First Wolf Primer Misfire.

[Jumping Frog]

Had my first Wolf primer misfire at the range on Monday.

I was loading .44 Mag with: Wolf LP Magnum primers; 240 gr gas checked SWC cast boolits; and 22.8 gr H110.

All primers were seated correctly, a couple of thousands below flush. On one out of 75 shots, the primer fired but it sounded like a squib. The boolit left the case and was stuck half in the chamber and half in the forcing cone.

At first I was berating myself, thinking, "How did I miss putting powder in that case."

I used a wooden dowel rod and tapped the boolit back into the case in the chamber so the cylinder would get freed back up. Then I pulled the boolit from the case. It was full of unburnt powder, the primer simply didn't get a good burn going.

I had purchased 20,000 Wolf primers late last year, and this is the first problem I've had in the first 3,000 or so used.

 

[Funderb]

only one out of 75? lets hope it was the only one out of 20,000

maybe the powder got oily on that one, or the primer got oily.

 

[arizona98tj]

I had purchased 20,000 Wolf primers late last year, and this is the first problem I've had in the first 3,000 or so used.

only one out of 75? lets hope it was the only one out of 20,000

I believe he is at 1 out of 3K right now.

 

[Funderb]

thats no so bad. well, it is bad, but maybe it was just a little too luby.

 

[helg]

Would you consider to dump the rest 17K of these junky primers?

 

[jbrown13]

Me Too

I also had a Wolf SP primer fail to go off yesterday at the range. Ran it back through and nothing again. Pulled the bullet and flash hole was clear and I could see the shiny primer anvil through it. This is my first failure in about 3,000 bangs. Is this unique to the Wolf brand? I seem to remember seeing pictures on a forum of a bad primer (not Wolf) that was photographed still in its factory box.

 

[Walkalong]

At the rate they are making primers these days, a bad one might slip through that would not have when they were not as pressed to get em out as fast as possible. Just a thought. You know, get in a rush and make mistakes.

 

[Doug b]

"At the rate they are making primers these days, a bad one might slip through that would not have when they were not as pressed to get em out as fast as possible."

Walkalong I been thinking along the same line and decided to add a little diligence to my priming operation and will mark any primer containers bought in the next year or so for closer exam under magnification.

 

[Jumping Frog]

After I had a chance to think about it, I was awfully glad that the misfire happened when I was target shooting .44 mag. The revolver could not continue to fire even if I had tried, since the cylinder couldn't rotate.

My nightmare scenario would be combat shooting one of my semi-autos in 9mm, .40 S&W, or .45 ACP. If the first shot of a doubletap misfires and leaves one in the barrel, I would be at great risk of not stopping the second shot in time.

It stinks when your best case scenario leaves you with a ruined barrel. Still better than a blown gun and bloody hand . . .

 

[Steve C]

...240 gr gas checked SWC cast boolits; and 22.8 gr H110.......The boolit left the case and was stuck half in the chamber and half in the forcing cone.

You may be a victim of an H110 squib.

Hodgdon lists no loads for 240gr Cast bullets with H110 in their on line loading manual and looking and Hanloads.com the only H110 loads I found with a lead 240gr bullet where all 25.0 grains or more. The maximum load for a 240gr jacketed bullet in the .44 mag is 24.0 grains with a minimum load of 23.0 grains. While your load of 22.8 is very close to the minimum load H110 usually has a warning regarding loading lighter than 3% less than maximum. Doing the math a 3% reduction from 24.0 grains is 23.28 grains, closer to 23.3 so essentially you are running 1/2 grain below recommended for a 240grain bullet.

You are likely on that ragged edge of power density where you will see occasional squibs usning that light a load with H110.

I'd suggest upping your charge by at least .5 grains if you want to use H110 or switching to a less volume and density sensitive powder.

 

[sammy]

I have had 2 dead primers in 10,000 with Wolf large pistol primers. When loading my primer tubes I have seen, 4 times the anvil fell out of the primer. I just tossed them and never tried to use them. It is possible that the 2 dead ones had missing anvils but I never pulled them to look.

Out of the 20,000 Winchester large pistol I have had no dead ones.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

good post I'll look over closely any Wolf primers after they are aligned in my hand primer.

 

[bluetopper]

The only and recent batch of Wolf primers I bought was $100 per 5k. This won't deter me from buying more at that price.

 

[Walkalong]

My nightmare scenario would be combat shooting one of my semi-autos in 9mm, .40 S&W, or .45 ACP.

It won't cycle the slide, so if you don't rack the slide and shoot again without checking, your OK. I think the danger of shooting another round after a squib is much worse with a revolver.