38 spl Magtech fail to fire

[Penguinsfan14]

I bought a taurus 85 a month ago as my first handgun. I've had experience with rifles for almost all my life and have never had a round fail to go off. Well a couple days ago i finally got a chance to take it out and put a box of rounds thru it and out of the fifty rounds 2 of them failed to go off. I was shooting magtech 158 grain 38 special lead round nose that i bought on sale when i bought the gun. Both rounds had the same strike in them as the rest of the rounds but failed to go off. I just got my ltcf a couple of days ago and wanted to know if maybe it was just the box of ammo i got that was faulty or if maybe i should try some other brands (which brands?) before i start carrying it. also if anyone can suggest any holsters to try and which ammo to carry.
thanks

[LittleRedToyota]

welcome to the forum.

i used to use magtech for my carry ammo in my 9mm. shot about 500 rounds of it and never had a problem.

it could still be the ammo in your case, though. i woudl say pick up some ammo from another manufacturer (pretty much any will do...remington umc and winchester white box are two popular reliable cheap practice ammos).

iff you have FTFs with the other ammo...you know it is the gun. if you don't, it could still have been the gun, but might not be.

[sjl127]

What's everyones opinion about masood ayoob's opinion on carry ammo?

[Mity2]

What's everyones opinion about masood ayoob's opinion on carry ammo?

what opinion is that?

Penguinsfan14, I've had ammo failed to go bang x2 in my entire shooting coreer(well actually more with 22LR. But one twice with center fire ammo).
One was 9mm Wolf, and other were Remington 45ACP.

Both of them would not go off after striking it few more times. Pretty much certifies that ammo was duds. Not the gun.

I brought it over to gunshop where I bought the ammo, and showed them 45ACP that failed. I got another box of ammo free. which was nice

Did you attempt to fire the failed ammo again? And if it then went off with 2nd attempt, primer strike may have been weak. but if it failed to go off, then I say its the ammo, not the gun

[sjl127]

what opinion is that?

That you carry the expensive stuff (self defense rounds) and practice with the cheap stuff (mag tech, et al).

[Mity2]

Oh okay.
Ya I do that.

[LittleRedToyota]

That you carry the expensive stuff (self defense rounds) and practice with the cheap stuff (mag tech, et al).

i think most people here do that.

i do. i can't afford several hundred rounds of premium ammo a month. and i don't wanna carry cheap ammo...so...

[27hand]

i think most people here do that.

i do. i can't afford several hundred rounds of premium ammo a month. and i don't wanna carry cheap ammo...so...

I also buy practice ammo (usually Blazer for handgun and Wolf for my AR's) by the case (1000 rounds) and shoot Gold Dots for pistol carry. I have shot about 600 to 800 rounds per training class over 2 or 3 days and never had an ammo failure with Blazer.

I change out my carry ammo about yearly, buy new carry ammo and run the old carry ammo to verify it all goes bang and hits what I shoot at.

I had a Magtech .38spcl fail to fire a few years back. Tried it a couple more times but no good.

I also went to a Turkey shoot at a club in Monongahela. A retired local police chief let me shoot his old service Sigma. I loaded his two mags with Blazer .40 and proceeded to shoot. Every other round did not fire. We kind of looked at each other and didn't know what was going on. I picked up all the unfired Blazer, loaded them into my Glock 32 (.40 bbl) and they all ran fine. I'm guessing his Sigma had either a weak firing pin spring or was dirty enough in the firing pin channel to slow down the pin enough to not hit the primer with enough force to fire the round.

I may buy Magtech for practice but personally wouldn't carry it (see what one round not going off will leave in your memory banks). If this happened to my carry ammo, I would probably reconsider what I carry but you know when people put this stuff together, mistakes happen and you should be able to react qiuckly enough to get the pistol back up and running.

27hand

[RoyJackson]

Have you ran any other ammo through that Taurus 85? Or tried the Magtech in another revolver?
The reason I write this is the 85's had a real problem with light strikes a few years back. Mine, when I first bought it in '98 or '99, wouldn't shoot a cylinder full without light strikes.
It's fixed now (by Taurus) and I haven't had any problem with any ammo since. If fact, that little 85 is my main carry gun.

[WhiteWolf]

I would add to Roy's comments about light strikes this: If you bought the gun used some people mess with the springs to get a smoother, lighter trigger pull (more like a S&W). Sometimes they over do it. Not sure if it applies to your gun as i don't know if it was new or used. If it happens with other ammo, I would send it to the factory for service.

As for carry ammo, I can recommend Hornady.