Misfires after wet cleaning brass. Reuse powder?

Reuse?

  • No! You're a maniac!

    Votes: 22 88.0%

  • Sure, can't be that bad!

    Votes: 3 12.0%
  • Total voters
    25
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M

Miroslav

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Joined
Jul 30, 2018
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Hello,

I had a bunch a misfires after loading brass that had not properly dried out after wet (dishwashing detergent and hot water) cleaning. Roughly 50 % of the cartridges would not fire, I had two separate rifles with me to the range that day, so I don't think it was firing pin related. The primers were seated deep but from experience, I don't think that was the issue.

Today I've finally had the time to use my RCBS bullet puller (awesome piece of kit! Throw those stupid hammers in the bin) to take the cartridges apart. The powders looks absolutely fine, except for a thin layer of powder that is stuck to the bottom of the inside of the case. The powder that didn't freely flow out of the case has been thrown away already, but I kept the powder that seemed fine. Should I reuse it?

My conclusion is a) the problem really was moisture, because otherwise the powder grains wouldn't stick like that b) the powder looks fine, so it's safe to reuse and expect reasonable performance.

This is for my everyday hunting load, not for competition of long range deer sniping exercises. Is my thinking in the clear?
 
Once you are certain that the remaining propellant is dry reuse it. I have reclaimed propellant from shot shells that was left submerged in water for weeks. I let it dry in the cut off hull. Then reused the primer and propellant along with the shot/wad in a different hull. There were 100+ of them. All of them worked at the next trap shoot without problems. For hunting some might not try this but I would not hesatate. Just be sure your primers are dry as well and seated enough.
 
I am sorta on the cheap side but using the powder on the flowers isn't really throwing it away. My limited understanding of powder manufacturers is that it is basically some form of nitrocellulose coated with graphite to control burn rate so if the powder got wet would it be possible to change burn rate?
 
If it failed the first time I wouldn't bother to try it a second time. Just grit your teeth, use new, and do a better job of case drying the next time. I just wet cleaned quite a bit of brass. It doesn't take long to dry sitting outside on my steel work bench when the temperature is 107 and the wind is blowing. I would much prefer a little more people friendly weather and a little longer drying time.
 
As I was saying.....;)

The local PD and FD give me all their turned in ammo to demil. 99 % is usable. I keep each propellant charge seperate and break up any that's caked up. As long as everything looks good I will reassemble it into a new case or hull if needed. Old unknown propellant and what is in rimfire is sent to the garden though. In the OP's case he knows what he used and the primer. Also it only got damp/slightly wet. Use it over, measuring the charges again.
 
mdi said:
On your pulled cartridges, did the primer fire and just fail to ignite the powder? Or did the primer fail?
Click to expand...

That is something I should have kept track of! I did not examine the primers, but the powder looked unburnt. While googling I found discussions with people asking if their wet primers were trash. They were told that the primers that had gotten bad were probably still good to go. I guess both primers and powder are usually fine after thoroughly dried.
 
Im about to start a primer kill test . The plan is to soak primers in several different solutions then attempt to discharge them after specific durations of time in solution. Something like 12hr , 24hr , 48hr , 1 week , 2 weeks then a final test after each has dried back out

I’ll post a link here when I get it started .
 
I have a theory, unproved, and unsubstantiated:

Small droplets of moisture in the powder start the chemical cascade that results in powder decomposing.

If that's true, fully dried powder might be OK. Personally, I'd favor the flower bed solution.
 
Ball powder is manufactured in water at St. Marks in Florida. Wetting powder and then drying it doesn't necessarily result in a chemical change, but water is a solvent (it erodes mountains) so we cannot say that it is impossible for water to break down the propellant granules through a mechanical change that results in different combustion characteristics. If it was gently wet, and gently dried, it would probably work consistent with the original powder. Still, unless you wet many pounds of powder, I don't see much value in doing anything but cutting your losses and moving on. Just don't do it again.

How will you avoid this in the future? I can tell you I made the same mistake with 100 rounds of handgun ammo when I was new to wet tumbling. What I did to avoid a repeat is to:

BUY MORE BRASS -- the only reason I'd rush to use wet brass fresh from the tumbler is because I didn't have a few thousand cases that were already dry for weeks.

I have some brass drying techniques and I know you'll get dozens of procedures from others, but however elaborate and certain your drying procedure is, the only reason to go to such lengths is to turn wet brass into dry brass quickly because you don't have enough dry brass on hand to begin with.
 
I think any powder that at least wasn’t clumped, would still be good to go. I’d use it.

im more curious about the condition of The primers, and whether or not they even ignited
 
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