Rough day at the range

[ralphie98]

Went to the range today and had a few of those moments that make me want to get back in bed and start the day over again. First off, I should start by saying I had my very first squib last weekend after 7-8k rounds loaded. That got me down pretty bad and I wanted vindication today. Started out with the same gun, same ammo (anybody see mistake 1?). Third round into the magazine I had squib #2. If I were smart I would have started with the stuff I loaded up last weekend where I was a lot more careful, and finished with the bad batch but that doesn't make for good story telling on the internet. Eventually I learn from my mistakes so I will be pulling the rest of that batch (only about 20 left) and being more careful in the future.

I Move on to shooting the 1911. Just about every other magazine I'm having failure to feeds. When I was working up this load I got it dialed in to where I didn't have any problems with feeding for over 200 rounds so I loaded up over 1k more. I REALLY hope I don't have this issue with the rest of them. I truly think it is the bullet shape/profile of the Rainier 230gr. bullets I'm using that my gun doesn't like. I ran factory remington and wolf through just fine and the only difference I can see is the shape of the bullet. I know I've run winchester 230's through in the past with no issues. Anybody else ever have issues with Rainier bullets feeding? I guess I'll have to figure it out before I place my next bullet order.

What makes it worse is that I was working with a 1st time shooter and the last thing you wanna deal with while teaching someone is failures. On the plus side, I was shooting awesome with the 1911 and my S&W 642 (no failures with the .38's!!) so I guess I can sleep well tonight.

 

[A-FIXER]

I would have weighed the lot you were having squibs with to ensure you got proper powder and or pulled them. It happens to all of us sooner or later but the up side is the first time shooter will know these are tools of the trade and nothing I mean nothing is for sure ever...
Luck...

 

[788Ham]

Groundhog Day?

 

[1SOW]

I would have weighed the lot you were having squibs with to ensure you got proper powder and or pulled them

Won't work reliably. Bullets AND cases have varying weights. Unless you have a very "heavy" load, weighing them won't ID the ones with no or too little powder.

 

[LiveLife]

+1, Case weights will vary by several grains or more and bullets may vary by a few grains too (depending on type and manufacture).

 

[Shadow 7D]

+1, Case weights will vary by several grains or more and bullets may vary by a few grains too (depending on type and manufacture).

Yeah, but you can load 10 good ones with the same components, and calculate a standard deviation, then weigh everything and pull everything that's outside of the SD. It would cut down your work significantly while make the possible of a squib getting by you, well pretty unlikely.

 

[LiveLife]

Shadow, it could be done but the OP did not indicate the cases/bullets were weighed before being reloaded. If they weren't weighed prior to reloading, weighing the finished rounds would be difficult to determine which cases did not have a powder charge. Even if you pulled the lighter cases, it would not ensure you got all the cases without a powder charge. And no, I do not weigh/sort pistol cases, nor do I trim to length straight walled semi-auto cases.

Rifle is another story as I do weigh and sort .308 cases by weight after resizing/trimming along with the bullets. And powder charges are much higher.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Yeah, but that's the point, you can find what the heaviest set of components are, compare it to the lightest possible loaded round with the lightest of 10 pours from your powder meter and pull anything below the higher number, or find the SD of 10 rounds and pull anything on out side it, as that would include MOST under charges and most over charges, but not all, depending the variability of the continents, and I actually learned how to do that, but it's been a while. A simple SD (not that hard of a calculation) with the above checks of the max weight minus powder will get you MOST of them, but some will still get through.

If you want 100%, well, you will never get there, it's just how many 9's you want after the point.

 

[Bovice]

I avoid squibs from a powder charge standpoint by looking into the case that I'm about to seat a bullet in and verify the presence of powder. I do not use a bullet feeder, I place each one onto the case mouth by hand.

I also have a powder cop die placed just after my powder measure, so I also look at that when the ram is up. It's a pretty good system and I haven't squibbed yet.

 

[Starter52]

Bad days at the range. We've all had them.

I currently have about 150 rounds of .41 magnum ammo in a plastic bag, awaiting a session with the RCBS bullet puller. Reason? Three squib loads at the range last fall. I pulled a few remaining loads and they all had powder. I suspect the powder was bad.

 

[gamestalker]

There is no substitue for safe reloading procedures. The squibs are a good indication that attention to detail is lacking, severely lacking. If you are experiencing squibs, it's very possible you'll soon be experiencing a double charge. I don't know how long you've been reloading, but I've been at it for over 30 yrs. and have never had one squib or double charge. This has nothing to do with luck, and has everything to do with attention to detail.
Regarding the feeding issues, I don't know what to tell you, I would only be guessing, and I don't use that mind set when I reload. What I can tell you is to rethink how you are going about this process, that in no way depends on luck, or guess work. I have no idea where you are in the load range, but I would take a good look at the charge your running to make sure it is providing enough pressure to reliably function in that firearm. Light loads can be problematic with auto loading actions.

 

[ralphie98]

Yeah, my plan is to pull the rest of my bad batch which is only 20 rounds. I use an inertia puller so it will still take me a while but a little punishment for myself might do me some good. Good thing is that I know what the cause of the squibs was and I plan on changing up my routine a little to prevent it. I use the Hornady LNL progressive which has the bushings. On a number of cases the resizing operation is so tough that it literally shakes my whole reloading bench. The shaking caused the bushing holding the powder measure to loosen to the point where instead of pushing up the collet to drop the powder it pushes up the whole assembly and the powder never drops. I've caught this many times but apparently not every time. Aside from tightening up the bushing for the powder I will also be moving the resizing die to my single stage press. I also adjusted the height of my stool so I can see into the charged cases a lot better. Hopefully I will avoid this in the future.

 

[ralphie98]

Gamestalker -you are correct that it has everything to do with not paying attention. I laid out in my previous post what the deal was. And as far as the jams with 45 I'm not sure if the powder charge would do it since it sometimes hangs when I slingshot the first round in. I'm using 4.0 gr of. Bullseye which should be good for lead (Rainier says to use lead data). I'm going to be trying my lee FCD to see if that clears it up. I will also be investigating other bullet options if that doesn't clear it up.

 

[454PB]

I don't know if this applies in your situation, but if the slide is closing, but not fully in battery, it could be that your Rainer bullets are not seated deeply enough. Have you tried dropping a loaded round in the barrel while it is removed from the gun? You might want to make up some dummy rounds and run them through the gun manually.

 

[dbarnhart]

>>>I Move on to shooting the 1911. Just about every other magazine I'm having failure to feeds<<<

Weak magazine spring? I had several OLD magazines that I always kept loaded for a few years. When I finally pulled them out of the drawer and started using them I was getting LOTs of FTFs. I replaced them with new Wilson Combat magazines and have had no problems since.

 

[dbarnhart]

ralphie98,

I have one of these mounted on my LnL. it allows me to easily visually-inspect the powder charge in each case:

http://www.inlinefabrication.com/LED_LIGHTING_SYSTEMS.html

>>On a number of cases the resizing operation is so tough that it literally shakes my whole reloading bench<<

Is this rifle brass? I lube, size, and trim in a separate operation. That way the delicate stuff (primer insertion, powder, bullet seating) is nice and gentle and smooth.

 

[Hondo 60]

This is exactly why I separate by headstamp.

Yes, there's a weight difference from case to case.
But it's MUCH more pronounced with varying headstamps.

So I sort by headstamp & if there's an issue like squibs, I can weigh each round.

Now if the charge weight is only 3 grains or so, that doesn't help.
But if you're reloading with heavier charge weights it helps a lot.

 

[popper]

Had one squib in 30-30 before Cristmas. Bullet never left the case. Thought about how it maight have occurred and decided that I had had a 'cruncy' powder drop, dumped powder from that case back into the hopper.. WENT ON TO THE NEXT CASE!! I've changed my habit now - pull a case from the jar, fill it and then put it in the loading block. Distractions, distractions.