CFE BLK powder issues

BwanaDave

BwanaDave

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I was out with my son today at the range here with both of us shooting our howa mini's in 7.62x39. After about 40 rounds his rifle would not chamber any more ammunition, just stopped the bolt wouldn't close. I had an led flashlight so we pulled the bolt and I had a look at what appeared to be a piece of brass stuck at the base of the chamber so he quit using it. I get home and I'm cleaning mine tonight and while I'm trying to get the last bits of wipeout out with a patch and plastic 90 degree pick I look into my rifle chamber area with a bright light and find what appears to be a good bit of powder turned a gold or brass color stubbornly stuck to the area between the receiver and barrel threaded area, Its bloody stubborn to get off and so I am wondering if anyone else has encountered this with this powder and if so what you did to get rid of it.

Its a small spherical powder and I'm sure that's what it is, my gut tells me its chemically reacted with the wipe out and glued itself in there. The kids rifle had a clump glued together enough to stop his rifle from chambering a round and his has more in it than mine. These were new Privi cases with 31.2 grains of cfe blk and a hornady 123gr .310 spire point lit by a cci 250 large rifle primer. Its a good accurate load with good velocities. I have never encountered this before and would be grateful to hear from others who have experienced this and how you got rid of it.
 
Hmm, I just started loading 300blk, using LilGun right now. Was thinking of trying that, I'll have to pay attention.

Is that a particularly light load ?

You think it's chemically reacting with your cleaner ?

Hodgdons been making powder for a long time. I've used 2 other CFE type powders with no strange results.
Wipeout . . . that's new to me as a gun cleaner.

I wonder if it's the cleaners fault instead of the powder. Like, Wipeout didn't do their homework before releasing it.

I know their are unique properties to CFE.
I used a fair amount of CFE 223 in my AR. It SEEMED to shoot dirtier, until I actually cleaned it and found the fouling cleaned off really easily.
It's almost like they add some form of dry lubricant to that powder. Help keep the gun running, and coat the barrel to prevent fouling buildup.
I imagine with CFE BLK would be designed for the AR, it would also have that additive.

If you do think it's reacting to your powder, I would say, take a little pinch of powder, and add a drop of the cleaner to it to see what happens.
We know by now it'll be nothing dangerous, see if it glues up.
Then maybe try a different, more normal powder you might have and try it.
 
I took your advice and tossed a good pinch of powder with a steel screwdriver bit and a shot of wipeout in a tupperware container, I'll check it in the morning, it just so strange that both rifles would do it but we use the same load and cleaner.

Some good news is patches soaked in alcohol seem to free it up a bit.
 
Careful with alcohol, it attracts moisture.

In the thousands of rounds I loaded on AR with all sorts of powders, CFE was unlike any other in it's fouling properties. It was clear it was artificially fouling the gun to stop the actual fouling from sticking.
Thinking about it, it might make sense that the chemical they use could goop up if mixed with the wrong thing.

I never had that happen tho, not with my cleaners. I use MPro7, also relabeled as Hoppes Elite.

You might have to choose, what do you like more, the powder or the cleaner.


YOu might have to burn the powder before the reaction will work. It's not as dangerous as you'd think if you havent' already done that kind of thing.
It might be the reside left behind that reacts to just the slighted whiff of cleaner.
 
I have been testing CFE BLK in a 22 K-Hornet for quite a bit and prefer it over Lil`Gun. Find it gives good velocity, better accuracy with considerably less pressure so it is "brass friendly".
Seems to burn clean enough and no fouling issues at all either.
 
Thank you for this Bad Bob. I'll give her a try with my baby martini hornets!

Where did you buy it?

Bad Bob said:
I have been testing CFE BLK in a 22 K-Hornet for quite a bit and prefer it over Lil`Gun. Find it gives good velocity, better accuracy with considerably less pressure so it is "brass friendly".
Seems to burn clean enough and no fouling issues at all either.
Click to expand...
 
Turns out it is powder, managed to get it pretty much all out with alcohol, I'm just going to have to watch it for a bit, sent an email to hogdon to ask them if they had encountered it before.
 
jamesharrison said:
Thank you for this Bad Bob. I'll give her a try with my baby martini hornets!

Where did you buy it?
Click to expand...

From Dan at Rat River right on PTH 59 just Norht of LaBroqurie (spelling?) Beats Cabelas prices on everything and is a real gun nut, will special order anything you want also.
I find by annealing, using a Lee collet NS die and CFE BLK my brass lasts a lot longer. Lil`Gun gives erratic pressure spikes & not as consistent groups as CFE BLK.
 
Its powder laying in there and the experiment powder changed its color as well to a degree, I think the issue is neither the powder nor the wipe out but me not getting all of the wipeout out of the action and it gumming up over time. I cleaned them both up and shot them yesterday with one shooting a .575 group @ 164 yds and the other 1.13 at the same distance with the same load and was sure to get the wipeout out of the action with no surprises last night.
 
I've never heard of a gun cleaner gumming up so quickly.
I guess if it works for you and you know what not to do now, then you're good.
 
Not exactly your situation, but I've found CFE Pistol to be pretty dirty in both 357 mag and 9mm loads... I assume that there is some similarities in the compounds used in those powders designed to prevent copper fouling.
 
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