So, I haven't really shot factory ammo (except in certification/training where required) in a very long time and so I don't know the current state of things...
Until Saturday. My buddy was shooting Winchester white box. I was watching him shoot a stage and I saw what I thought was a squib: Didn't cycle a little funny sound and some smoke out the ejection port. I ran up to my friend who was about to "clear the malfunction" and yelled "STOP!!!!" because I've seen squibs and that was what it looked like...
So we clear him, clear the gun and make sure that there was no obstruction in the barrel. There was none.
Turns out what happened was a primer got seated in SIDEWAYS. So the striker hit the side of the primer and didn't set of the powder nor did the freedom seed travel anywhere.
Yikes.