I’ve never taken a cartridge apart, and honestly wouldn’t know what went wrong even if I could inspect the primer.
Oh, you
might be able to tell what went wrong if you take the cartridge apart Keith. I've been handloading since the late '70s, and had my first "misfire" (a .38 Special) after an obviously good primer strike just a couple of years ago. I might have even posted about it here on THR - I don't remember.
Anyway, when I pulled the bullet, it was quite apparent to me what went wrong. The base of the bullet was burned black. I have no idea how I did it, but I had obviously forgotten to put powder in the case.
The primer went off, and because I had a good roll crimp, the bullet never left the case. Because I wear good hearing protection I just assumed I'd had a misfire.
Now don't get me wrong, I had a few
genuine misfires back in the day. But I learned they were caused by, as a new handloader, I didn't seat the primers clear to the bottoms of the primer pockets. Those rounds (.270 Win) would usually fire on a second strike. In your case, you said you tried again and it still didn't fire, so the primer not being seated all the way is probably not what went wrong.
Anyway, once you get the cartridge apart, it would be easy to see if the primer is missing its anvil. I've never seen that, but I guess it happens:
I took that round home and broke it down and s-l-o-w-l-y decapped it to find that the primer had no anvil.