I let a friend shoot my Ruger SSM .32 H&R mag at the range once. We were using Federal ammo. I let him fire in the stall next to me while I shot my .45. I heard a low report and before I could tell him not to fire again, he did. I looked and of course the barrel was ringed. I sent the revolver back to Ruger, they replaced the barrel for a nominal fee. I sent some sample ammo back to Federal at their request. I got a letter back stating everything checked out, of course it did cuz they didn't check the one round that misfired. They included a check for a box of ammo. Good luck.

Had I been firing I would have noticed the diiference in report/recoil and stopped firing. My friend, being less experienced, did not.

I need an opinion on a problem. How to form a letter to Federal Ammunition. I ordered 6 boxes of 38+P ammo for my grandson to shoot in my marlin carbine. One of the shells didn't go off with enough force to exit the barrel. About ten shots were fired till I took a look at the rifle. By that time the barrel had split. The recoil was not a clue, I even fired a couple of shots to see why he wasn't hitting the target. I feel they owe me a barrel. How would you aproach this.

Thanks

The recoil might not have been a clue, but the muzzle blast (or more properly the lack there of) should have been.

if you are a praying man the next time you pray thank the lord no one was hurt. good luck getting federal to pay for a new barrel.

arky65

Montana - I agree with the comments thus far. You could maybe force the issue but it would cost you more than the barrel.

I think I would just try the direct and honest approach. Call Federal, make sure you get to talk with someone with some authority or rank and honestly explain what happened and suggest Fed owes you a bbl. Offer to send them the gun for inspection if they wish. Tell them no one was hurt and you'll gladly sign a release if they will just fix the bbl.

What I think hurts your case is the number of times the rifle was fired AFTER the squib load.

Your incident here should be a lesson to all of us as we teach a youngster to shoot. Few of us think to discuss things like misfires and squib loads...but they can be as dangerous as many obvious things that we DO explain.

Sorry it happened to you. Don't let it ruin his love of firearms.

I think you need some expert analisys. As I recall, Jack Belk used to analize rifle failures. Do you still have any of that ammo left? If so, it too should be inspected. I believe that a legal recource is the only way youll ever get them to replace it. I could be mistaken about that though.

I seem to recall an article about P. O. Ackley doing such an analisys on an action that blew. It turned out that the powder in the reloading can was marked wrong and it was the powder manufacturers fault. A rare situation, but apparently it does happen.

From what your saying it sounds as though a bullet may have lodged in the bbl, which would be an extremly dangerous situation. I agree with the poster that suggests you should count your blessings, one finger and one eye at a time.

I had a Glock in a 10mm and I was using Federal factory ammo when it let go and I mean it went blew the magazine out of the pistol and the lower half of the pistol was shot. I was using the ammo with lead bullets at the time it was the only ammo I could find at the gunshop So I assumed it would be fine in the Glock, I know you aren't supposed use lead bullets in the glock but heck I figured factory why not. I learned my lesson sent it back to Glock I had to buy new Barrel and they rebuilt the whole bottom end after that i sold it at the next gunshow.

Dear Montana,
A few years ago a customer came in and was complaining his barrel on his Mini14 was shot out after using a couple of boxes of Fed ammo. Sure enough the bore was pretty washed out and rough. It was a relatively new gun. He admitted not cleaning it after rat hunting three weeks earlier. I took two of the suspect cartridges and pulled the bullets. The powder looked ok so I popped them off in my XP100 against a piece of sheet steel[primers only] and within 24 hrs the spots were very nicely rusted. Tried the same thing with CCI SM rifle primed cases and nothing happened. He sent the boxes off to Fed and never heard a word from them. That ended my use of their ammo. As I recall the primers in the suspect ammo weren`t the normal silver color but brass[yellow] looking. Go figure?

Aloha, Mark[in Or]

If it was a Taurus, they would fix it free of charge!

I've blown up two barrels due to my own stupidity over the years. One was a Glock 21 that took some chunks out of my hand. The other was a Sig 220. Just the chamber bulged out that time. In both cases the factories fixed the guns to like new specifications for very reasonable costs. I think it is better to pay something to get the repair done. That drives the lessons learned home.
Be safer than I was,
JCN

i found federal a fine company to deal with. while attending training with a full auto colt smg in burst drills i had a bullet stick in the barrel and had the next one up hit it which bulged the barrel. real hard to get your finger off the trigger fast enough. the report and recoil were noticeably different. i called federal and calmly told the customer service rep the truth. he was concered with a. was any one hurt and b. what were the lot numbers of the ammo. he told me that i had to send the gun back to the factory,ie colt,to be repaired. they would gladly pay for all of the repairs needed to bring the gun back to factory specifications.
just one of my better outcomes

hm2,

are you in Law Enforcement? That might explain the superior treatment you received. My problem was handled through my dealer at the time who, unlike most today, took care of the customer. They contacted Federal who asked for the sample ammo. After Federal replied that all was within spec we sent the revolver to Ruger. I was quite pleased both with how fast Ruger tunred it around and how little they charged.

I've since to buy a round of Federal ammo. I know other's have reported split cases on the Federal .32 H&R ammo. That was another issue I have had with Federal.

yes i am in law enforcement and i am the senior range officer. we use alot of federal ammunition. why? well this was the one and only time we had problems with the ammunition and i can buy it at a good price. my annual budget for ammunition hovers around twenty thousand dollars and i get alot of ammunition for training from it.
you may be right as far as the treatment i received, i don't know. a sample of one means nothing.