I have a buddy that always cleans his gun and is a turkey hunting fanatic. He was using Winchester shells and had a misfire. He went and got 30 shells groups of different brands. They all shot fine. People are saying online to him that mossberg shotguns are known for misfire. I am not a gunsmith but I would think it would be the Winchester shells. Anybody have anything like this happen. The Winchester shell that didn’t go off has a small dent in the primer compared to shells that did fire and the prime cap seems pushed in.

Yes i did Winchester long beards , Three out of two boxes. Remington shotgun.

YES!! I have two winchester XR 31/2 that didn't go off. After the first incident I blamed my Mossberg 835. After this year, I'm pretty sure it's the shells.

The first incident was a year or two ago and the first XR shell didn't go off, but the second did. I blamed the shotgun.

This year I shot two low brass shells earlier in the morning. Later I called a gobbler in. The Wincherster XR doesn't go off. I had a different brand shell that did go off after the dud XR.

Both XR primers now have a slight dimples.
Thanks for bringing this up.

In case you're wondering, I killed a bird this year, but the first incident cost me a turkey.

It’s bizarro but yes, some guns don’t like some ammo.

As far as ammunition and components go, Winchester is about as bad as it gets IMHO. I bought 100 pieces of Winchester 223WSSM brass and 17 of them had cracked necks. Brand now never fired brass. I think they fired the entire QC department to save money as what comes out of the place and gets sold is way below par.

The shells

Average is every 1 in 4,000 is a bad round for 1 reason or another they teach you to try every round in the barrel on your carry rounds to catch any over sized rounds.

There could be a couple different reasons for a misfire from bad primer, light powder load or the gun not being in battery fully which causes a light primer strike. 99% of the time the round will fire if tried again. For the most part it is usually not the firearm.

One possible solution that Rob & Neall touched on that's worth exploring is that the gun might not have been in battery fully. It could happen in a pump shotgun if your buddy loaded his shotgun while in the woods and was trying to be quiet by not slamming his forend forward to close the action.

Same thing happened to me when I was deer hunting with my Remington 7600 pump .30-06. Climbed into my stand with the gun unloaded and was trying to be quiet loading it. Didn't "pump" it hard enough.

Not saying it couldn't be a problem with the shell, but I wouldn't totally discredit user error. Put that same shell back in the gun and slam the action shut and I bet it goes off when he pulls the trigger. Probably why the other 30 he tested (when not trying to be quiet while hunting) all went off.

Not in battery would be my guess also

now that you mention it , we were using a lot of the Winchester 100 round packs for youth trap , they were cheap and available , I didn't think too much of it at the time but almost every other squad we had a shell that went click , but would fire on the second try. mix of guns but mostly pumps not that it matters much everything is single loaded.

stop the line , keep it down range for 30 seconds to make sure it isn't a hang , eject shell see small dimple put shell back in and second try it would fire again.

if it was to hard of steel on the primer a second hit may well not have done it but if the first hit seated the primer a few thousandths deeper then the energy of the second strike set it off normal.

at the time we had gotten cases of federal that had such bad crimps in every case of shells there was shot rolling around in the box

Winchesters seemed the better choice at that price point because the shot didn't fall out.

I have been shooting Winchester super-X slugs for 25 years and never had one go click

I asked him about being in full battery and he said he always loads up at the truck so he can slam it. He has hunted with Remington 7600 35 whalen most his life and was aware of full battery needed.
My best friend had the same with Winchester shells while youth turkey hunting with a kid. The gun didn’t fire twice in a row. I took the gun to the Orvis gun smith and they said it was the shells and didn’t have anything good to say about Winchester shells.

Funny this came up bought several boxes of Winchester 16 gauge shells and decided to use them on starlings and crows in my Excel single shot the primer was punctured and they wouldnt eject tried'em in my Model 12 and My 97 same issue
Dont have any problems with reloads and other brands even other winchester shells bought years earlier
Havent got an answer from them yet

I won't say it is completely impossible to fire a 500 out of battery but it would take broken parts.

the trigger is slack until the bolt is locked up to the barrel.

if it didn't have this , and you could really fire a 500 out of battery , the kind of force that would come back from a 12ga 1oz slug or a 3 inch turkey load that fired before the bolt locked up, would hurt you and break things .

once the bolt is against the barrel the slide moves forward about another half inch camming the locking lug into the cut out in the barrel flange.

I had a light strike one year turkey hunting with my 500. Next round was fine. Took it home and cleaned the firing pin hole with some spray solvent and some junk came out. I'm no mossberg expert but even though out of battery can keep you from firing the gun (trigger blocked from disconnecting sear) I don't see how it can give you a light strike. The bolt has to travel a good distance down to unlock the bolt lug from the barrel. It does not move rearward until it's fully disengaged. The trigger block kicks in long before the bolt disengages. If you saw strikes way off center on the primer then I might believe it. Again, not a mossberg expert but I don't see how it could happen even if the timing was way out.

where people see out of battery lite strikes is in delayed blow back actions say you stuff a glock hard into a pillow and pull the trigger , it may go click . really same with a 1911 the slide starts to move back keeping the hammer or striker from getting a good hit.

in a locked breach gun like the 500 it doesn't have this issue , it is definitely worth cleaning the bolt and firing pin with a solvent and dry lube

Buddy mine's misfired on 2 birds different shells. Fired when he got it home . Took it to gun shop the replaced a spring took about 5 minutes ,. Guy told him he replaces about 10 a year for folks. Just on the 835. 500 doesn't have so much trouble.

Wouldn't this be on semi auto . 835 pump right????

Something not mentioned is headspace. Rim thickness of ammo and relief cut in chamber are both done to a range of tolerances. the ammo makers have to ensure that their shells will function in all brands and also in guns made over the past 100 plus years. Add in foreign guns to the mix. Overly generous chambers on pump guns that rely solely on brute strength to eject are also in the tolerance parameters. Also pump guns mostly seat the barrel-frame dimension by tightening a nut on the end of the magazine tube. Any combination of these factors can and will contribute to failure to fire.

I have a winchester that if it sits for awhile the firing pin will just barely dent the primer. But shot of cleaning solvent and lite oil good as new. Yea it is about 70 years old.