What causes failure to fire?

[zero4o3]

I bought a 50 box of WWB and had 12 ftf's through various firearms. The primer strike looked ok, but no bang. The second strike normally did the trick. For what it's worth....

interesting all I shoot is WWB have put a few thousand rounds of .380 9mm and .40 through various guns and never had a FTF

[TLynnHughes]

I bought a 50 box of WWB and had 12 ftf's through various firearms. The primer strike looked ok, but no bang. The second strike normally did the trick. For what it's worth....

Ditto, over about the last 2 months, I've had about 1 ftf per box of 50 WWB in 9mm. (Generally during an IDPA match which is frustrating.) Primer strike was solid and centered, but no bang. No issues with some other types of ammo, such as Federal...just WWB and only recently.

T.

[MoJo]

One of the reasons I don't generaly use WWB is inconsistant quality. This problem crops up randomly from time to time I think Winchester may not be putting enouth QA/QC folks on their WWB loading line. It's a shame because WWB, when it works reliably, is great ammo.

[jacobsd8195]

Just last week I had a Failure to Fire with 9mm WWB. The primer went off... but nothing happened (sounded like "pfft" with a little smoke.) This was with my Glock 19 that has had 2000-3000 rounds through it with never a problem.

I wouldn't call that a failure to fire, sounds like defective ammo, as in the powder was damaged or even missing, maybe a damaged case. I hope you made sure the bullet wasn't lodged in the barrel.

I waited a few seconds thinking hmm... ejected the round and it was completely intact (I could see the dimple from the firing pin.) Maybe Winchester sold their name to someone else. I've always thought it was a step up from the Federal, but after reading all the recent problems I am reconsidering that thought.

[rbrecount]

You just gotta have a gun with second strike, and a friend with a different gun.

Weak striker springs and dirty channels, old ammo. what else I dunno. I'm pretty fierce about cleaning since my carry is/was a little sensitive about ammo. It works OK now after a visit to the maker. I've had FTF that went off in a different gun, even one from the same maker. You feel superior if your gun fires someone else's failure. (Well, they do that to me.)

[Waco Kid]

Do you know the vintage of the BG380 you were firing? I've read about some of them (older models) that had light strikes. Some people did attribute this to the way the area around the firing pin was cleaned.

I've got a recent BG380, no problems at all, nice strikes on the primers. Early models had numerous problems (serial number EAA### / EAB###).