Another New to Me Type of Malfunction

[wingspar]

Loose primer pockets are not uncommon with reloaded ammunition. I come across them often and discard them when I do. With an operation the size of FM it's unlikely they will find them and remove them from supply. There's no way to know how many times that brass was loaded given their exchange program. That's why you use that ammo for training only. It's a pain in the ass sometimes but you clear it and move ahead (like you did).

if you look at the live round in the picture you can see that the military crimp has been swaged out a little too much. they are probably using dillon 1050's it is very easy to set the swaging rod to high, which causes slightly loose primer pockets. if you keep the speeds around 2,950ish fps with 55gn pills and common powders out of a 20 inch then blown primers on swaged brass are pretty easy to avoid.

I don’t even know what a loose primer pocket is. Is it something you can visually see and or feel?

I don’t reload, so I would never see that. I have plenty of Lake City ammo, so I took the photo below for anyone interested.

[wingspar]

A little info on Freedom Munitions for those that are interested.

Some info on Freedom Munitions Re-manufactured Ammo


Some info on their reloading equipment

[wingspar]

A good way to tell if it was high pressure it to get the brass with the primer blown out and look for an ejector swipe on the case head. Blown primers and head swipes go hand in hand when it's a pressure issue.

I looked for at least a good 15 minutes for that empty before I fired any more rounds. It was in a rock pit with little to no vegetation, and I still couldn’t find it. I even looked in ridiculous places and could not find it. It’s an hour’s drive from here, so it will be a while before I get up there again. Would the ejection pattern have been so radical as to go somewhere unthinkable? Distance or direction? All the brass I fired afterwards went into a neat little area. Same place I started my search for that first round.

[JiminAZ]

There is some chance that the blown primer cup was in your gun from a previous shooting session, just waiting to end up in the wrong place. So maybe the brass with missing primer is long gone.

[markm]

I don’t even know what a loose primer pocket is. Is it something you can visually see and or feel?

You can only feel it when handloading your ammo. Some presses give you a feel for it. I hand prime so I can cull any loosies and put them in a separate batch to be fired and then recycled.

[wingspar]

You can only feel it when handloading your ammo. Some presses give you a feel for it. I hand prime so I can cull any loosies and put them in a separate batch to be fired and then recycled.

Never got email notification that there were more replies. I don’t hand load. I want to. I have all the equipment I need/want chosen, it’s just that I can not find any powder, so I have not purchased anything yet. However, I’m pretty sure I’ll stick to factory ammo for rifle. If and when the powder situation ever rectifies itself, I’ll start off with .357 Magnum, then .45 ACP.

What are the chances that primer cup was already in there from a previous outing?

[JusticeM4]

This is one reason I've avoided reman ammo. I bought a 100rd bag once at a gun show from a local vendor, and the first round didn't even fire. Tossed the whole bag aside.

Sometimes its not worth the miniature savings. I'd rather shoot Wolf/Tula which I hardly had issues with for range/training.

[wingspar]

This is one reason I've avoided reman ammo. I bought a 100rd bag once at a gun show from a local vendor, and the first round didn't even fire. Tossed the whole bag aside.

Sometimes its not worth the miniature savings. I'd rather shoot Wolf/Tula which I hardly had issues with for range/training.

I’ve shot thousands of Freedom Munitions Reman ammo with zero problems. Every manufacture lets a bad round out the door once in a while. Freedom Munitions is not the same as what you probably picked up at a gun show. I would only shoot reman ammo from a well known large manufacture, which FM is. Read the links in post #12 of this thread. They are short easy reads.

Is FM the most accurate ammo out there. No. Is it good range ammo? Absolutely. If I can consistently ring a 10-inch steel plate with iron sights on my AR, I’m fine with it. This incident does nothing to dampen my satisfaction with FM ammo, nor is this thread supposed to be about the ammo manufacture. It is about what happened to the one round I had this malfunction with.

[JusticeM4]

I’ve shot thousands of Freedom Munitions Reman ammo with zero problems. Every manufacture lets a bad round out the door once in a while. Freedom Munitions is not the same as what you probably picked up at a gun show. I would only shoot reman ammo from a well known large manufacture, which FM is. Read the links in post #12 of this thread. They are short easy reads.

Is FM the most accurate ammo out there. No. Is it good range ammo? Absolutely. If I can consistently ring a 10-inch steel plate with iron sights on my AR, I’m fine with it. This incident does nothing to dampen my satisfaction with FM ammo, nor is this thread supposed to be about the ammo manufacture. It is about what happened to the one round I had this malfunction with.

Never heard of them, but I believe you.

I just checked their site, and their cheapest ammo is 44c/rd. I can buy Federal 100rd box of 223 for 40c locally, so its a no brainer.

[wingspar]

Never heard of them, but I believe you.

I just checked their site, and their cheapest ammo is 44c/rd. I can buy Federal 100rd box of 223 for 40c locally, so its a no brainer.

I don’t know what you were looking at, but right now, the 55 grain .223 reman I was shooting is 28 cents per round before shipping. They offer an awful lot of stuff in .223 alone at different prices, both new and reman. Not much in 5.56 right now, but it looks like 32 cents per round for new FMJ 5.56 M-193 55 gr Box of 1000 before shipping.