First time this happened...was doing qualifications with my M-4. Had a misfire...ejected the bad round and continued. Checked the round and saw the primer had lit off, but split and had soot all over the head stamp. Pulled the bullet and emptied the powder. No primer cup flash hole! It was factory Winchester M855 in 5.56mm NATO. Sorry, don't have the lot number.

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No good deed goes unpunished.

Not common, but it happens. Don't worry about the lot number, if there is a problem the factory will find it and issue a recall.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

Yup. Haven't had one myself, but heard of it.

One of the reasons why I trust my reloads more than factory--I see every single step of the process and provide the ultimate quality control. I have had more bad factory ammo than bad reloads. (And I know which reloads are in the bad category.)

Aw common, you saying factory ammo isn't always reliable? Go figure.

Never seen it happen myself, but have gotten reliable reports of it happening on occasion. If you make 20 million of anything one or two of them will be funky.

I had the same thing happen with winchester white box 45 acp.

I had it happen with a box of UMC 9MM 115 gr ball. Glad I was just plinking. Picked up the unfired round and the primer had blown itself out of the pocket revealing the lack of a flash hole.

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Virtue,Liberty & Independence

They make them so you can practice Tap Rack & Roll!

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I am the Majority
How about u

Groo here
More than one top shooter only uses ammo pit up on a progressive
press with a sizer deprimer just to fix this problem.
Good reason to size all cases and leave the deprimer pin in.....

Never ran into this with factory ammo yet. But a long time ago I bought a box of Winchester Western 30-40 Krag brass that had no flash holes. The dealer exchanged em for me and he got to send them back.

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Stay safe people!

Happened to me qualifing for work with Remington green box 45 ACP.

An IPSC world championship (1981?) was lost because of this same factory load mishap.

If it can happen in a championship match, I believe it has happened out on the street and gotten somebody killed. But no gun writer would ever admit it, that's for sure.

Dave Sinko

That happened to Ray Chapman the second time he went for the IPSC Championship. He was sponsored by Winchester Western Ammo. He carried that particular piece of brass in his pocket for the rest of his life. In a class I took from him he pulled out that brass and said, "If you are resorting to a firearm to save your life, always have an alternate plan."
............ Big Cholla

Seen this one time with a .40 cal pistol round.
Not a good feeling, this is the same ammo I carry.

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John

Berdan primed ammo has two holes and no anvil that could be left out.

It must be a rare situation with 5.56x45. I shot up a lot of ammo in a 2 and 1/2 year period testing M16A1 rifles. Had a lot of different bad ammo but never saw one with no flash hole.

The round I had when it was ejected from the gun had black soot around the primer,
I put it in my pocket and when I got it home I pulled the bullet and dumped the powder.

When I went to deprime it the decapping pin broke in the sizing die,
I looked inside with a flashlight and to my amazement there was no flash hole in the case.

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John

Howdy

Happened to me a bunch of years ago with a factory 44 Special round. Don't remember what brand now, but it was factory. The weird thing is, the punch that punches the flash hole must have broken, but it still hit the primer pocket, leaving some tiny perforations, but no real flash hole. Enough that the primer managed to push the bullet out of the case and lodged it in the forcing cone, just as if it was a primer with no powder. This was with a Model 1926 44 Hand Ejector. When I opened the cylinder and removed the case in question, unburnt powder fell out of the case. Somehow the primer gas had been able to shove the bullet out of the case through the tiny perforations, but did not ignite the powder.

One of the strangest shooting experiences I ever had.