Misfire

[GFK]

I didn't start shooting a firearm, until I joined the Navy. That was about 45 years ago. During that time, I have not experienced an misfire until a couple of months ago. I was trying out a .308 that I picked up for Christmas. I had shoot a few rounds of Federal and Winchester in it. I tried a few Fiocchi. The first round was fine. The next round did not fire. At first, I wondered if the round loaded. I pulled the bolt back and a round ejected. So, I tried it again. During that time, it did not cross my mind that it was a misfire. Later, I thought that I was lucky. I probably waited about 5 seconds, before I ejected the round. Since that never happened to me, it did not cross my mind. Hopefully, I will remember that such things can happen and respond appropriately.

[rickhem]

Not sure of the specifics of the definition, but for me, a misfire is one where the primer functions, but the rest of the process doesn't. Sounds like you just had a "failure to fire" more than a misfire.

We all experience the failure to fire with rimfire ammo. Some ammo is way better than others, but with rimfire ammo, it happens to all of them. I don't think I've ever had a failure to fire with a centerfire round, but I did have a weird one with (strangely enough) Fiocchi ammo in .357 Mag. I wrote about it on this site. Here's a picture:

If you look close, you can see that the primer was pressed into the case sideways, and I'm surprised that I didn't notice it when loading, but I didn't. The firing pin provided enough energy to detonate the primer, but the other side of the primer cup blocked the flash hole, so nothing else happened. It spooked me good when that happened.

I'd suggest that you get in touch with Fiocchi and share your experience with them. They treated me right when I did that.

But to your point about your experience, it never hurts to pull out the bolt and visually verify that there isn't any kind of a bore obstruction. Good observation on your actions and a good "teaching moment" for going forward.

[Sir Henry]

I had some old 303 British cordite ammo from WWIi that had many hang fires. Sometimes the delays was several seconds and I had to keep on target all the time. If it didn’t fire in 60 seconds I re-cocked and tried again. A second fail and the wait time was five minutes.

[GFK]

Not sure of the specifics of the definition, but for me, a misfire is one where the primer functions, but the rest of the process doesn't. Sounds like you just had a "failure to fire" more than a misfire.

We all experience the failure to fire with rimfire ammo. Some ammo is way better than others, but with rimfire ammo, it happens to all of them. I don't think I've ever had a failure to fire with a centerfire round, but I did have a weird one with (strangely enough) Fiocchi ammo in .357 Mag. I wrote about it on this site. Here's a picture:

If you look close, you can see that the primer was pressed into the case sideways, and I'm surprised that I didn't notice it when loading, but I didn't. The firing pin provided enough energy to detonate the primer, but the other side of the primer cup blocked the flash hole, so nothing else happened. It spooked me good when that happened.

I'd suggest that you get in touch with Fiocchi and share your experience with them. They treated me right when I did that.

But to your point about your experience, it never hurts to pull out the bolt and visually verify that there isn't any kind of a bore obstruction. Good observation on your actions and a good "teaching moment" for going forward.

Thanks for the feedback! The way that I understand it misfire vs failure-to-fire are generally the same. I don't have a rimfire. But, I did own a Jennings .22LR semi-auto in the early 90s. Yet, I gave it away. I got it for target practice. While I had it, I did not experience misfires though. Instead of getting another .22, I got a pellet gun for target practice. Nevertheless, I will reach out to Fiocchi.

[GFK]

I had some old 303 British cordite ammo from WWIi that had many hang fires. Sometimes the delays was several seconds and I had to keep on target all the time. If it didn’t fire in 60 seconds I re-cocked and tried again. A second fail and the wait time was five minutes.

I have been in training that use various times: 10 seconds or 20 seconds. I have heard of 60 seconds. When someone is not shooting at you, a person may take the time to wait. If someone is shooting at you, that will probably be a different story. Since no one is typically shooting at me in the range or the woods, I will probably take the time and wait.

[markiver54]

I will not purchase any Fiocchi ammo. I have read several bad reviews about misfires using center fire rounds. Because of that, I have never tried any.

[Vaquero]

I just recently finished off a box of 38 spl Fiocchi ammo.
Put some through the pair of trapper rifles just mostly as a test to see how the shorter ammo worked in them.
No problems with those. I'm not sure of even how long they've been here.
I'm pretty sure they were given to me at some point as I have never really bought 38's.

RP

[BigAl52]

Ive used Fiocchi ammo and primers. Never had an issue with either. Federal field and target 22LR and some Winchester 22lr ammo misfires and inconsistent powder charges have been an issue for me.

[220]

I had some old 303 British cordite ammo from WWIi that had many hang fires. Sometimes the delays was several seconds and I had to keep on target all the time. If it didn’t fire in 60 seconds I re-cocked and tried again. A second fail and the wait time was five minutes.

I shot a match a few years ago with some 1913 manufactured 303, there was certainly a noticeable delay between squeezing the trigger and the round going off. Probably 1/10 of a second enough you could hear the firing pin strike before things ignited.
Even with rimfire ammo they are not exactly common, shoot enough and you will eventually get one. Often it is as a result of the priming compound not being evenly distributed around the rim. Usually if you turn the round 90-180 degrees it will fire on a second attempt. Only once have I ever had a bad batch of rimfire ammo, a box of winchester ratshot that had no priming compound in any of the rounds.

[GFK]

Thanks for the replies!! I purchase a 9mm a few years ago, and picked up a box of Fiocchi on a whim.They shot clean and consistently in the center, see below. So, I thought that I would stick with them. Of course, reliability is more important. Now, I have second thoughts about using them as a home defense round. I understand that any round can misfire; yet, this is the only brand that has so far. Therefore, it has gotten my attention. I did try shooting the round again. But, nothing.

115gr.JPG (5.03 MiB) Viewed 18 times

124gr.JPG (4.8 MiB) Viewed 18 times