Odd Primers
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BOB FRONSEE
Member
looks like they were reloaded with the wrong side facing up.
I’m seeing more and more “name brand” ammo with backwards primers these days. Last week, it was R-P.
Mark Pilcher
Member
As noted, upside down primers. My day is probably coming, but I have yet to see one in commercial ammo, either new or remanufactured.
However, I have done it to myself. Back in the day I had a Dillon 450 press. It would seat primers upside down and sideways, and once in a while rightside up. I sent it back to Dillon and got a refund. My 550 doesn't have the same trouble.
However, I have done it to myself. Back in the day I had a Dillon 450 press. It would seat primers upside down and sideways, and once in a while rightside up. I sent it back to Dillon and got a refund. My 550 doesn't have the same trouble.
At my local member range, within the last 6 months, two known backwards primers. One was no-doubt-about-it found when the member was reloading from a factory-fresh box. The other was found on the range gravel with no apparent reloading indications.
As Forrest Gump would say, ‘it’ happens
scattershot
Member
Those are loaded upside down. Don't shoot them.In fact, I wouldn’t shoot any of that ammo. That is an indication of extremely slipshod reloading practices,and you don’t know what else may be wrong with the loads.
Something many here don't understand...things like this happen more often than you think...Most are caught before they are loaded in boxes and sent out the door. I have a few of these botched rounds. I had 2 rounds in the same box of Federal 12 ga paper shells with the primer loaded sideways. Had some Win AA with no primer cups in them. body and anvil yep. Factory 2nds were quite often sold in the past. Once bought a case(real one) of CIL duck loads...Ugly but worked...1,50 a box...30 dollars for a whole case. S&W sold 4 boxes of waterfowl loads in a carrier made of Blue plastic...had one with a whole box that had screwed up crimps. Have a full case of Rem RXP 20 ga skeet loads that were 2nds...loaded fine but the logo was not in the correct area...Got them at Rem Farms from the armory on a day I was working National Hunting Fishing day...They gave 'em to me for my Hunter's Safety classes . The companies catch a lot of messed up ammo.. In the past there were real people looking at quality control instead of machines or low common denominator inspectors. Hard to find quality people these days. Have you ever watched a commercial loading machine in operation...hey, it's a machine
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I have a 450 and this has happened to me just a couple of times in the past 40+ years.
The manual primer slide is spring loaded on the return. I think if you release it at just the right moment and a tad prematurely the force of it slamming home under spring pressure is enough to flip the primer but not so much as to dislodge it entirely. I managed to duplicate it on purpose exactly once. It doesn't happen often enough to me to be an issue. Yes, I still use the 450's manual primer slide.
But this is one reason why I pack my ammo in 50/100 round boxes. An upside down primer is obvious. But I haven't seen one in many years.
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Those primers were seated upside down, don't shoot them, contact the manufacturers.
The gun show reload was a wadcutter in a box with half primer up, half primer down, so easy to miss.
My buddy was shooting factory Winchester white box last Thursday and one of the primers was crushed into the primer pocket sideways. It's sitting on my reloading bench, waiting to be pulled.
I surely won't discount operator error in my case. But back then I was a pup; an impatient pup. Had I put my mind to it, I might have solved it on my own. But I shipped it back, Mike Dillon was true to his word, and I bought a Hornady Projector. The Hornady finished me with progressive presses until Dillon came out with the 550. For me, the 550 is trouble free.
Back to OP's findings: Quality assurance in high volume manufacturing is done by process control. Far more efficient to design quality into the manufacturing process than inspect each item and cull defects. Processes do go haywire which can lead to a few defects getting out the door. Or, entire lots of defective product escape. That leads to recalls, "acceptable for use" or a schlocky company sticking their corporate heads in the sand. With today's cost pressures, I'm not stunned that defects happen more frequently. With my handloads, at least loading defects are mine. My own 100% inspection gives me some confidence. But I'm not trying to make a profit either.
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Yeah, the classic upside down primer. Our gun shop used to do multiple gun shows in several states selling ammo & accessories. Over the years we did this I ended up with a small collection of these and other factory errors. Seemed like if there was one bad round in a case of ammo that would be the one that got opened to show a customer. More than once I went through every other box in a case of ammo after finding a bad one without ever finding another.
These errors really seemed to pick up during the shortages after the 08 election. I think the manufacturers were pushing the production machines to the limit and QC wasn't catching them. We did get replacements from several companies, they usually only wanted the lot number, sometimes they wanted the box of ammo but other times they just said trash it. Still had a number of those screwups when we closed the shop, salvaged some of them, gave the rest to a friend for his cartridge collection.
These errors really seemed to pick up during the shortages after the 08 election. I think the manufacturers were pushing the production machines to the limit and QC wasn't catching them. We did get replacements from several companies, they usually only wanted the lot number, sometimes they wanted the box of ammo but other times they just said trash it. Still had a number of those screwups when we closed the shop, salvaged some of them, gave the rest to a friend for his cartridge collection.
SGT ROCK 11B
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Reman is just somebody's reloads. That is why I rather reload my own ammo or buy Winchester.
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I will buy ammo from small companies like Buffalo Bore, Underwood and Georgia Arms but never reloads at a gun show.
Even large manufacturers can and will produce an occasional bad round. Shortly after Remington build a plant in Mexico to produce their UMC ammo I found a round with the bullet upside down in a box of 45 ACP I bought.
Its a good idea to do a quick visual inspection of the ammo while you are loading it into the magazine or cylinder regardless of where it came from. In addition to the rare with factory ammo manufacturing defect shipping damage can cause problems too.
Bullet setback from shipping damage
Even large manufacturers can and will produce an occasional bad round. Shortly after Remington build a plant in Mexico to produce their UMC ammo I found a round with the bullet upside down in a box of 45 ACP I bought.
Its a good idea to do a quick visual inspection of the ammo while you are loading it into the magazine or cylinder regardless of where it came from. In addition to the rare with factory ammo manufacturing defect shipping damage can cause problems too.
Bullet setback from shipping damage
