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Posted: 12/16/2013 10:47:18 AM EDT
| Hey all I have a problem with my reloads. The other day at the range I shot about 90rds and 10-15 of them did not fire. I get them home and pull the bullet to find the powder is clump together. I keep the reloads on stripper clips and in an ammo can. What could be causing this? I know it is not case lube because I dry tumble them for hours after re-sizing and trimming them. Does anyone else have this problem? |
| The clumping could be the result of some compression of the powder charge, not necessarily an issue, or a result of unwanted moisture in the powder. You sure the loads didn't go off for some reason other than the powder? Did the primer go off at all?? If there were light hits on the primers you issue could be primer seating or something along those lines as opposed to the clumping powder. |
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Quoted:
Hey all I have a problem with my reloads. The other day at the range I shot about 90rds and 10-15 of them did not fire. I get them home and pull the bullet to find the powder is clump together. I keep the reloads on stripper clips and in an ammo can. What could be causing this? I know it is not case lube because I dry tumble them for hours after re-sizing and trimming them. Does anyone else have this problem? More details! Rifle or Pistol? Powder and powder charge? How are you seating your primers? Did the primers go bang, not just a dent, actually fired? Did you try and fire them a second or third time. |
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Need more details on you load, including how you clean your cases. I've seen clumped powder when there are moisture issues, and compressed loads that were loaded for several years and pulled down. Also if primer went off, but for some reason powder didn't ignite. Poor neck tension, unsuitable burn rate of powder, wrong primer..... Pull then down and post pics of powder, and primers. Primer anvil side up. Up in FAQ's there are pic posting instructions, if you don't know how. |
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Quoted:
The clumping could be the result of some compression of the powder charge, not necessarily an issue, or a result of unwanted moisture in the powder. You sure the loads didn't go off for some reason other than the powder? Did the primer go off at all?? If there were light hits on the primers you issue could be primer seating or something along those lines as opposed to the clumping powder. Looking over the cases all the primers were not seated properly. I did not think to look at the primers too hard because when I pulled the bullets the first thing I noticed was all of them had clumped powder. If this compression of the powder is normal then it must be that the primers were not seated properly. I am very embarrassed. 
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I cant do pics all I have is a crappy cell camera. The cases in general are .223 with 55gr surplus on top of X-Terminator powder. Basically here is my cleaning routine I resize using the lubricant, trim then dry tumble for several hours I prime, charge, seat the bullet, crimp and then tumble again with Nu-Finish.
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Ok on the load data and case prep. Still need case headstamp/s. With a high primer, the first strike usually will seat the primer, and the second strike will fire the round. Next time this happens, try a second strike on the primer. If round fires, you know the problem. Next question, did these cases have crimped primers pockets? Did you remove the crimp before seating primers?  Your last QC check for loaded rounds is to check for high primers. They should be below flush, like the pistol pointer is pointing to. |
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Ok on the load data and case prep. Still need case headstamp/s. With a high primer, the first strike usually will seat the primer, and the second strike will fire the round. Next time this happens, try a second strike on the primer. If round fires, you know the problem. Next question, did these cases have crimped primers pockets? Did you remove the crimp before seating primers? <a href="http://s250.photobucket.com/user/dryflash3/media/Cases/PC290025-2.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg272/dryflash3/Cases/PC290025-2.jpg</a> Your last QC check for loaded rounds is to check for high primers. They should be below flush, like the pistol pointer is pointing to. Yes the primer pockets were crimped. The cases were a mix of LC 10, WCC and PMC PSD. I did swage all the primer pockets with a Dillon super swager. I do believe that the misfires were due to high primers but I do not know why the powder is clumping inside the dry loaded cartridge. |
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How did you determine the amount of swaging was enough to remove the crimp? When you swage, you need to separate headstamps as the webs are thicker/thinner on some brands. Which means some cases can be over swaged (loose primer pockets) and some under swaged (primers were not seated fully) if brass is not sorted to headstamp and swager adjusted for each headstamp. This is what I think happened, under swaged cases with primers not seated fully. When you have a lot of experience swaging you may not need to sort cases, just vary how much you swage by how much the swager handle is moved.
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Quoted:
How did you determine the amount of swaging was enough to remove the crimp? When you swage, you need to separate headstamps as the webs are thicker/thinner on some brands. Which means some cases can be over swaged (loose primer pockets) and some under swaged (primers were not seated fully) if brass is not sorted to headstamp and swager adjusted for each headstamp. This is what I think happened, under swaged cases with primers not seated fully. When you have a lot of experience swaging you may not need to sort cases, just vary how much you swage by how much the swager handle is moved. I looked at the inner rim of the primer pocket and it was rounded liked the pic in the manual so I assumed it was properly swaged. |
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What primer and how many grains of powder? I was having hang fires and duds with wolf primers and light charges of wc844 Quoted:
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The cases in general are .223 with 55gr surplus on top of X-Terminator powder. What primer and how many grains of powder? I was having hang fires and duds with wolf primers and light charges of wc844 I am using Wolf Magnum small rifle primers with 25gr of X-Terminator. I believe it is somewhere around 25grs anyway. I am using a lee powder disk measure so it is kind of hard to tell. |
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Quoted: I looked at the inner rim of the primer pocket and it was rounded liked the pic in the manual so I assumed it was properly swaged. Quoted: Quoted: How did you determine the amount of swaging was enough to remove the crimp? When you swage, you need to separate headstamps as the webs are thicker/thinner on some brands. Which means some cases can be over swaged (loose primer pockets) and some under swaged (primers were not seated fully) if brass is not sorted to headstamp and swager adjusted for each headstamp. This is what I think happened, under swaged cases with primers not seated fully. When you have a lot of experience swaging you may not need to sort cases, just vary how much you swage by how much the swager handle is moved. I looked at the inner rim of the primer pocket and it was rounded liked the pic in the manual so I assumed it was properly swaged. When set correctly, then run the batch. Always confirm your set up.
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