BAD Ammo - Signs of the Time?

[skydiver]

At the range yesterday, one of the members was shooting factory .308 Winchester 150 FMJ ammo he had just bought. One of his rounds didn't eject. Upon inspection, it was a squib load. After punching out the bullet from the barrel using a rifle cleaning rod, we checked the brass. There had been no powder in it. The inside of the brass was shinny. The primer alone propelled the bullet about an inch into the barrel. Thankfully he didn't manually insert a live round after it and fire!
End of story...NO!
Several weeks ago a group of friends went to Eastern Oregon sage rat hunting. 3 of them had .17 cal rifles of various brands. All 3 had squib loads during their shooting! Again, no powder in the brass. Just the primer pushed the bullet into the barrel. The .17 ammo was purchase recently.
What's my point? Is this just random or could it be from rushed production from the ammo plants? We've heard that the manufacturers are working over time in a frantic rush to meet demands during the ammo shortages. Will sub-par ammo be the result? You be the judge.
Squib loads are dangerous if another round is fired behind it...so heads' up...just in case it happens to you!
Blue Skies!

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[bellarum]

Sounds like giving each round a quick shake next to the ear before loading wouldn't hurt.

 

[Benchrest]

Nope. I load my own

 

[JE3146]

I've haven't seen any squibs, but the ammo lately definitely looks uglier than it used to.

 

[Swedish K]

This is why many ranges don't allow rapid fire - an attempt to minimize the odds of having a banana peeled barrel and injuries on their range.

 

[SinisterSouthpaw]

This is the kind of thing that is more apparent than real, I think--although a lot more el cheapo imported ammo is being shot...

to illustrate:

I had exactly the same thing happen with an 8mm round (new, well known US maker, of good repute) I never bothered to reload the 8mm as I shot it only on rare occasions like German independence day.At that time, I had been shooting for a bit over 45 years and my bench buddies were also geezers. We had never had that happen with a good brand of ammo--some had with their own handloads--interruptions and such, you know. Anyway---fast forward to today---many, many many, more people are shooting many many many more rounds and yes many more el cheapos. We are going to see more boo boos--we see more traffic "accidents" and this is just the same thing--more people driving, more el cheapo driving schools...................notice I never said anything about more korean women driving---no no no racial profiling here-- no no even if that broad knocks my mailbox down again, you will never get me to say that no no no

 

[Certaindeaf]

"The Wong way to drive".. worst driving school ever

 

[Doc In UPlace]

I recently went through a 500-round box of Winchester Wildcat .22 that had a 20% fail to fire rate. 2 out of every 10 round mag would fail. Multiple primer strikes, nothing.

Funny how similar Winchester sounds to Winchester. Hmm.