dlh wrote:Hi, Excalibur,
I do not remember if I pointed the pistol down after the slide racked back and before I looked into the chamber where I found the unfired, non-indented primer round.
If so, I wonder why would 't do that with an aluminum round but not a brass round?
All constructive ideas of course are appreciated.
dlh
In the hypothesis I think most likely, the slide never closed on the round and the trigger wasn't pulled, so I wouldn't expect to see a firing pin strike on the primer.
My first guess would be that there just happened to be a Blazer round in the magazine when it happened. If you fire a lot of brass, you may see it again, although possibly not exactly the same way unless you tilt the gun down right afterward.
If the round jumps the magazine, the slide locks open, and you don't tilt the gun down, you'll likely see a failure to feed as the slide jams the round forward without the guidance of the magazine lips. If the slide does lock open when it happens (indicating a probable two problems with both the magazine and the slide stop, or an accidental upward pressure with a thumb on the slide lock) and you tilt the gun sideways, the round will drop out of the ejection port.
The other possibility is that the slightly lighter weight of the Blazer round has something do to with it, although right now I can't think of why that would have an effect.
I'd suggest trying to replicate the situation with everything as much the same as you can make it while paying attention to thumb position and gun angle after the slide locks back. If you can't recreate it, you can probably chalk it up to one of those things that we can't explain but doesn't much matter. If you can recreate it, carefully looking at the circumstances may answer the question.
If you can get it to recur, one thing to try might be to use Blazer ammo in a magazine that creates more friction with the rounds than the very slick Wilsons.