first failure of my reloaded ammo....

Status
Not open for further replies.
So is loading up without repriming going to undermine your confidence?
Click to expand...

If that's what happened, you better believe it will.

But please help me examine the known facts....

1. I have been loading 25 gr of H335 behind the 55 gr Win FMJBT bullet for quite a while now. I have not been developing loads or changing loads.

2. The powder that came out of the case weighed 24.5 gr. And the difference is easilly explained by some grains that spilled when I dumped the case into the tray (while holding the camera and taking the picture).

3. ALL of the fired cases from that day have primers that are significantly flattened as on the right in my first photo.

4. The middle case is SIGNIFICANTLY less flattened. In fact, it's barely flattened at all. It is clearly unlike every other case loaded and fired from the same batch.

My reloading procedures are pretty solid (though not above reproach). I inspect every case and I measure COAL on at least half of them. I don't reload for speed. I reload for fun and economy.

Also, the cartridges were handled again to load into mags. Then, they were unloaded from the full mags onto the table, and loaded again into mags for our speed reload drills. Fired primers are pretty obvious. It's possible that one could have gotten by. But if it did so, it got by several handlings by more than one set of eyes.

So what are the possible explantions for #4 above?

If the primer was fired....why is it not FLAT like all the others?
 
Do you full length resize your cases and does your resizer/decapper have the pin installed? Or did an unresized/capped (but fired) case get mixed up in the others and you loaded it not knowing? I won't tell if you don't...:uhoh: :D
 
Do you full length resize your cases and does your resizer/decapper have the pin installed?
Click to expand...

Yes and Yes, and the dud case was cycled through my AR twice with no binding.

I should measure the diameter of the "dud" case and compare it to both and see if it is the same as my other sized brass, or whether it is 'fat' like the fired cases.

Or did an unresized/capped (but fired) case get mixed up in the others and you loaded it not knowing?
Click to expand...

Possible. And at this point, I'd have to say even probable. Murphey has bit my tail on other occasions, but never reloading. Perhaps this event will be a sobering up lesson to get better organized. If so, I'm getting off cheap. Murphey's lessons have been more costly in the past.

Still, is it just me, or does the center case look "lightly flattened"
 
My experience has shown me that from one fired case to another the primers may differ in the amount of flattening because of how well the case was able to grip the chamber wall and the distance it traveled when it was slamed back against the breach face...
 
I'll measure the case diameters tonight.

Looks like I might be eating humble pie (which I know the taste of all too well)

Sorry for the apparent anti-climatic ending to this thread.
 
Hogwash SSN Vet. There is no reason for your confidence to be down if you had a singular mistake. A single mistake is not a pattern of errant behavior. Just continue to be vigilant with your endeavor and check your work carefully.

Your sky is not falling.
 
Had 1 bad primer over the years. A federal large pistol in a 44 mag load. No compound in it at all.

Now? ALL primers get the magnifying glass before being put in the primer feed tube.
 
The evidence is right there, take it for what its worth. That primer has fired and is flattened. It looks like a fired case got by and was loaded. Either that or somehow a fired primer got mixed in with the good ones and got loaded into that case
 
Don't be to down on yourself about it.
I once loaded 200 rounds of .45 acp weighing a charge every now and again and it was all good, then I realized I had the wrong powder in the measure.
 
SSNVet:
3. ALL of the fired cases from that day have primers that are significantly flattened as on the right in my first photo.

4. The middle case is SIGNIFICANTLY less flattened. In fact, it's barely flattened at all. It is clearly unlike every other case loaded and fired from the same batch.
Click to expand...

I can explain 3&4 by saying this:
Where do you get your brass? Are all of your cases brass that was reloaded by you with that load? It may be possible that it was a 1Xfired case from factory ammo that was lighter loaded. All I'm saying is that judging by the blackening in that primer, if it had gone off in the case with the powder, it would have ignited the powder.

And yes, it is possible for a fired primer possibly to have been mixed in. I've seen some that the deprimer pin pushes the dent all the way out and they look "like new" from the outside but are fired. Did you maybe drop some primers and pick them up and put them back in the primer tray? Did maybe a nice undented spent primer get mixed in?
 
SSN Vet,

Good to see you spending time to investigate and learn from this incident.

It's likely that your case was primed with a spent primer. I can think of 3 ways it could have happened:

1. Failed to deprime the case
2. Mixed spent primer with new primers
3. Spent primer stuck to depriming pin on downward stroke and got reseated on the upward stroke

#3 happened to me A LOT with RCBS depriming die in 38spl. I switched to Dillon die - it has a spring assembly designed to shake stuck primers off the pin. The problem went away and never came back.

Good luck!

Mike
 
Your sky is not falling.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the encouragement..... I'm not freaking out, but my little "engineer trouble shooter" motor is chugging along. This is actually the kind of techno geek problem that makes reloading fun for me. ;)

Falability is what what makes us human.
Click to expand...

And the humility to admit we're fallible is what enables us to avoid "blind stupidity".
-----------

The evidence is right there, take it for what its worth. That primer has fired and is flattened. It looks like a fired case got by and was loaded. Either that or somehow a fired primer got mixed in with the good ones and got loaded into that case
Click to expand...

So last night I measure cases I FL sized (from a box of my reloads), I measure some spent brass, that I know I fired from my rifle, and I measured the offending case.

The resized brass measured .3540" to .3545" in diameter

The fired brass measured .3560" in diameter

and ....... drum roll .........

The "dud" case measured .3540"

So I've been scratching my head and this is my new conclusion...

Every now and again, my Safety Prime (which I never could seem to get perfectly aligned) will fail to drop the primer squarely in the seating cup and the primer will eject onto the carpeted floor. The reason I hate it when this happens is that I won't continue until I find the dropped primer.

This happened about a month ago (during which time I was set up to reload .223 for several weeks) and I recall being surprised to find two primers on the floor.

So I suspect that I must have previously dropped a primer, and retrieved an unknown spent primer (likely spilled from the collection tube, which gets knocked off occasionally), popped it in the cup and marched onward to the beat of the drummer.

This would explain having a fired primer (very possibly de-primed from range pick up brass, and hence not flattened like those I have loaded) winding up in a sized and properly charged case.

To be totally honest .... Other than making sure I load the correct primers into the Safety Prime and making sure they are seated all the way, I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them.

Corrective action...
1. spend some more time trying to get the safety prime lined up.
2. vacuum up around my reloading area.
3. put a hose clamp on the primer collection tube.
4. carefully look at any primer that escapes from my controlled environment.
5. pay more attention to the primers during my final inspection (I focus to much on COAL and if the primers have been seating without any problems I haven't paid allot of attention to them).

Oh well! Looks like I'm not going to be getting any "customer satisfaction" coupons from Winchester. :eek:
 
One more possibility - I have had cleaning media block a flash hole and prevent the powder igniting - that matches with your statements.
 
Looks like a primer that had insuficient compound or ineffective compound, too much clean metal exposed to have undergone complete fire cycle, probably too late to look for sealing debris or unconsumed priming material?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

P
  • Locked
Failures to fire
Replies
7
Views
395
prickett
P
C
  • Locked
Failure to Chamber / Eject
Replies
8
Views
592
rfwobbly
rfwobbly
N
  • Locked
First reloading dud
Replies
6
Views
569
Navy joe
N
2
  • Locked
Issue Reloading .25 ACP
Replies
21
Views
484
Blue68f100
Blue68f100
RealGun
  • Locked
Misfire reloads
2
Replies
28
Views
4K
gamestalker
G
Back
Top