[Fred]

I had a problem with 158 grain Remington/UMC .38 spl commercial loads the other day: I shoot indoors and it's dim at the firing line so I didn't notice anything different about a cartridge I chambered in my old Colt detective special. The cylinder closed easily enough. When I went to fire the gun, it was very stiff and I nearly stripped the pawl. One cartridge was over length and the base dragged on the inside of the frame. I managed to work the cylinder loose & found that one round had a visually thick and irregular rim and was missing a shallow rounded groove in the brass about 0.205" behind the rim. No other cartridge in the box was irregular and all had the same headstamp. When I got home I measured the rim and found it varied from 0.065-0.075" while the other cartridges measured 0.053-0.056" (0.059 is the industry max).

I notified Remington but haven't heard from them yet. It could have caused the cylinder to mis-index, shaving lots of lead and potentially damaging the gun and me. In the future I will inspect commercial ammo as critically as I do my own reloads.

This lot was purchased at Dick's Spoirting Goods (a chain) in April 2002 in the Carolinas. Watch it if you have bought any too.

 

[J Miller]

Fred,
Sounds like you got one of the rare factory boo-boo's. In all the factory ammo I have bought and fired, I have never had this problem. The worst factory defect I ever had was a .45 Colt round with a messed up case mouth.
But thanks for the warning, it's something to keep my eyes open for.

 

[William Iorg]

You should post the lot number from the box.

I have had one .32 H&R Magnum from Federal that barely had a flash hole. I kept the case because it is so rare to have a problem with factory ammo.
Considering the quantities of ammunition the factories make they have very fews problems.
What about the Russian stuff? How has the quality been there? Anyone shooting it?

 

[Gatofeo]

An important lessons lies within this incident.
How many of us, myself included, bought a box of factory ammo for defensive purposes, assuming that it would work fine in our guns?
I always fire at least 100 rounds of the same factory ammo before adopting it for my defense guns, but I can see that I also need to chamber ever single round from the box I intend to carry.
If you had needed that Colt .38 in a hurry, that extremely rare factory defect could have taken your life.
Thanks for the eye-opener.

 

[Fred]

I looks like "P25M 31" or maybe "P25N 31" but it is just a very light embossing in the cardboard and no sign of ink. I missed finding it before. I had to pull out a different box to find a sign of it. Thanks for the propmpt.

 

[DMC]

Remington is my all-time favorite, both guns and ammunition, BUT - After my Labor day family gathering, there was quite a bit of .22 ammunition left over. For these gatherings I buy bulk pack .22, since we shoot a whole bunch of it up - 65 or so shooters over 3 days.
Anyhow, about a week later I went out on my range and proceded to shoot some .22 handgun. I was all over the paper, and I'm not that bad. I was using Remington .22 solids. Shot some over a chrono and velocities were like the paper - all over the place. Used a rifle and I could hear differences in report from shot to shot, velocities still all over the place. I recently sent a letter to Remington, but haven't heard back yet.
DC

 

[Old Jim]

A friend got a box of Federal 170 gr 30-30 bullets a few years back that had loads varying from 30% up to a full load. Cost him a 2 deer before he began to experiment. It shot so badly that he pulled the bullets on the remainder and discovered the mistakes. Of course, once the bullets were pulled he had no recourse from Federal. The poster that said shoot some of each lot if your life or your hunt may depend on it.
Everybody makes mistakes.

 

[SIMO]

I had the same problem with UMC 38's a couple of months ago. After reloading the gun, I found the cylinder wouldn't close. Checked the rounds and saw one casehead flat on two sides. I contacted Remington. I don't remember their exact response, but it wasn't worth the cost to return the box. I bought them at a Dick's Sporting Goods store in Pa. The only numbers I can read off the box are, G58114224.