Today was our usual day at the range and we ran 100 rounds through the SR40, then worked on a box of Winchester white box target ammo in the M&P 9mm. I was shooting up the last of the 100 round box when the slide locked back and I still had ammo in the magazine. Then I looked in the chamber and a casing was still there but the primer had been struck.
Then I thought I had a FTE but racking the slide several times didn't help. My occasional range buddy took a look at it and pulled the casing out. Much to my surprise the casing was black and when I rubbed the black away, it was obvious the casing was defective and couldn't hold the pressure. This is the first casing failure I've had and we have shot maybe 2,500 rounds of white box in various calibers.
Attachments
9 mm Luger Winchester range ammo casing
LC9s, M&P 22, 9c, Sig P238-P239-P226-P365XL, 1911 clone
If you still have the box, look to see where it was made. I hate to see all WWB lumped together since some is made in USA and some in Croatia, reportedly by S&B.
I kept the box for further investigation - this is made in the USA. I have 1,000 rounds of S&B in <9 mm> correction - 380 auto on the shelf so it will be interesting to see how that performs.
Attachments
USA!
Last edited by johncanfield on Fri Jan 20, 2012 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
LC9s, M&P 22, 9c, Sig P238-P239-P226-P365XL, 1911 clone
I too go through a ton of white box a year. I probably run somewhere in the neighborhood of a couple thousand rounds of various calibers.. never had any serious trouble. A few FTF/FTE's and ONE single, solitary delayed primer (hangfire) a few years back... but I have been fairly happy with them. I hope this does not become a trend.
FWIW, I qompletely quit using cheap, dirty, wolf brand ammo for my AR because of this garbage. I had several delayed primers that just about scared me to death.
When I found out Wolf ammo was Russian, I wasn't interested. BTW - my 1,000 rounds of S&B is in. 380 auto and not 9 mm. One casing burst isn't going to cause me to avoid WWB.
LC9s, M&P 22, 9c, Sig P238-P239-P226-P365XL, 1911 clone
I bought a box at Wally World and when I went to chamber the first one the slide didn't go all of the way home. Once we finally got the round out it appeared that it had a bad crimp. There was a small "lip" around the bullet that kept it from going all the way in the barrell. Never had any other troubles from them though.
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do you all buy this from walmart or somewhere else? would that have anything to do with it maybe, where they get it from. reason i ask is it seems walmart is only $21 but everyone else, even online, is at least $26. seems crazy, but hey, it is the big brother of retail after all.
I've had a problem with a WWB before. Sent in the unused ammo and the box, two months later they said no problem with it, but shipped me a couple of new WWBs anyway
I too shot a ton (well maybe 2-300 lbs, but you get the idea) of WWB a year.. 9mm. 40cal, 45cal. Between all three calibers, more than 3,000 rounds last year.. And while I’ve never had burst case, I’ve had FTE after many rounds at one range visit.. To me, I look at it as built in training.. No better way to train remedial action drills that to have them happen randomly while shooting.(that assumes you’ve practiced extensively in dry fire mode previously)
So I personally like shooting cheap ammo in my carry guns. And like the failures they cause randomly.. Unless they are causing, or have the potentially cause damage to myself or weapon.. I’ll keep using cheap ammo for practice and hope I get several failures in each ½ dozen boxes I shoot that range session.
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Pretty certain I bought the white box at WallyWorld and I wouldn't let this problem keep me from buying it again. Like one poster said, it is great practice when you have a problem to deal with in a non-stress situation. I think a burst casing is a good reason to carry a BUG - it took several seconds to pull the casing out of the chamber.
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LC9s, M&P 22, 9c, Sig P238-P239-P226-P365XL, 1911 clone
I was giving a CHL shooting test and a couple students were using the 100 pack of WWB in 9mm. A large number of cartridges were deformed enough to where the pistol would not go completely into battery and actually jammed everything up. It was very, very close to the slide being all the way forward but not quite there. When looking at the cartridges later, one could see that they were bent, or the rims were gouged & scratched. Very strange.
I later learned that it's only the 100 packs that have this problem.
Just watch what you load.
Ray F.
Luke 22:35-38 "Gear up boys, I gotta go and it's gonna get rough." JC
-- Darrell Royal, former UT football coach - "If worms carried pistols, birds wouldn't eat 'em."
I quit buying it because of that. Walmart in Alvin has Federal and Remington for the same price as WWB or maybe a little less so I've switched to those.
I have gone through 1500+ rounds of Walmart 100 round WWB 45ACP over the past three months. I had only one box that evidenced a few feed problems - stubborn chambering. I attributed that to my FSIL possibly limp wristing my 1911. I have had more expensive ammunition give me more problems. Walmart's Federal Champion has been consistently good but it does use small primers.
but the primer had been struck.
