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warning about Armscor .22 lr ammo

Old_Me

Old_Me

SAINT
hey, i was at the range the other day, and one of the guys there, that owns the RIA .22lr pistol, like i do as well (1911 style) was shooting Armscor .22lr ammo, new of course.

the first time, several months ago, a round was "bad", and blew his magazine right out of the gun, and destroyed that magazine....he was using Armscor ammo

this time. a round exploded in the chamber, but did not do visible damage, but it scared the crap outta him. i saw the cartridge too, the base was obliterated.

he was going to send pics of everything to Armscor, which by the way, that ammo is made in the states, the Rock Island guns, are made in the Philippines, and both ammo and guns come under the same corporation.

now, that day, i was shooting Armscor .45 ACP, with no issues, but i have 1 box left, and i will shoot it as soon as i can, but i gotta ask you, is it a specific problem with thier .22lr ammo, or any ammo they make..????

i cannot say if all the .22 lr ammo he bought was all at once, or at different times, with different lot/serial numbers.......

but from what i had seen, i'd not trust the Armscor .22lr ammo......heck, i may not wanna buy anymore .45 ACP as well......
 
Belt Fed said:
I shot a couple boxes of their 22 mag a while back. it worked fine. that's about all the dealings ive had with that brand of ammo. I have ordered several parts from their website without any trouble.
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several people here mentioned the ammo that i bought (45 ACP) shot well, and it does.

but personally seeing what happened to him, twice...makes me wonder, is it only the one caliber..??...and yes, ANY ammo company can have issues, even us reloaders, so no one or nothing is infallible.

i don't know where he bought his ammo, but he lives like 2 city blocks away from the big LGS i go to, so maybe there.
 
Did your friend look for barrel obstructions such as a squib or even lead fouling?

I've once encountered a really bad case of lead fouling after shooting roughly 500 rounds of Remington Thunderbolt ammo. My shots started stringing all over the place all the sudden so I stopped shooting that pistol and when I took it apart the barrel was such a mess with the amount of lead melted to the rifling that I could visibly see that the barrel opening was reduced in size which could have lead to a round failure if I kept shooting. It took me almost an hour to chisel out the lead that day. Fortunately I was using a pistol with a heavy bull barrel so I don't think there was any high chance of barrel damage. This is the reason I will never run Remington Thunderbolt ammo through any of my 22lr's ever again.
 
HansGruber said:
Bottom of the case blown out kinda sounds like out of battery firing…could be the pistol.
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I agree with HansGruber. Could also be the firing pin is hitting more to the center of the base of a round. Most actions are designed to deliver the firing pin blow to the bottom edge of the cartridge base so that the priming mixture is in better contact with the powder. Also perhaps the firing pin pierced the base of the round. If a shell didn't go all the way into the chamber it's possible the firing pin can pierce the base. Also the firing pin could have gotten burned on the first blow out and is somewhat deformed. I'd start with looking at the fired casings to see if all of the strikes are uniform. If you can't find anything wrong with the gun I'd try a different brand of ammo. Just be sure to wear a good pair of safety glasses!
 
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10mmLife said:
Did your friend look for barrel obstructions such as a squib or even lead fouling?

I've once encountered a really bad case of lead fouling after shooting roughly 500 rounds of Remington Thunderbolt ammo. My shots started stringing all over the place all the sudden so I stopped shooting that pistol and when I took it apart the barrel was such a mess with the amount of lead melted to the rifling that I could visibly see that the barrel opening was reduced in size which could have lead to a round failure if I kept shooting. It took me almost an hour to chisel out the lead that day. Fortunately I was using a pistol with a heavy bull barrel so I don't think there was any high chance of barrel damage. This is the reason I will never run Remington Thunderbolt ammo through any of my 22lr's ever again.
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i don't have any answers...he was shooting like he always does, and having a great time...then KA-BAM..!!!!!!!
 
I have shot thousands of rounds of .22 ammo over the years and never experienced a misfire until I bought a brick of Armscor ammo and now I am lucky to get through a 50 round box without a failure to fire. And just a week ago I had a Armscor .22 round blow up in my pistol. I wasn't injured and my gun wasn't damaged, but I no longer trust Armscor ammo. As for 'dirty', I don't feel I should have to clean my semi-auto pistol or rifle after firing a 50 round box but I am almost forced to as the fouling gets so bad they fail to function properly.

I think this was the reason for the round blowing up in my pistol as the base of the round was almost blown off and it appears that the round fired when it wasn't completed seated in the chamber because of the fouling.
 
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Tenbones said:
I have shot thousands of rounds of .22 ammo over the years and never experienced a misfire until I bought a brick of Armscor ammo and now I am lucky to get through a 50 round box without a failure to fire. And just a week ago I had a Armscor .22 round blow up in my pistol. I wasn't injured and my gun wasn't damaged, but I no longer trust Armscor ammo. As for 'dirty', I don't feel I should have to clean my semi-auto pistol or rifle after firing a 50 round box but I am almost forced to as the fouling gets so bad they fail to function properly.

I think this was the reason for the round blowing up in my pistol as the base of the round was almost blown off and it appears that the round fired when it wasn't completed seated in the chamber because of the fouling.
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kcruisin said:
I agree something isn't right about the pistol or magazine.
I'd correct at least one suspected issue before I used that gun.
Be sure to find and save the cases that are involved, they can target the problem.
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ok, this reminds me, my buddy and i have the same exact RIA ...there is a very tiny "detent pin" that is spring loaded, watch the video at start the 35 second point...

i have had that detent pin fly out...my buddy refuses to field strip his, due to that happening, and the guide rod/spring being a PITA to remove/install.

so he told me, all he does is spray down the gun, and he's done cleaning.

so, i can now "see" this can be his issue, especially if the gun is not properly field stripped and cleaned/lube properly

here is the video

 
I’ve never used Armscor 22 ammo but I have had several 22 case ruptures over the years. All were cases of the gun firing out of battery/bolt not closed.
 
Old_Me said:
hey, i was at the range the other day, and one of the guys there, that owns the RIA .22lr pistol, like i do as well (1911 style) was shooting Armscor .22lr ammo, new of course.

the first time, several months ago, a round was "bad", and blew his magazine right out of the gun, and destroyed that magazine....he was using Armscor ammo

this time. a round exploded in the chamber, but did not do visible damage, but it scared the crap outta him. i saw the cartridge too, the base was obliterated.

he was going to send pics of everything to Armscor, which by the way, that ammo is made in the states, the Rock Island guns, are made in the Philippines, and both ammo and guns come under the same corporation.

now, that day, i was shooting Armscor .45 ACP, with no issues, but i have 1 box left, and i will shoot it as soon as i can, but i gotta ask you, is it a specific problem with thier .22lr ammo, or any ammo they make..????

i cannot say if all the .22 lr ammo he bought was all at once, or at different times, with different lot/serial numbers.......

but from what i had seen, i'd not trust the Armscor .22lr ammo......heck, i may not wanna buy anymore .45 ACP as well......
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I’ve shot probably 150 rounds of .22 mag out of my heritage revolver with no issues whatsoever.
This weekend I bought 500 rounds of .22 LR at a local gun show for $30 (new).
I just got a new Ruger Tactical.22 and the first box of 50 had 8 misfires. None exploded or causes damaged. The firing pin hit but nothing happened.
I had shot probably 80-100 rounds of some CCI I had with no issues.
This armscor box of 500 tho is terrible.
I’ve tried to shoot 200 rounds of the 500 I’ve bought and just estimating, about 30-40 were duds.
I got them at a gun show and the gun was selling a bunch of 500 round boxes.
I almost got a several of the 50 round boxes of CCI but I wanted bulk to shoot outta my new pistol so I got the armscor.
This is only the 2nd time I’ve bought this brand and will definitely never buy them again bc too many misfires.
I’d return if possible but Gun shows don’t do that. They could’ve been stored wrong but I’ve shot .22 ammo I got from a friend that was older than I am (38) and stored in a garage in a cardboard box and had no issues.
I will never buy that brand again bc of this.
 
Old_Me said:
hey, i was at the range the other day, and one of the guys there, that owns the RIA .22lr pistol, like i do as well (1911 style) was shooting Armscor .22lr ammo, new of course.

the first time, several months ago, a round was "bad", and blew his magazine right out of the gun, and destroyed that magazine....he was using Armscor ammo

this time. a round exploded in the chamber, but did not do visible damage, but it scared the crap outta him. i saw the cartridge too, the base was obliterated.

he was going to send pics of everything to Armscor, which by the way, that ammo is made in the states, the Rock Island guns, are made in the Philippines, and both ammo and guns come under the same corporation.

now, that day, i was shooting Armscor .45 ACP, with no issues, but i have 1 box left, and i will shoot it as soon as i can, but i gotta ask you, is it a specific problem with thier .22lr ammo, or any ammo they make..????

i cannot say if all the .22 lr ammo he bought was all at once, or at different times, with different lot/serial numbers.......

but from what i had seen, i'd not trust the Armscor .22lr ammo......heck, i may not wanna buy anymore .45 ACP as well......
Click to expand...
I had a similar problem twice with my Walther PPK/s 22lr. Both times I was using Remington Golden Bullet ammo. Walther repaired the firearm under warranty the first time. After the second time, I did not bother having it repaired.

That said, I no longer use Armscor or Aguila ammo because, at least in 22lr, the failure to fire rate is above 10%.
 
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