Were they plastic fin can rockets like an Alpha 3?

I can't speak to A8-3s, but I lost two rockets last year to non-existent ejection charges - one D12-5 and one C11-3. In both cases, the rocket lawn-darted and the motor was removed with clay end-cap intact. Reported both to Estes, but this is a truly disturbing trend.

When I flew a lot more back in the 70's and 80's, problems like these were VERY FEW and far in-between.
Never had ANY failures to eject nor nozzles spit from casings.
Few catos as well.
With modern technology this should happen even less, NOT worse.

Agreed. I've had more engine issues as a BAR than I ever had as a kid.

This was using multiple Estes Crossfires

Just had an ejection charge failure with Mr. Twisty and a C11-5.
Luckily the ground was soft after a heavy rain yesterday. Rocket is easily repairable.
Video here.
https://youtu.be/wesVOaQBVBY
For the record I keep my motors in a sealed plastic tub indoors, climate controlled.
When I was setting up this rocket the included "black" plug kept falling out. I knew something was wrong but tried another "black" plug. It fell out so I grabbed a "white" plug from a fresh D12 pack.
I should have known better when the plug failed.....

Date coded J201120

I'll also add that coming off the launch rod Mr.Twisty was squirelly as hell.
I probably lost 25% of altitude from the eradic flight.
It's not the most arrow straight rocket design but it was obviously something else going on.
That was 1 engine from a 2 pack.
I have the matching motor still.
Please advise.

Contact Estes. They should provide you with replacement motors.

Fill out a MESS form.

http://www.motorcato.org/

Ontop of that....
If you saw my "lawndart" thread...
We had 2 motors from the same pack that cata'd 2 feet off the launch rod. I'm glad we run safety protocols because they were fairly violent for 1/2A3-4T's.
Plus atleast 1 more ejection failure (still haven't found that rocket, and it should have arced down to the game board).

Two things:

1. Looks to me more like you should have used a C11-3. The whole flight was like 5-seconds. It looks like it didn't have time to eject.

2. Show us the front end of the motor with the ejection charge failure. Show us that the clay cap was still intact.

This was the third flight for this rocket.
First 2 were on C11-3's. Video of second launch here:
https://youtube.com/shorts/pUZKWHZB1Dk?feature=share
I'm currently out of C11-3's so thought I would test a 5

This is the spent C11-5 motor.