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.
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.