.  AVOID ANY LOT OF IT.

------------------

AND NO, I HAVE NEVER HEARD A SINGLE WORD BACK AFTER FILING MY INTERNET SYSTEM PROBLEM AND IT BEING ACKNOWLEDGED.  BIG SILENCE FROM BIG GREEN.

------------------

Today:

Either to be fair or out of scientific inquiry, I found different lot numbered 100pak plastic boxes of Remington Golden Bullets 40RNHS in a couple stores.  I ended up with the original lot that blew the case above and three other lot numbers.  You should note Remington is not NOT N O T proud of their lot numbers.  They stamp them on the end paper tab of the plastic paper sticky such that they are invisible.  With a perfect light, you can make out some numbers with a magnifying glass.  I had three new lot numbers.

Since I know the chamber in my Ruger above is tight, there was no point in using it.  I picked instead an Advantage Arms Glock 22-.22LR kit and a Beretta M9-.22.  I stripped, cleaned, lubed, and Moly'ed the chambers of both.  

With CCI MiniMags or Blazer, the AA kit is about 98%.  The Beretta had yet to malfunction with CCI MiniMags or Blazer.  Both over last summer and spring had run some Remington 100paks nearly perfect.  So I call that a baseline.

As I loaded the magazines with the Remington Golden Bullets, 40RNHS, I looked at ever round.
-Those with lead smeared back from the bullet onto the case were discarded.

Rounds loaded into the magazines had variously when inspected:
a)-Loose bullets
b)-Lumps, ridges, disfigured, sharp edged portions of the kneerling in the side of the Golden Bullets.
c)-The impression that by finger feel some bullets perfectly formed were too fat, larger than the straight wall case.

I ended up shooting roughly 200 rounds doing 7 and 15 yard failure drills as fast as my moderate skills allowed.  The result was that about 1 round in 10 had some malfunction associated with it.  Yeah, 1 in 10 after selecting out the few smeared lead obvious ones.  Each gun ran about the first 30 rounds roughly trouble free.  With the slightest debris in the chambers, it went to Heaven, namely:

1)-The main one was the bullets were too fat to enter the chamber and deadened the striker/firing pin falls thus not firing.
1A)---I give Remington primer quality credit.  Every round not going off was rotated 180 degrees and firmly seated.  Every single round fired.

2)-The recoil impulse and noise were variable resulting in some double feeds against an empty case, against a partly seated case, failures to eject.

3)-No rounds stuck fully chambered after firing as the moly is too slippery and helps keep the chamber crap free.  I don't usually do this, but it was a last resort for testing.

My guess is that the stuff fired in a revolver would be nearly perfect if you seated the rounds fully.

Photos:  7 and 15 yard IPSC targets:





For grins, I fired 30 rounds of CCI MiniMag through each gun after I finished the Remington.  100% OK.

Gotta practice more with my revolvers.

I understand that why 100 pack Remington 40 grain High Speed Golden Bullets are a mess to shoot in semi auto pistols is of limited interest since everyone knows to avoid them.  On the other hand, a few observations before I abandon the problem.

Cleaning the two semi auto pistols above the other day reminded me that:
-the first 20-30 rounds through each clean lubed gun seemed to go fairly well
-the more I shot, the worse it got.
-the priming mix seemed dependable guessing it might work in a revolver.

Bringing this home was the idea that I tried dropping some fresh cartridges into the dirty chambers before cleaning the AA Kit and the Beretta M9-22.  They hung up enough some needed pushing to chamber.

After the guns were cleaned and the chambers were clean and dry, every round dropped in with a little thunk.  No pushing needed.

This told me part of the Remington problem is with the semi auto pistols extracting the fired expanded case at the same time the primer/powder residue is hot.  It deposits a layer of crap on the chamber and chamber leade.  It builds up as more shots are fired.  Eventually bullets in the cartridge cases refuse to enter the chamber leade.

To test this idea and to test the primer quality, I took an 8 shot S&W M43 .22LR revolver out today firing slightly over 100 rounds.  Every single round chambered easily in the 8 chamber holes until the very end where it was apparent the chamber leade residue was holding up the last little bit of chambering for a few of the cartridges.  Only a few needed a push at the end.  Beginning to end, there was clearly a difference in chamber debris even though the 100+ shots were divided between 8 holes.

Every single round fired the first time indicating the primer mix is evenly distributed.



Sucks it is so dirty, but at least its useful in a revovler.  (The M43 being the finickyest .22LR revolver I have.  It won't reliably fire WW ammo.  It has some failures with Federal products of recent manufacture.  But it fired every single Remington the first try.)

The firing pin strike may look light because the case rupture pushed the brass back out, sort of ironed out the strike mark.

I took one of those 100 round golden bullet packs with me to the range today with my revolver, I had quite a few ftf while shooting double action, all fired in single.

I honestly thought this was normal with 22 LR.


I've had this happen for a long time, especially when a weapon gets dirt and grit in the striker/firing pin  channel .

Sent Remington another email today noting their lack of response in more than a month.

Even worser.

Not a word back from Remington.

Took a 100 pak along with kids day after Thanksgiving to shoot only in a S&W 6 shot 617.  Clean and lubed gun.  Rounds slid with gravity into chambers.

After about 75 rounds, chambers so fouled we could barely deliberately force rounds into chambers so it would close up.

Remington suks.

Thank for the update LampShadeActual.

This thread has been very informative.

I've seen other brands rupture like this as well.

For best accuracy in your Ruger I suggest trying Wolf Target Match.
It's the Ammo that Volquartsen reccomends for their pistols.
I have one of their uppers on my MKIV and group size off the bench was half that of CCI mini mags, which shoot really well in my Ruger.
Although it is more expensive than the CCI so I don't use it for casual plinking.

Spend a few more pennies per round and get some better quality "safer" Ammo.

duped muh self

Appreciate the report.
I’ve got a bucket of Golden Bullets in addition to a few 100 round packs.

I’ve fired one of the hundred packs and about 300 out of the bucket with no problem.
All of mine was purchased over the last year.

I just ordered 1500 rounds of Thunderbolts because my PPK/S likes them.

Hopefully they are better?

Have you tried calling Remington?
Can you post the lot number that blew up?

Lot Numbers:  the various 100 pak lot numbers/letters are impressed into the end of the box paper stickers.  They are rarely all readable on the same box.  Remington is not pround of their lot numbers or else inking the impressions is too expensive for them.  LZ??X13X was visible.  Two missing.

After two and a half months, I don't think they care.