Hello guys,

I went shooting for the first time in a few years yesterday and it was frustrating as heck. I love shooting but moved to a new area and haven't had a place to shoot until recently. Here is my issue:

I have a .223 New England Firearms(NEF) Single-shot with a heavy bull barrel. I was shooting Black Hills remanufactured(Blue box) 55 Grain V-Max ammo.

I bought my first box of this ammo back in 2005 and shot all with only one or two misfires(duds). The second box I bought in 2006 and only shot two from that box that year. So, yesterday I had 48 rounds(wasn't going to shoot all of them and didn't). Now, here it is 2009 and the first round I shot yesterday was a dud. The second fired as did the third. The fourth was a dud, the fifth shot as normal but upon extracting the brass noticed that the brass had cracked in two. The bottom section came out looking like a pistol casing.

I took a break for a while and inspected the brass from the ones successfully shot. There was no cratering on the primers which is a sign of over-pressured rounds or improper head space. I shot a few more times with every 3rd or so shot being a dud.

So, what the heck is going on???

Did I get a bad batch of ammo? Or is the firing pin not hitting the primer hard enough? I did notice that the hole from the firing pin was not even close to being dead center to the middle of the primer. It was closer to the edge.

The ammo is only 4 years old. Most ammo should last years. I reread the info that came with the gun and is said to use SAAMI approved ammo which I believe this to be. Any clues?

Thanks guys.

KB