Quote:
Originally Posted by Backlighting
I've been running in my semi-auto Thunderbolts and Golden Bullets for the last few weeks and find about 1 out of 15-20 rounds are ftf. Is this normal? What's your experience?
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I don't have many pet peeves but this is one of them.
"Don't use an acronym when the meaning or context is unclear."
FTF?
Do you mean "Failure To Feed" or "Failure To Fire"?
I suspect the latter, but the former is a more common usage of "FTF".
"FTE" is another ambiguous acronym that is way over used. It can mean "Failure To Extract" or the slight later in the process "Failure To Eject".
It only takes a few more seconds to type it out and be clear in your question.
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I regard more than a single failure to fire per box of 50 to be about the norm in plinking ammo, and more or less acceptable. More than that, I start looking at why.
- If it goes bang on a second attempt, it's probably a light strike issue caused by the firearm, although some brands have harder rims than others so brand can play a role.
- If it doesn't go bang second time and I reiterate the cartridge and try a another strike on the opposite side of the rim, and it goes bang, it's probably a result of primer compound not being evenly distributed around the rim.
- If it won't go bang at all it's an absence of primer compound in the rim.
Medium and high quality match ammo goes bang virtually all the time and I find any failure to fire to be unacceptable. Basically, match ammo is much more consistent in velocity (lower standard deviation) and it's generally graded by the number of fliers. For example with SK Standard Plus, I expect two uncalled fliers when shooting a pair of A-23 targets with sighters - about 60 rounds total. When I step up to SK Rifle Match, I expect that to fall to no uncalled fliers, and if I step down in quality to SK Magazine, I expect 3-4 fliers per box of 50 - but I expect them all to go bang and I can't recall the last failure to fire I had with SK anything. I'm sure I've had one but it's been years ago.
The increased potential for primer failure and the potential for rim lock in some magazine designs are two key reasons why .22LR makes a poor choice for self defense - in addition to its lack of penetration and small wound tracks.