S&B FMJ .357 mag ammunition

[Tom396]

I have an old Taurus 689 6" barrel .357 Mag revolver. Has never failed to fire, with all kinds of different ammo. Remington magnums and .38 specials. Hornady Critical Defense magnums. PPU magnums. Blazer aluminum case magnums. Hollow points, FMJ, wadcutters, you name it. Hundreds, maybe thousands of flawless bangs.

I bought a box of Sellier and Bellot .357 FMJs, just for practice rounds. Local gun store had a bunch of them, and I'd never tried them before. About the fourth pull of the trigger, I got a click, instead of a bang. I could see it appeared to be a light primer strike. Put the round back in the cylinder and it worked, on the second try. At first, I kinda just figured the firing pin was getting old (worn and shorter?). But I fired off 18 more rounds and got three more misfires (4 misfires out of 24 rounds). Hmmm. I then tried six rounds, each, of two other brands. No misfires. Looking at the used primers, the S&Bs all appear to have lighter primer strikes than the other brands.

Anybody have a similar experience with S&B, or is it just my Taurus? Shoot S&B with no problems? I've had no problems with their 12 gauge shotshells. Take care. Tom Worthington

 

[nitesite]

If a primer needs two strikes to detonate, it usually wasn't initially seated fully into the cartridge case primer pocket. The first firing pin strike finishes the process of completely seating the primer ( making it have the correct sensitivity ) and the second strike sets it off as normal.

Are the S&B primers flush or a little "proud" or higher than the case? A primer that isn't seated about 0.003"~0.005" below flush isn't going to be 100% reliable because the anvil inside isn't resting against the priming compound.

In my experience, S&B is really good ammo but a short batch or production run could sneak out with primers/rounds out of spec.

It ain't your gun.

 

[Tom396]

Thanks for the explanation, nitesite. From all I can see, using a straight edge, the primer is flush with the base of cartridge (I don't have ready access to a depth micrometer). Good to hear that it isn't the gun. Hate to avoid any particular brand of ammunition, but I suspect I'll just finish off this box and not purchase anymore of it. Take care. Tom Worthington

 

[Malagamarksman]

In my experience as a reloader I can tell you for sure S+B primers are very hard. They are made in the Czech Republic and are commonly available here in Spain.

My Open Division IPSC 9mm Glock does not like them. I only use them for practice ammo never for match ammo. They are not 100 percent reliable in the Glock.

However my .45 acp Norinco has no problem setting them off, Depends on how hard any given individual gun WHACKS them I suppose.

 

[Tom396]

I burned through the rest of the box. Had just as many failures as the first half. Around 20 percent of them didn't fire on the first try. All of them went off, if given a second whack. Take care. Tom Worthington

 

[Tom396]

It's the gun. I just shot a box of PPU .357. Two of the 50 misfired. I stripped the gun down to the frame. Couldn't find a thing wrong and didn't really even find much dirt. The mainspring looked normal and so did the firing pin. I'd like to maybe "soup it up" a little to improve reliability. I'd like to change out the main spring, but obviously not with a softer one. I'd like to replace the firing pin, but not with a plain original equipment one. Suggestions?

After scanning message boards where Taurus revolvers are discussed, it appears I'm not the only one to run into this problem. Take care. Tom Worthington

 

[Tom396]

Since Taurus provides a lifetime warranty, I decided to take advantage of it and send the revolver back. They had it back to me in about a week! :shock: At first, my concern was that they must not have done anything to it. However, the documentation indicates they replaced the hammer spring and they also replaced the cylinder fork. I don't know why they replaced the cylinder fork, but OK.

I immediately took it out and shot it. Worked beautifully with 27 rounds of PPU ammunition (finished off a box). I'm now tempted to buy another box of S&B just to see if I can make it misfire. Happy, happy, happy. Take care. Tom Worthington.

 

[Tom396]

Well, I did it. Bought a 50 round box of S&B FMJ .357 mag. Got through 27 rounds, and then got a misfire. Darn. So close. Ah well. Maybe it'll shoot anything except S&B. Coincidently, I had a resent misfire with an S&B shotgun shell. I don't know if S&B pistol round primers and S&B shotgun round primers have anything in common. Take care. Tom Worthington