After about 800 or so rounds through my XDMc .40, I finally had a failure to fire. Being a noob, I was very careful about figuring out what happened - waited a minute to make sure it wasn't a hangfire, then dropped the mag and ejected the round. I even went so far as to make sure light was coming through the barrel (no, not by pointing it at my face) to be sure there wasn't an obstruction, even though the round clearly hadn't fired, haha. Anyway, the primer was marked, and looked a bit lighter than normal. Ammo was Freedom Munitions 165gr reman. It was the second to last round in the mag, though I doubt that matters. After trying to think of any reason why it would be a bad idea, I re-loaded the round and it fired just fine (except that it didn't hit exactly where I was aiming, but most of my rounds seem to do that
).
So my questions are:
(1) What is the normal procedure for this kind of failure to fire? The information I had at the time was: I pulled the trigger, I heard a noise that could have been a squib-like "pop," it didn't go bang, I was using remans, and the LCI was up. As I mentioned, I'm still getting used to handling a firearm, so a quick tap/rack/bang would have made me uncomfortable (plus I wanted to know exactly what happened), but would that be the norm? Would the LCI be up in case of a squib, since the casing is still in there?
(2) I assume it was probably an ammo issue, considering I'm using remans, but I haven't had an issue with the 200ish rounds from Freedom Munitions I've fired so far. I'm also pretty careful to keep oil away from the striker channel, but again - I'm a noob, so I could have messed it up. In my shoes, would you clean the striker channel just to be safe? After all, it is my only firearm at this point (and hence my HD gun). Never detail stripped a gun before, but I'm mechanically inclined and good with the YouTubes.
(3) If it were a squib, would the slide usually try to cycle? It didn't in this case, obviously.
(4) Is there any reason not to fire the lightly-stricken round in this case? I couldn't think of any reason, but I defer to the wisdom of people with more than a month and a half of firearm experience
So my questions are:
(1) What is the normal procedure for this kind of failure to fire? The information I had at the time was: I pulled the trigger, I heard a noise that could have been a squib-like "pop," it didn't go bang, I was using remans, and the LCI was up. As I mentioned, I'm still getting used to handling a firearm, so a quick tap/rack/bang would have made me uncomfortable (plus I wanted to know exactly what happened), but would that be the norm? Would the LCI be up in case of a squib, since the casing is still in there?
(2) I assume it was probably an ammo issue, considering I'm using remans, but I haven't had an issue with the 200ish rounds from Freedom Munitions I've fired so far. I'm also pretty careful to keep oil away from the striker channel, but again - I'm a noob, so I could have messed it up. In my shoes, would you clean the striker channel just to be safe? After all, it is my only firearm at this point (and hence my HD gun). Never detail stripped a gun before, but I'm mechanically inclined and good with the YouTubes.
(3) If it were a squib, would the slide usually try to cycle? It didn't in this case, obviously.
(4) Is there any reason not to fire the lightly-stricken round in this case? I couldn't think of any reason, but I defer to the wisdom of people with more than a month and a half of firearm experience