Some Went BANG and some went CLICK -UPDATE

[JimT]

My Grandsons were given a bunch of ARMSCOR .22 Long Rifle ammo and had been working on it. They had run about 400 rounds of it when they started getting misfires from one box. They tried the ammo in 2 other guns but it did not make a difference. My son-in-law took some of it, turned it in the chamber and tried it and a few went off but most did not.

I brought the ammo home and in the shop tried getting it to fire. I snapped some of it all around the rim to no avail. I had several that fired on subsequent tries, but most did not.

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So, I pulled the bullets from the bad cartridges. I used a tool I had made to pull military .30 caliber bullets. I gently as possible squeezed the cartridge on the heel of the .22 bullet.

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I have a bunch of Russian primed .22 Long Rifle cartridges. I simply poured the powder charge into the Russian cases, inserted the bullet and re-crimped it.

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I test-fired a few in the shop to make sure they would work OK. When I am able I will take the rest to the range and see if the accuracy is any good. In any event, they will be good enough for practicing point shooting.

EDIT: I forgot to add: I took the cartridges I pulled the bullets from and heated them individually with a propane torch. A few of them made a light "snap" .. you can snap your fingers louder. So they either got VERY LITTLE priming compound or something killed it.

UPDATE 7/28/2025
I went to the Range with the re-reloaded .22 Ammo plus the last 2 boxes of Armscor .22's from the 500 round carton and my old model Single Six.

On the Range the first round went PIFFLE. I thought "C.rap ... I didn't bring a rod to punch out a stopped bullet." I pulled the cylinder and looked the gun over and the bullet had cleared the barrel. Phew! I replaced the fired case and shot 5 then checked the target. All shots were about 4 to 5 inches above POA so velocity was quite a bit lower than factory. They shot a nice pattern for a shotgun, barely covering the area of an 8" paper plate. At 20 yards! Several of the bullets had keyholed, one almost sideways, indicating to me that the pressure was low enough that it did not expand the bullet base. I believe that I crunched the bases too small to get a good crimp on them when I reused them. My reloads with new unused bullets shoot accurately.

I fired the Armscor ammo that I took and the box that gave the misfires had several more. The other box of 50 worked just fine. So maybe it was a fluke? Or some issue that they caught? I have 500 rounds left and will use it up as practice ammo and see how it does.

I also shot Federals and Aguila ammo with no issues while I was there.

So I think I will stick to reloading .22's with new cast bullets and not try to pull and reload the factory bullets.

[Bill in Oregon]

I'm still amazed you had the tools and components to do this, Jim.

[Ysabel Kid]

Jim, did the boxes have a lot number on them? Would be interesting if the problematic box was part of the same lot or batch. Sounds like the primer was definitely the culprit.

[JimT]

Jim, did the boxes have a lot number on them? Would be interesting if the problematic box was part of the same lot or batch. Sounds like the primer was definitely the culprit.

These were all out of the same box of 50. We had about 15 or 17 failed to fire on the first hit. I told my son-in-law to rotate the cartridge in the chamber and try again. I think 3 went off. Of the rest, I got one to fire. Of the ones that did not fire, none of them had enough priming to make a loud POP!

I have the next 2 boxes that were packed with the "bad" one and will take them to the range and see what happens.

[GunnyMack]

Jim, years ago I had some federal 22s that refused to go off. I sent some of them back to federal and they replaced a couple boxes for my trouble. Then I found out that I had ammo in pockets of a clothing that went through the washing machine. I got an ear full for it and from that point on I double check ALL pockets before laundry day.
The worst ammo was the brick of Russian Rooster green label 22s I got. That stuff would pop,poof,bang and BANG. It was also the reason an extremely accurate 10/22 barrel became junk. I didn't realize one stuck in the bore and sent the rest of the magazine down range resulting in a bulged section about 12" from the muzzle. It never shot well after that. Live and learn.