Slow powder

[ready4shtf]

I was checking my barrel and noticed that there are still grains of powder left in it after each shot, and the receiver. Does that mean my powder burns too slow?

 

[Hiaboo]

No.. just scrape off some of the grains and save 'em in a pile and try to light it. Chances is that they're just "skeletons". Powder that has burnt but not completely.

 

[rcmodel]

More then likely, it means you are shooting light loads, and not developing enough pressure to get it all lit up.

What caliber & load are we guessing about?

rcmodel

 

[KI.W.]

I think like mr rcmodel. If Yuo use rifle, maybe more crimping makes cleaner barrel.

 

[ready4shtf]

It's 300 whisper out of a 12" suppressed AR SBR. I was loading AA 1680 with 10.5g and a 220gn SMK.

 

[rcmodel]

OH!
A lot of strange things happens with suppressors.
Back-pressure may be blowing crap back into the action that you wouldn't otherwise ever see.

rcmodel

 

[ready4shtf]

It looked like close to 1/8th of the powder being left over. It was powder, but now tan/orange instead of black/grey. I figured I was getting an incomplete burn, because some of my loads in the 150g and 165g range should have been supersonic, but they were not.

 

[Matt304]

I was having the same thing happen with some slow powder.

You can increase the bullet weight, or increase powder charge for some effect, but the best way to deal with it is to move to a faster burning powder. You could try hotter primers instead with that load, as they will also jump the pressure up. With the 300 whisper, there are a lot of medium and fast powders that will work, though, so I would just switch.

Most powder should not leave much behind at all if it is burned under the correct pressures, and you also don't want excessive barrel fouling for the sake of accuracy. Even with a silencer, the powder should be used fully and not leaving large grains, as it should be burned by the time it reaches the silencer.