Hello,

Earlier I had posted "Fleet Farm in Osseo has good ammo prices". Well, please ignore that post

Today I had my first chance to shoot the Blazer CCI and, well, I don't even know what to say. First off, when I opened the box I noticed the cartridges were aluminum as opposed to brass. Well, I figured, somebody must be experimenting with alternate casings due to high precious metal prices...

Then I loaded up my .38 special and shot what I thought were 5 shots. Funny the last one just went "click". Hmmm. I must have mis-counted

Imagine my surprise when I opened the cylinder and found one with a dent on the percussion cap! Yikes... OK remember what Joel taught me... Wait a minute (literally)... Then I put that cartridge aside.

Maybe just a bad one... Loaded five more and it happened again! I just put all of this ammo away. Didn't even try the 9mm.

So, what do I do? Is this no big deal as long as I wait patiently before moving to the next one? Should I forget it and dispose of all these (I only bought 2 boxes of each)? If so, what is proper disposal procedure?? I don't have my receipt anymore so returning is not an option.

Would appreciate your advice.
Thanks!

Have you tried firing them again?

Is it happening on the same cylinder every time?

The proper disposal procedure is to send them downrange.

If you end up with some that won't fire no matter what you do, you should pull the bullets and dump the powder in your garden. If you don't have a bullet puller, bring them to one of the many breakfasts or lunches and give them to someone who does.

I didn't try firing them again. Maybe this is a common occurrence to you long-timers. For me and my 4 months of weekly shooting experience this was an absolute first. I've NEVER had a click without a bang on my .38 special until this ammo.

I don't think it happened on the same cylinder. As soon as I switched back to my Winchester white box I was able to put another 100 through with no problems, whatsoever. However if that is an important thing to know I would have to do an experiment.

When shooting factory ammo at matches was a mandated thing, I remember buying pallet loads of blazer aluminum case ammo and I think out of the hundred thousand or so rounds I fired, maybe 3 never went bang.

Personally I would suspect a weak main spring over bad ammo from blazer, but that s just my opinion.

Hmmm. Maybe I jumped to conclusions? Quite possible. I figured "Amazingly Cheap Ammo" + "click with no bang" = I was a fool for buying it.

Next time I'm at the range I'll try the 9mm. If I don't get the same experience maybe I should have the folks at Frontiersman look at the .38...

CCI Blazer is excellent practice ammo. Some semi-autos do not handle the aluminum case well (you can also get brass cased Blazer). Any mfg. can have an issue.

Haven't really had any issues with the alum case Blazer. I would be happy to field test it for you.

I've fired quite a bit of Blazer in 9mm, 38 and 9mm Largo and it all worked well.

I've still got about 1,000 rounds in stock and haven't bought any for at least 10 years so it may have changed.

I try it again an see if it's one cylinder and check to see if it'll go off on a second try.

I have some Chilean 45 ACP with really hard primers, it works well in my 1917, my Ruger P90 doesn't fire about one round per magazine (they always fire on the second try, which is just another trigger pull) and a friend's Glock won't fire it at all.

When I put a lighter hammer spring in my Ruger SP101, I asked around about what ammo had the hardest primers to test it with, and was told by a few people: CCI. I did have 2 failures after about 150 rounds, one of which fired the second time around, one of which didn't after several tries. I went back up a couple pounds in spring weight and haven't had a problem in 200(?) rounds of various brands of ammo.

Otherwise, Blazer is kinda dirty, but it shoots fine IMHO.

The aluminum cases aren't reloadable, so they are garbage, once you've shot them.

Try firing the duds again. Then, just move on. If it happens on other ammo as well, your shootin' iron may need a check-up.

I'll help also! My K-frames need some more rounds down range.

By the way, I have not had any issues with shooting Blazer 38 AL ammo. I prefer brass stuff in my semi autos.

I never had any real problems with CCI BLazer rounds. Every once in a great while the spent casing wouldn't quite eject, but that was quite rare. Dirty bastards though. I've never had my gun so dirty after firing a couple few hundred rounds at the range with Winchester White Box as I did with the CCI.

The CCI was aluminum, the Winchester brass. I've never had problems with the Win.

I'm sorry that you got bad ammo, but it's hard for me to say how very happy I am that you did the right thing with it. Never any reason to rush at the range on this kind of stuff.

I shoot 12,000+ rounds of Blazer every year, mostly 9MM & .40. I don't recall having any problems with it.

I can’t say I’ve never had a problem but it is so rare that I don’t remember it. I know alum. casings on shotgun shells will sometimes be crumpled by the extractor. It’s a softer metal but that is the tradeoff you make for less expensive ammo. I had one happen the other day and that was after shooting 400+ rounds this trap season.