2 misfires!! WTF???

I

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Was loading up some 180 gr. partitions for my .30-06 a couple of weeks ago and had bought a box of CCI BR2 primers to try out and see how much a difference they made over the Winchester Lg rifle Magnum primers I had been using.

After about 20 rounds at the range I had my first misfire ever. With the hearing protection I didn't even hear the click so initially I thought maybe the firing pin hadn't fully engaged and I opened the bolt up :roll: . All the training in the world and the first misfire I get I go and open up the frigging bolt :oops: . Anyways, once I saw the indent in the primer I just about freaked. Tried to close the bolt again but the case started to jam so I did the next best thing - grabbed the round and hucked it down range about 30 yds :lol: :lol: :lol: . Nothing like keeping cool under pressure, eh? Then I went and hid behind the maintenance shed behind the firing line for a couple of minutes like a little schoolgirl just in case. BTW, I was the only one at the range at the time. After a couple of minutes I went out and tracked down the round and disposed of it in the enclosed steel misfire canister they provide behind the line.

Anyways, long story short - I was hunting out in Alberta last week and on the next to last day I decided to quit waiting for a large buck and shoot the first mulie I saw with horn. Came across a spiker about 20 minutes before last shot out in a cut block at around 200 yards. First shot nailed him but didn't drop him. Second shot went - CLICK!! Another freaking misfire!! Deer was starting to head away and towards some dense forest at the edge of the cut block so I said f@ck it, jacked the misfire out of the rifle and chambered another round and let him have it again. This one did the trick.

My question is WTF is with the 2 misfires out of the same box of primers? This is the last box of the BR2 primers I will ever buy - first impressions are lasting ones for me. I've loaded and shot probably 50 or 60 out of the box of 100 so the ratio isn't to my liking. Priming was done with no hand contact on the primers (used an RCBS hand priming tool and flipped the primers directly out of the box and into the round primer tray) and the cases were brand new and clean.

Bad batch? Something I did? Can't think of how I may have been the cause but who knows, I'm no expert on reloading yet by any means. Whatever the casue, I'm going back to Winchester primers or maybe will try Federal next time.


BTW...........





WHERE'S MY GOAT???????????? :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Sure you didn't get anything on the primer while seating it?

Just checking, that is one of my bugbears and I allways wash my hands before handling primers!
 
Gibbs505 said:
Sure you didn't get anything on the primer while seating it?

Just checking, that is one of my bugbears and I allways wash my hands before handling primers!
Click to expand...


Nope, didn't have even a tiny bit of contact with my hands. I always just expose enough of the primers that I'm going to use and then place the open RCBS tray over the box and then flip them directly over into the tray, works great as the primers are then upside down in the round tray and ready to seat. The only contact my hand ever makes with the primers is I have a habit of running my finger tip over the end of the casing after the primer is seated to double check for seating depth (just a quick pass over the end of the case and the outside of the primer to make sure there isn't a protruding primer).
 
Roger M said:
Could it have been tumbler media in the flash holes? I've always thought that would likely cause a misfire
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Shouldn't cause the primer not to fire - maybe cause it to not seat in fully but shouldn't affect the firing unless it worked its way into the primer opening somehow. I didn't tumble the brass either as they were brand new. Just ran them through the FL sizer, deburred and chamfered them a tiny bit, wiped them down good after with a clean cloth to get off any excess lube, and then did a visual inspection (including the primer pockets) and went to town.
 
Shouldn't cause the primer not to fire - maybe cause it to not seat in fully
Click to expand...

If the primer is not seated properly you could have a misfire. If the primer moves forward as the firing pin hits it there might not be enough energy to set off the primer.

The only primer I have ever had not go off was a Fed small rifle in a 38 super. When I did the autopsy (why didn't you keep your duds and check them out?) there was no priming compound in the primer, just the cup and anvil.

FWIW I handle primers all the time with my hands, they always go boom. And I use all the brands, pistol, rifle, magnums, benchrest, they always go off. And I mean 10's of 1000's of primers. Whatever is cheapest at the time. :D

If it doesn't go off first time at the range, try firing it a second time. If it goes off the second time, it's likely the way you seat the primers. ie too shallow. If that doesn't work, take it home and take it apart. It not a hand grenade for heaven's sake!
 
what was the temperature? could your bolt be gummed up with grease?

also, does any body know the results of a non chambered (ie: not confined) round going off? i heard that it is minor, but don't want to find out.
 
MiG25 said:
what was the temperature? could your bolt be gummed up with grease?

also, does any body know the results of a non chambered (ie: not confined) round going off? i heard that it is minor, but don't want to find out.
Click to expand...

There were some pics of a guy who had a misfire go off in his had. Nasty!! Minor perhaps but you don't want it to happen to you!

I think that they were in General Discussion , not off topic. Doses anyone remember?
 
primers

I had two misfires with CCI primers and i think they were out of the same box also. I had used them for about 10 years prior to that with out a problem but in the last 25 years i only have used WIN. primers with out a problem, so i am going to stick with what works for me.
 
I just had 3 misfires at the range last week. Mine were a little different though, the primers fired but the powder didn't ignite....... :shock:
I was using some of that WC735 surplus, 1 out of 4 fired and I said screw this....
Primers had enough force to lodge the bullet in the rifling, so there was nothing wrong with them. Powder was a bit clumpy and yellow from the primer firing, just didn't ignite. I had to hammer the bullets out with a cleaning rod from the muzzle end. Good lesson too for misfires, if I cranked another one in there with out checking the ejected case it would have been all over.......I'm not like that though.
 
"...All the training in the world..." CF training says get the rifle working again. No minute wait. If a round goes off out of the chamber, diddly happens. The bullet comes out, doesn't go far and there's no explosion.
"...saw the indent in the primer..." Normal indent? Or a shallow one? What caused the jam?
You don't need magnum primers for the .30-06. Regular LR primers are fine. Mind you, if you change any one component, you need to work up the load again.
 
Why did you not disasemble the load ? Any powder in it ?? This is the usual cause of misfire.
Never, never had a misfire with CCI in 30 years.
They must be another cause - look at your handling of them, case prep - primer pocket and flash hole - proper seating of the primer (not crushed)

If you were shooting in cold condition another possibility is light primer blow because some lubricant slow the firing pin blow. In a 30.06 this will take quite a bit..but grease will do it.Powder selection is also important in cold weather.

The BR primer are the same as the other except for more quality control to ensure uniformity of compound, cup thickness and defects ect.. that the primer itself is the culprit..I doupt it very much unless they were an old box badly stored.
 
Janeau said:
Why did you not disasemble the load ? Any powder in it ?? This is the usual cause of misfire.
Never, never had a misfire with CCI in 30 years.
They must be another cause - look at your handling of them, case prep - primer pocket and flash hole - proper seating of the primer (not crushed)

If you were shooting in cold condition another possibility is light primer blow because some lubricant slow the firing pin blow. In a 30.06 this will take quite a bit..but grease will do it.Powder selection is also important in cold weather.

The BR primer are the same as the other except for more quality control to ensure uniformity of compound, cup thickness and defects ect.. that the primer itself is the culprit..I doupt it very much unless they were an old box badly stored.
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Not cold weather - one misfire was at the range here (about +15) and the other was in Alberta (about +4 or so). Didn't disassemble the loads - first one was a bit of a shock and my first misfire so I was more interested in getting it into the enclosed misfire cannister - call me paranoid but I can't imagine a round going off outside the chamber all that pleasant - regardless of the advice Sunray offered. Colour my silly, but even if there wasn't any powder in the case wouldn't the primer at least still detonate and make a bang instead of a click? I'm very meticulous about weighing and charging cases with powder as I'm fairly new to the game and as stated above, somewhat paranoid about these types of things. I had just bought the box of primers off the shelf about 4 days before starting to reload them so if old and stored poorly I guess I'd have the sporting goods store to blame. Seating seemed fine to me - same as the Win primers I had seated in the last 200-300 rounds (without a misfire BTW). Same with the case prep - same procedures as I've used before without a misfire to date. I haven't been reloading for 30 years and have probably only reloaded about 1000 rounds total over a couple of different rifles and calibres but these were the first ones I've had misfire on me and that leads me to believe the primers were the culprit. I appreciate all the input as I am exmining my practices to insure against improper reloading procedures but haven't come up with anything obviously wrong yet. Nothing in my case prep and reloading procedures changed from before so why the 2 misfires now, out of the same box of primers. I watched the guy at the store open up a brand new case to get me my primers but who knows how long they had been on the shelf - that is a possibility I guess. Or, as hard as it is for a died in the wool CCI guy to believe, maybe the box was just a bad batch - it does happen after all. Human error would seem to be the first thought but for the life of me I can't see were I might have tripped up.

"...All the training in the world..." CF training says get the rifle working again. No minute wait. If a round goes off out of the chamber, diddly happens. The bullet comes out, doesn't go far and there's no explosion.
"...saw the indent in the primer..." Normal indent? Or a shallow one? What caused the jam?
You don't need magnum primers for the .30-06. Regular LR primers are fine. Mind you, if you change any one component, you need to work up the load again.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit confused Sunray. If the round fired after it came out of the chamber why wouldn't there be an explosion (not a big one but a contained explosion nonetheless) ? Would there still not be 55 gr. of powder sitting in a case with a small explosive device firing behind it to ignite it? I'm thinking I wouldn't want to be holding it or even standing over it if and when it went off.

Primer indent seemed normal to me but I didn't give it a real good going over - I guess maybe I should have. Jam was caused by me trying to rechamber a round that had already been half-way ejected - definately human error on my part for having a moment of panic and being behind the curve somewhat.

Sure, you don't need magnum primers for a .30-06 but then again you don't need benchrest or match primers for them either - yet folks use them. Nothing wrong with using any of the mentioned types of primers as long as the load has been worked up, as you mentioned. My rifle actually liked the magnum primers but I was trying a different work up with the benchrest ones for comparisons sake.
 
You will never know for sure what is the cause since you do not have the rounds for examination.
After a minute or so, they are safe to handle.
I would have used a bullet puller and removed the primer to see if it went bang or not. Since you did not ear it, my guess is that the primer was not fully seated.
Why not buy a primer pocket cutter ? This will make all your primer pocket the same and this tool can be used to clean the primer pocket before seating a new primer.

I use standard rifle primer for my 30.06 . For cold operation re : -15/-35C, I use magnum. (winter cariboo hunt in Northen Quebec ) .

Hope this will help. :)
 
sunray said:
". If a round goes off out of the chamber, diddly happens. The bullet comes out, doesn't go far and there's no explosion.
Click to expand...

Not quite didly sunray. I suffered severe powder burns from a shotgun shell that went off in the open chamber as a result of a slam fire. I was pretty near deaf for a week too. The shot of course just fell on the ground.
 
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