Why do handloads fail?

[db4570]

I did some handloading years ago with good success, so I know the basics.

Why do handloads fail? Some trustworthy gun experts (Chuck Hawks is one, for instance) seem to suggest never trusting handloads for critical life or death security. These aren't people who are ignorant about handloading or anti- handloading. They may even hand load themselves. But it seems like nobody really trusts hand loads 100%.

Then, recently, I read the results of a pistol torture test comparing several different models of guns and ammo that all fired 1000 rounds in a structured situation. The results were pretty interesting (I can find the link, probably, if anyone's interested) and it showed general trends in reliability, including feeding, firing, jamming, etc. The most dramatic difference was with the contestants who were shooting hand loads. The difference was DRAMATIC. All of the handload shooters had such poor reliability they were basically in a category all their own.

I could understand that there might be a couple of sloppy reloaders in that mix, but would also assume there would be some really meticulous ones, too. So assuming this, it seems that even a meticulous hand loader shouldn't trust the reliability of his loads.

Why is this? What is the Achilles heel of hand loads? Contaminated primers? Feed problems due to poor case sizing? Bullets not seated tightly?

Opinions, arguments, and experiences welcome!

David

 

[jpwilly]

I'll shoot 250-500rnds of 45ACP in a single range session. My standard loads all go bang everytime. Only once when I experimented with SWC bullets and didn't crimp them well enough did I have any reliability issues with quite a few of those 250 rounds causing fail to return to battery when the bullets set back in the case. Also, had 1 primer that was in backwards...don't know how that happened but it did.

 

[moosehunt]

A few poor handloaders with low quality/low maintained shooters, and BS pretty much answers your question. I trust handloads WAY over factory. I would never consider leaving the country on a $20K hunt (and I've been on a bunch) with factory ammo. I want my handloads which I KNOW will perform.

 

[1858rem]

i think its reloaders tryin to crank out as many reloads as possible in the shortest time before they go shoot. not cleanin primer pockets, media stuck in flash hole, not complete sizing or crimp stroke leading to poor dimensions, missed droppin a powder charge... slow down even 15 min an hr an it will be more reliable ammo

 

[joneb]

My important reloads are loaded on a single stage press, and if I put my mind to it I am confident they will be as reliable as any factory ammo, I have had two FTF in approx. 50+K rnds, the most recent was do to a absence of primer compound, now I inspect every primer, how many ammo manufacturers do that ?

 

[Idano]

In over 30 years of reloading I have only had 4 reloads fail. One I missed charging the case. I use to stage my reloading with reloading blocks when I reloaded on my single stage press but after that incident I charge case then immediately seat the bullet. Then I killed three rounds with WD40 and water. Yep, WD40 can kill rounds and primers contrary to what others have said, it happened to me on one late season elk hunt. We had been hunting early in the morning when we got caught in a heavy snow storm, I was soaked and so was my gun. Soon as I got back to the truck I sprayed the gun down with WD40, barrel, bolt, chamber and magazine. When we got back to camp about four hours later I removed the rounds in the magazine and wiped them down and then cleaned up the gun. The next day I started out with those same four round I had in the magazine the day before that got soaked and sprayed down with WD40; 3 out of the 4 would not fire.

On the flip side of the coin I have had one 30-06 Remington Core-Lock FTF and I have had a couple of 22-250 Winchesters fail that I have bought so nothing is guaranteed in my experience.

 

[Linear Thinker]

After ~30 years of reloading, including commercially, I have a few answers:

1. Contaminated primers. Don't clean guns anywhere near your reloading bench. Don't even store a can of WD-40 near your reloading equipment or supplies. Other than that, no worries. I handle primers with my fingers while single-priming rifle brass, and never had a contaminated one. Just wash your hands before reloading.

2. Incorrect primer seating. You need to seat the primer until the anvil legs bottom in the primer pocket, and sensitize the pellet.

3. No powder - had that happen. Usually when I was distracted while loading.

4. Brass size issues, eg. incomplete resizing. New brass needs to be sized.

5. Bullet issues - wrong caliber bullet, bullet seated out too far. I saw factory bullet mistakes more than once, eg. .308 bullet in a box of .270s.

By the way, I trust my loads much more than factory fodder. I found a factory defective round (no flash hole in the case) in my carry ammo, it was an expensive defensive load (Fe**** Hy***-Sh***). Fortunately, I found it on the range, not on the street. I still carry factory loads for liability reasons, but that is another discussion.
LT

 

[Guy B. Meredith]

Well, I've loaded over 20,000 rounds in the last 8 years and every one has gone "bang" and headed for the X ring. Someone has to hold up this end of the curve.

I don't know where the stats come from, but after being involved in competition shooting where reloading is the norm I have yet to see a failure.

 

[db4570]

OK! This is the kind of stuff I want to hear.

(I also wouldn't mind hearing some from the other side, but I guess I shouldn't expect to on a reloading forum!)

I think the one point I was a bit uncertain about was the crimp. I somehow always felt the factory crimp would be the most correct and rugged. I had heard an anecdote about a guy loading for a big Africa hunt only to find out that his bullets had moved because of the jostling of travel. In my earlier experiments reloading, I was never that trusting of my crimp. I probably just need to really study up on technique.

Primers seem to be the other trouble spot, but it seems that if you keep them clean, and clean the pockets correctly, and seat them properly, you guys trust them as much as factory.

Any other trouble spots? Other input is welcome. Does anyone want to be the one to say he trusts factory ammo more than his best hand loads?

Thanks!

David

 

[GRIZ22]

there would be some really meticulous ones

I guess that would describe me. I still use a single stage press and incorporate multiple inspection procedures. Yes, I know it's slow and it takes me time to crank out a quantity of rounds but I feel that's the price I pay for quality. The only thing that could possibly result in a bad round I've loaded and inspected is a bad primer or perhaps a catastrophic case failure and I've never had either. I have had factory rounds with dead primers, backwards primers, no primer, no wad or shot etc once in a while. I'm sure I shot at least several hundred thousand rounds in 40+ years and had exactly one factory squib load. Besides Dave summed it up with something I've said for some time:

Does anyone want to be the one to say he trusts factory ammo more than his best hand loads?


I've known the person in charge of quality control of my hand loads all my life.

ps I'd say the most common problem is primers, contamianted, not seated properly, etc

 

[Kevwyo]

I had a catastrophic AR failure using Federal XM193 ball ammo. I shoot 95% reloads of my own making in both 5.56, .40, and .45. With the very rare exception of a primer not wanting to do it's part (perhaps a half dozen times over thousands and thousands of rounds) my reloads are very reliable. My guess would be in the 98-99% region. If I pull the trigger the gun goes boom and sometimes I even hit what I am aiming at.

 

[1858rem]

i have only been reloading upwards of two month and so far have only had one ftf.... forgot to resize an seat new primer!!!.... very mad about that one too, cause it was some of my brand new starline brass, after sizing trimming and chamfering 200 rds (of 45 colt) i was not going to toss it an i had no bullet puller, an i was a little tight on powder so i stuck a screw through the dead primer, pulled an seated a new. bad practice i know, but thats my own decision i guess. so 1 in 800 isnt bad

 

[moooose102]

i have not been reloading all that long, but i trust my handloads. i have had the same fail rate for handloads, and factory loads. one each. there is nothing in this world perfect. and i think murphy was a relative somehow, because anything that can go wrong, does for me! if i knew i was going to be in a life or death situation (hunting dangerous game, or ccw on the streets, i would (and do) pay extra attention to those rounds. not so much on plinker loads for just fun. but even those fun loads get attention. just for some loads, i try HARD for perfection.

 

[qajaq59]

The only deer I ever lost to a FTF was with factory ammo. Not one of my loads. And it failed in 2 other rifles as well.

I use my hand loads to hunt hogs. And since I can neither run, nor climb a tree, I'd say that indicates that I trust my own loads a 100%.

Hand loads are as reliable as the guy loading them. Cut corners and you'll get crap. Do it by the book and you wont have any problems.

 

[NCsmitty]

Shortcuts and lack of attention to details will get you in trouble every time. You need to focus on the job at hand and not get distracted. Many treat handloading as a chore instead of the great hobby it is and they're always in a hurry.
I do not use loading blocks and I handle each case to charge and then seat the bullet in sequence. Every rifle charge gets scaled to + or - .1gr which is not difficult to do if you have an accurate measure. The same for my T.Contender loads.
My regular handgun loads are randomly checked by scale as they will shoot closer than I can hold usually anyway.

As simple as ABC-Always Be Careful.

Oh ya, I trust my reloads implicitly.

NCsmitty

 

[Walkalong]

Shortcuts and lack of attention to details will get you in trouble every time. You need to focus on the job at hand and not get distracted.

Ditto. It's all about focus. Those who do not, end up having problems.

 

[cracked butt]

Food for thought:

At our hunting camp this year, one of the guys lost an opportunity at a deer because the factory ammo he was shooting didn't go off. I'm not going to name the brand, but at the end of the day, 10 rounds were taken out of the box and we attempted to fire them. 4 out of the 10 did not go off even after multiple attempts to fire them. The primers showed good firing pin strikes.The ammo was bought a year ago.

 

[bullseye308]

I have been reloading for about 10 years. In this last year I have loaded more that the last 9, about 13k this year and 11k for the last 9. I am in no hurry even on the Loadmonster and check every powder charge visually. I hand prime every case and cast my own bullets. Somehow I missed a powder charge in a 9mm and lodged a bullet in the barrel at the range one time. In 24k I had one bad round that was my fault, but shooting factory I have had about 8 in 2500 rds, mostly fail to fire. One would not chamber(38) and one was way hot and split the case(357).
It's like driving a car in rush hour traffic every day. If you pay attention you will be fine. If you don't, well.....

 

[ranger335v]

"there might be a couple of sloppy reloaders in that mix, but would also assume there would be some really meticulous ones, too. So assuming this, it seems that even a meticulous hand loader shouldn't trust the reliability of his loads."

Didn't see the report you site but I suspect the conclusions you've drawn from it are off target a bit. I mean, it is likley that MOST of the ammo fired by reloaders was fine but the mistakes of a few would likely have accounted for the failures. And I wonder if perhaps the failed rounds didn't come off poorly operated progressive presses. ??

I have had two failures to fire with factory ammo in my 68 years. Had four more with reloads in the last 45 years but I've fired far more reloads than factory. One was due to a poor primer seating job shortly after I started loading and the other had a primer missing the compound. I could have spotted that lack IF I had eyeballed the primers before seating them. I do now, but have never seen another like that. The other two were recent, two consectuive .45ACP loads that failed to fire in a friends brand new Glock. But, they fired fine in my 1911! Meaning, sometimes failures are due to the weapon, not the ammo.

Use good techiques. Pay attention to each step, on each round. Don't handle primers with grungy, oily hands. YOUR ammo can function as well or better than any factory stuff!

 

[The Bushmaster]

I haven't a clue why hand loads fail. Like others here I've been reloading for over 20 years and have NOT had a failure of ANY of my hand loads.

Of course I am very meticulous about the the process. Clean dry cases, properly stored powder and primers. And most of all...Paying attention to what I'm doing and not allowing any one or thing to distract me...

I've have had failures with factory ammunition.

 

[jerkface11]

The writers who come up with this crap usually own sizable portions of some ammo manufacturer.

 

[Steve C]

Handloads fail from poor quality control. I believe the warning not to use handloads refers more to commercial reloads, new hand loaders and a warning against using handloads where you have no real knowledge of their production. Some people will use the cheapest ammo they can find and that's often from a commercial reloader.

I have had and seen failures to fire of factory ammo but its rare. I've seen many more failures with commercial reloads.

In semi auto's I carry factory ammo because I can buy police surplus ammo that's more potent than anything I'd be willing able to load myself, some of which is due to component availability. My revolvers on the other hand may be loaded with hand loads.

 

[tasco 74]

been reloading for over 20 years and only had 2 that didn't go bang... i don't know why i had these ftfs..... still i keep factory loads in the speed loader for my s&w.... don't really have any mistrust in my handloaded ammo as it's more accurate and consistant than factory loads.....................


LIFE IS SHORT.....

 

[rcmodel]

In 46 years reloading, I have never had a *misfire handload, a squib load, or any other problem.
*O.K.! I have had misfires using some WWII surplus Lg Rifle primers, but it was expected.

I have had feed failures during the development stages of working up loads for a new or different gun or caliber or bullet.

During the same time period, I have had a round of GI issue 5.56 without a primer flash hole in the case.
Found factory primers seated upside down a couple of times.
Found factory cases with crunched case mouths that would not feed or chamber.
Had numerous mis-fires with factory ammo.

And I have never shot that all much factory ammo, except in the service, and to get cases for reloading.

In short, given a choice, I would trust my own reloads in a life or death situation further then I would trust factory ammo.

The only exception would be shotgun ammo.
No way I can make a reload shot-shell crimp as tight & good as the unfired factory one!
Still, I trust them enough to drive 300 miles and go pheasant hunting once a year, so I guess they ain't all that bad!

rcmodel

 

[dardascastbullets]

David,

Are you just trolling here?