Hang fires?

[jrcarbine]

Hey guys, I'm generally new to reloading and I tried reloading a .300 win mag today. I used once fired Remington brass, h414 powder, Hornady 180grain btsp and dominion large rifle primers. So, I loaded the shells with exactly 60 grains of h414. I made five rounds to test. When I shot my first round, the primer went off, but it took the powder about a half a second to ignite. So I continued shooting the rest and they all consistently took about a half a second to fire after the trigger was pulled. Now my question is, do I need large magnum rifle primers for the .300 win mag? Will that same thing happen if I loaded my .243 win with H414 and used large rifle primers?

Also, my accuracy with my .300 win mag hang fire rounds was very poor. I got about a 5 inch group at 75 yards, could have the hang fire caused this? Thanks

 

[madcow]

I would say your primers are the issue

 

[Magellann]

Me too, if all 5 acted the same, the other possibility may be if you used really old or damp powder, that was going bad.

 

[jrcarbine]

I just did a little research and some people say that you have to use Large magnum rifle primers with h414, magnum cartridge or not.

 

[silverfoxdj]

Change the primers and try some test loads..

 

[evansd]

hodgdon site calls for magnum primers for that load here is a link for their data w w w.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

 

[PitBull1973]

I have a 300 WM that I use for PR . First off you should be using large magnum primers and I would suggest using a match primer

 

[Cleftwynd]

Magnum primers should always be used with ball powders in large volume cases.

 

[Suputin]

How did you measure out the 60 grains?

 

['Boo]

Those Russian primers appear to be too "weak" for that much ball powder. There are a few complaints about that issue floating around on the internet.

 

[dero338]

FEDERAL MAGNUM primers and nothing else.
Its the only brand I never had a miss or slow fire.
I still use cci for target in other rifles, but I dont thrust nothing else than FEDERAL for hunting.

 

[jrcarbine]

How did you measure out the 60 grains?

I went on hodgdon's website, got my load data, then I measured it on my Hornady 1500 electronic scale.

 

[jrcarbine]

FEDERAL MAGNUM primers and nothing else.
Its the only brand I never had a miss or slow fire.
I still use cci for target in other rifles, but I dont thrust nothing else than FEDERAL for hunting.

Sounds good, ill give them a try. Do you use federal 215, or 210?

 

[jrcarbine]

hodgdon site calls for magnum primers for that load here is a link for their data w w w.hodgdonreloading.com/data/rifle

Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't notice that it specified what primer to use.

 

[fingers284]

Now for the bad news...hand fires are very notorious for causing ringed chambers or minute barrel bulges. What happens is the primer firing starts the bullet out of the case and into the bore, it stops, and then the powder fires, the bullet, so far ahead of the charge acts as a bore obstruction when the pressure hits it at it's highest force. Inspect your chamber with a good light source and run a very tight patch down the bore, if you have "loose areas" in the bore the accuracy might never come back to what it was before.

 

[jrcarbine]

Now for the bad news...hand fires are very notorious for causing ringed chambers or minute barrel bulges. What happens is the primer firing starts the bullet out of the case and into the bore, it stops, and then the powder fires, the bullet, so far ahead of the charge acts as a bore obstruction when the pressure hits it at it's highest force. Inspect your chamber with a good light source and run a very tight patch down the bore, if you have "loose areas" in the bore the accuracy might never come back to what it was before.

Seriously? I'm going to try some factory ammo and see what accuracy I get.

 

[dero338]

Sounds good, ill give them a try. Do you use federal 215, or 210?

I use GM215M

 

[horseman2]

Magnum primers for over 50 grains of powder, ball powders, and large capacity cases . . . always!

 

[Suputin]

I went on hodgdon's website, got my load data, then I measured it on my Hornady 1500 electronic scale.

Did you calibrate that scale prior to use?

Reason I ask is because some new loaders have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the term "grain" means. A while back a guy admitted he had physically counted out 65 grains of powder, that is 65 granules of powder. In which case a hangfire would be expected.

I am not a big fan of the electronic scales, especially for newbies because there are a ton of things that can go wrong with them and it is wholly possible to really screw up your measurement very easily. Hit "tare" at the wrong time and who knows what you are measuring out. A balance beam scale is much more reliable and difficult to screw up.

 

[jrcarbine]

Did you calibrate that scale prior to use?

Reason I ask is because some new loaders have a fundamental misunderstanding of what the term "grain" means. A while back a guy admitted he had physically counted out 65 grains of powder, that is 65 granules of powder. In which case a hangfire would be expected.

I am not a big fan of the electronic scales, especially for newbies because there are a ton of things that can go wrong with them and it is wholly possible to really screw up your measurement very easily. Hit "tare" at the wrong time and who knows what you are measuring out. A balance beam scale is much more reliable and difficult to screw up.

I measured it right. Every time before I load I zero it with the 100 gram weight it comes with. I've been reloading 9mm for a bit and never had troubles with the scale.