Problem with Sellier & Bellot

[Tyrod]

OK, so I'm at the range 2 weeks ago trying out my new 642-1 no IL. I burn through 50 rounds of Blazer Brass commercial stuff with no issues. I start on a box of S&B 158gr FMJ. On the 25th round of S&B I go to reload the cylinder and the cylinder won't open. I'm thinking "oh **** the ejector rod must have unscrewed a bit". So, I put the gun back in my bag figuring I'd deal with it at home.

I go on to shoot my older 442. 50 rounds of Blazer Brass then 50 rounds of the same S&B (different Lot#). No issues. By now the grandson is tired of making .22 holes in paper so we pack it up and go home.

I get home and start to examine the 642 I notice there's no BC gap. Keep in mind the guns cylinder is full of spent cartridges (no end of luck there). The other end of the cylinder looks fine. No firing pin stuck in a primer and the ejector rod seems ok as little as I can discern with the cylinder stuck closed. Yes, I tried the business card trick. No help.

Next, I look down the barrel and I can see a primer hole and a ring of lead down near the forcing cone. There's a bout a 1/4" hole in the center of the lead. Mind you, this isn't leading. I've put 75 rounds of FMJ through this gun and other than what the factory shot, these are the only rounds I've ever put through this gun. I did do some rapid firing on a couple of cylinders and the gun was getting somewhat hot. But, I had no trouble holding the gun by the cylinder, so it wasn't THAT hot. Besides, I had planned to do much more shooting that day and I was pacing myself. So, usually I would eject the rounds, set the gun down on the table with the cylinder open while I fished out another 5 founds from the box. If heat was an issue here, I'd be pretty surprised.

I surmise that on that 75th round somehow the ammo shed a significant amount of lead and or jacket and deposited it right at the BC gap. The gun has been in Springfield since monday, I rekon I'll be hearing something soon.

There's an inked number stamped inside the box flap that I presume is a lot #. That number is 556/93. I bought this ammo from Midway about 3 weeks ago.

 

[Dogguy]

The only S&B ammo I've used was in .380 Auto. I think I bought 3 boxes of the FMJ range ammo. The ammo in the first box was extremely dirty. It was so dirty it gunked up the PPK after only a few rounds. One round was a squib load that barely made it out of the barrel. I was not impressed. The other two boxes were fine, however.

I've seen S&B ammo praised on other forums but my experience was that it is very inconsistent.

 

[Tyrod]

The only S&B ammo I've used was in .380 Auto. I think I bought 3 boxes of the FMJ range ammo. The ammo in the first box was extremely dirty. It was so dirty it gunked up the PPK after only a few rounds. One round was a squib load that barely made it out of the barrel. I was not impressed. The other two boxes were fine, however.

I've seen S&B ammo praised on other forums but my experience was that it is very inconsistent.

That's very interesting. Refering to my first post. I had just run a box of 50 of the Blaser Brass rounds through that gun. On the very next round which would have been the first of the S&B stuff I thought I had fired a black power round. Well maybe not that bad, but much more smoky than the Blazer Brass I had been shooting. Even smokier than my handloads using Unique power which is smoky enough.

I'm trying to wean myself off of double based powders. Trouble is I have so much of it, it's gonna take a while.

 

[Bluelou]

I have used s&b for many years and never had a problem. I think there brass is second to none for reloading.with that said you can get a bad round from any ammo brand.hope it all works out for you.good luck and happy shootin.

 

[Gearhead Jim]

I have used s&b for many years and never had a problem. I think there brass is second to none for reloading.with that said you can get a bad round from any ammo brand.hope it all works out for you.good luck and happy shootin.

S&B 9mm brass has slightly tight primer pockets, sometimes feels like I'm priming a GI case without reaming the crimp out of the pocket. WW primers.

 

[1 old 0311]

I have gone through 6000-8000 rounds of S&B in .380, and 9mm and I don't ever remember a failure.

 

[SMSgt]

I haven't shot a lot of it, only a couple of boxes in my CZ-82, but it worked fine. Hope you issue is quickly resolved.

 

[H Richard]

Side note on S&B. When you go t o reload the brass, be careful. The primer holes seem to have no bevel around the edge, and when you go to reseat a new primer if they are not in "exact perfect alignment" you can crush a primer very easily. After several times, I have pitched all the S&B brass I had in the scrap bucket.

 

[Frank46]

I've shot S&B ammo both in 303 british and 45acp. Had a complete primer separation once with the 303. The top of the primer actually came off the primer leaving the sidewall still in the case. The 45 acp when reloading I used to use one of those case chamfering tools used on the mouth of a case to put a little radius on the primer pocket. After that ran through my dillon with no problems. Frank

 

[Tyrod]

In American Rifleman from time to time I've seen just about all the ammo makers issue recalls of one sort or another. This is the first time I've experienced it. Now, I do reload and it was time for a fresh set of brass in addition to the fact I wanted to test the guns with commercial ammo.

My spidey sense tells me to avoid S&B in the future. I still have half a box left I'm not gonna use.

 

[charliek]

I've shot a lot of S&B in .380 and .45, no problems at all. The Brass reloads just fine. Quit buying when prices went up and I got my loading dies in these calibers. On the other hand Mag-tec ammo in .454 Casull has to be hammered out of the cylinder when I shoot it. Win. and Hornady does just fine, even max handloads extract easy. Gonna pull the bullets and reload the rest of them with my powder/load. With the millions of rounds produced by ammo mfgs., some bad ones will slip through the cracks. I work for a parts supplier to Ford, and a good quality rating is less than 25 ppm bad product, so if ammo makers follow the same rule, they are probably sending 20 or so bad rounds out every week or so.

 

[Trini]

Had a club match yesterday and guy on my squad was using S&B 9mm in G34. Had lots of problems with the ammo. The primers were hit on several rds but did not go off.

 

[KML]

I have gone throught 12,000rds of S&B 9mm with no problems .I have been buying it since it was $99 for 1000rds.I like their 9mm it runs about 1150 to 1200fps .I have heard of some problems with S&B .40S&W and .30carbine.

 

[ancient-one]

The batch of S&B 38 Special brass that I tried to reload was a pain. After getting two primers hung up using a Rock Chucker press I pitched all of them in the trash. Don't like to remove live primers from a case still in the shell holder.

 

[cass]

I use S&B in .223 for my hog/coyote gun (Mini14). Haven't had any problems except it's the dirtiest stuff I've ever fired. The hogs and coyotes have never complained though.

 

[Kuglespritz]

I've only shot S&B 9mm Luger (about 2000 rounds) and have never had a problem. Maybe I bought the good batch.