[hsiddall]

Ive been loading according to a win catalog I got at the LGS about a year ago. It said for a 185 gr. jhp 6.2 gr. of 231. (If the numbers on the aount of powder are wrong, I am sorry I dont have them in front of me right now, I did however double check sveral times when loading them). But of the 1100 0r so that Ive loaded Ive had at lest 70 misfires. This was my first batch ever and I still have about 300 left unfired. I dont know what had caused this, I had all cleaned brass even factory new at times. I used a lee turret with disk powedr measure and I confirmed equalpowder loads in each round. Was my recipe wrong, was I wrong? Please help...
PS I cant find the matching load data on the win site, but i have a hard copy of components catalog in my basement....:uhoh:

[Mark whiz]

According to my LoadMap, 6.2gr of Win231 and a 185gr JHP is a fairly moderate load but is within specs and should be safe to shoot.

I have to ask, what do you mean by "misfires"? Did the primer go off but the powder didn't? Did the round fire but the bullet hang in the barrel? Did nothing happen - no pop or boom of any type? Did the round fire ok, but the case jammed in the firearm?

Your answer to the above will tell us a lot about what might be the problem.

Let us know.

[Walkalong]

Run your fingers over the primers. Are they seated fully? This can cause the primer to misfire. If so, do not try to seat further. Use a bullet puller and pull down the ammo first. 6.2 Grs. of W231 is not the problem. Will they fire 100% in another gun? Do factory rounds fire 100% in your gun?

[hsiddall]

Factory rounds fire 100%. By missfire I mean the round deos not go off. Primers are dimpled but nothing hapens. Ive had only one time where bullet got hung up in barrel, and only one time. I then started paing even more close attention. Im shooting an XD .45 and have no problems with any other ammo and Ive shot friend reloads through it as well...PS Just checked load charts, and 6.2 is the starting load, but due to disk powder measure 6.6 gr is what I was using.(ok per LGS).

[The Bushmaster]

Your primers are NOT seated properly into the pocket. Try a second firing of the affected rounds. If they fire on the second try that is your problem. The primer must be completely down to the bottom of the pocket. You should be able to feel the primer below the case head with your finger... DO NOT TRY TO RESEAT THE PRIMERS ON LOADED AMMUNITION. Disassemble and start over.

When you seat the primers PUSH them in until they stop then give a bit more pressure to make sure. Don't worry they won't go off.

I have been using W-231 for .45 ACP for years and have never had a misfire. Nor have I had a misfire using W-231 in 9mmX19, .38 Special and .357 magnum.

The only other reason for a malfunction of what you discribe would be if you had washed with water and not gotten the case completely dry and the primer and/or powder got damp...

[Steve C]

Primers are dimpled but nothing hapens.
The problem isn't your load, your problem is you are not seating your primers into the bottom of the pocket. Most of the time a second hit with the fireing pin would set these off. What happens is the first hit of the fireing pin pushes the primer into the bottom of the pocket like it should have been set when you loaded it. The movement of the primer cusions the pin strike so that you see only a shallow dent.

Many of us have done this when we where just starting out and the warnings about not crushing the primer makes you apprehensive when seating primers.

When you have a bullet get stuck in the bore its usually a load without powder, the primer is strong enough to push a bullet an inch or two into the barrel. Occasionally this can be caused by powder failing to ignight because it was contaminated with oil or for certain density sensitive powders like H110 or W296 its caused by not using enough. In those cases you have all the powder left unburned in beind the bullet so there's no guessing about what happened. W231 is not a density sensitive powder.

[Mark whiz]

I concur, it looks like you definitely aren't getting the primers set properly.

A remote possibility might be that you've gotten ahold of a bad batch of primers, but that is a rarity.

[hsiddall]

Thanx alot you all were right on, I checked my "misfired" rounds versus spent brass and there is no comparison in primer strikes. I will reset dies right now, now about the rounds in need of repair the only way is with the rcbs hammer to seperate the rounds correct. Gonna take a long time to do 300 rounds!!!

[The Bushmaster]

Sorry...Must be done. Once the powder is out of the case you can reseat the primer without removing it. Just don't attempt it with a loaded round...

[hsiddall]

No doubt! PS to the moderators, this site is great you all (other uses as well) have saved my A** several times. Tanx a bunch.....

[Archie]

Some ten to twelve years ago, my department allowed officers to carry personally owned weapons. One of the weapons allowed, and quite popular was the Glock in .45 ACP (I don't know which model number; full sized belt gun).

The 45 Glocks would routinely not fire Remington ammunition (185 grain hollowpoint). The primers were "too hard" and the Glock striker would not reliably ignite the primer. The local solution was to purchase WW 'Silvertip' ammo in .45 ACP. The WW ammo had a softer primer and everyone lived happily ever after. (Until the ratfinks regulated away my 1911.)

So... make sure your primers are fully seated in the cases. You might also check a couple different types of primers to see which is most sensitive in your firearm. Federal primers are widely thought of as 'soft', WW is in the middle, and CCI are considered 'hard'. I'm not sure where Remington sits anymore.

[hsiddall]

By ww I would assume you mean winchester? Not sure...

[Sistema1927]

It could be the fact that the primers are not fully seated, or it could be that they are too hard for your particular weapon, especially if you have had an action job done on it. Are you using CCI primers? They are the hardest of the hard, and I have switched to Federal (softest) and Winchester (not quite as soft) for most everything now.

[Leanwolf]

Primers?? Maybe...

But I'm wondering if you are using a "taper crimp" die??

Or, are you using a "roll crimp" die??

If you are using a "roll crimp" die rather than what is required for .45 ACP, a "taper crimp" die, it won't matter how you seat the primers.

With a cartridge that headspaces on the mouth of the case, such as .45 ACP, a "roll crimp" will allow the cartridge to move forward enough in the chamber to cause the firing pin to not be able to strike the primer hard enough to cause it to fire. Not always, but often.

Dimpled primers sounds like that to me. Check your "crimp" die. If it's a "roll crimp" , buy a "taper crimp" die and you'll be okay.

FWIW.

L.W.

[ken grant]

I don't know any thing about XD's but I had the same problem with a 1911.
First hammer blow would only dimple the primer but the 2nd blow would fire.
This happened randomly and I started watching my pistol before every shot.
It was not returning to battery everytime but was enough to let the hammer fall.
The first hammer fall would push the slide into battery and the 2nd. would fire it. On this pistol, it wound up being an undersized chamber(just barely, just had a slight taper to it) . A couple of turns with a finishing reamer fixed it.
Another thing that can cause this is the sizing die not doing its job or not adjusted right.
Another cause can be bullet seating depth, a thousandth or so too long.
Do a drop in test on your barrel with a cartridge and check it.
Another problem I had was with my Dillon 550B,the size die would not size the base of the case well even with it run all the way down. I wound up using a Lee Factory Crimp Die and cured that.

[hsiddall]

Thanks for the input guys, I think it is just poorly seated primers. Icompared mis fired rounds and spent brass and i think that is definately the problem. As mentioned above It fires factory and mist reloaded ammo without a hicup, it;s jst been this batch. Thanx for all the help...:D

[ninja45]

The people here are just AWESOME!

Don't know how many times they have helped me out in a jam or solve a problem that I cannot solve on my own.

Bravo Zulu to you all!

Ninja45

[Cloudpeak]

"Thanx alot you all were right on, I checked my "misfired" rounds versus spent brass and there is no comparison in primer strikes. I will reset dies right now, now about the rounds in need of repair the only way is with the rcbs hammer to seperate the rounds correct. Gonna take a long time to do 300 rounds!!!"

How about shooting the 300 and pulling only the ones that fail?

Cloudpeak

[SSN Vet]

I checked my "misfired" rounds versus spent brass and there is no comparison in primer strikes.

I'm a newb, but comparing a FTF primer with spent brass doesn't seem like a meaningful comparison.

Won't the force of the expanding gas smash the case back into the firing pin and leave the same "spent case" indent, regardless how hard the hammer strike, how hard the primer or whether the primer was fully seated?

If it fired, it fired! and the indent in the primer would look the same, if I understand correctly.

I've had four FTF's out of one 100 pc box of WWB in 9mm and freaked out about the reliability of my carry piece. But am convinced now they were simply hard or poorly seated primers. All fired on second strike.

If these are range loads, upon which your life does not depend, I'd give them a second tap and see what happens. The first tap may seat the primer and solve the problem.

[Archie]

Yeah, I meant Winchester.

I'm an old guy and when I think of Winchester ammunition, I think of it as 'Winchester - Western'. Many, many moons ago, Winchester Firearms bought the Western Ammunition company. If you look at some commercial ammunition headstamps, you'll find the brand "W-W" on all sorts of stuff.

Just an old habit of speech from an old shooter.

[Ol` Joe]

How about shooting the 300 and pulling only the ones that fail?

That`s how I would do it.

[Paul "Fitz" Jones]

All the failures to fire in my thousands of reloader customers and all explosions in the progressive reloaders I sold were caused exclusively by CCI primers.

I use Federal and Winchester only and recommended them to my customers.