.38 Special squibs

[ipscgraz]

To the OP

Try your gun with somebody else's loads for 25 rounds, or buy a box of factory/remanufactured ammo. Have a buddy shoot 25 rounds of your loads in another gun. This will remove some of the variables.

 

[Ganderite]

When this is sorted out, please let us know what you found. This is how we learn.

 

[Suther]

The only time I had even half that many squibs was due to having wet brass after tumbling. Now all the brass goes on the baseboard heater or oven to ensure nice and dry.

Damn thats a good idea. Finally a purpose to these stupid fire hazards used to heat my home...

When this is sorted out, please let us know what you found. This is how we learn.

Absolutely. I just learned one thing from this thread, keep it coming OP! lol

 

[Rocket Surgery]

Also try a cream of wheat load.

 

[josquin]

Griaguns:

I made it up to the range this morning with the same gun and load as you, (Model 14-3, 158 gr. SWC, 4.4 gr. Unique) except using Winchester SPP. Went through 18 rounds with no problems.

(Now I DID have some light primer strikes from my GP 100 and SP 101, which is driving me nuts. Just the odd one and the indent in the primer was clearly much lighter than the rest. Both guns have been polished up internally, trigger & hammer shims added - no binding - and 10 lb. mainsprings installed. The GP 100 even went through a dozen rounds loaded with "hard" CCI regular primers without a hitch rather than the Winchesters I regularly use. Colour me "baffled" on this one!)

 

[stampede]

I'm going to try standard primers (which are hard to find here)
Loading and pointing the revolver up to shake the powder back to the primer is tough during a timed competion when speed is of the essence.
I just cleaned up all the standard primers the Cabalas had (a total of 300) and none on the horizon

If you haven't figured out what you are doing wrong by now, maybe you should consider giving up reloading before you get hurt.

 

[josquin]

If you haven't figured out what you are doing wrong by now, maybe you should consider giving up reloading before you get hurt.

Ouch! The OP is hardly a newbie and has been reloading for quite a while. Doesn't look like he's doing anything dangerous, aside from using the "wrong" primers, which at those charge levels shouldn't result in any disaster. He's posted his dilemma to ask for help, not censure.

 

[Ganderite]

If you haven't figured out what you are doing wrong by now, maybe you should consider giving up reloading before you get hurt.

If you have never been baffled by a problem, you don't have much experience. Please don't get hurt.

 

[griaguns]

I think stampede has had a bad day and is taking it out on me.I hope it helped making stupid comments.
Considering I reload for a multiple of calibers and shoot various firearms in various competitions including 600 meter events using single shots,bolt action and service rifle I feel competent in my reloading skills.I have just had a curious problem with this particular load and appreciate all the suggestions but for a few.

 

[kodiakjack]

I think stampede has had a bad day and is taking it out on me.I hope it helped making stupid comments.
Considering I reload for a multiple of calibers and shoot various firearms in various competitions including 600 meter events using single shots,bolt action and service rifle I feel competent in my reloading skills.I have just had a curious problem with this particular load and appreciate all the suggestions but for a few.

Any update?

 

[StoneHorse]

Any update?

Bump for an update (if any).

 

[NVShooter]

... I was finding unburnt Unique being blown out the barrel.

How does one determine this?

Joking of course but I have this image in my head of you firing with the muzzle inches from your eyes as you watch little grains of unburnt powder blowing by at 900 feet per second...singed eyebrows, mad scientist-look, soot-covered face, ears ringing...

My intent is not to be a obtuse, I am really curious (sorry for the semi-derail)...

 

[josquin]

How does one determine this?

Joking of course but I have this image in my head of you firing with the muzzle inches from your eyes as you watch little grains of unburnt powder blowing by at 900 feet per second...singed eyebrows, mad scientist-look, soot-covered face, ears ringing...

My intent is not to be a obtuse, I am really curious (sorry for the semi-derail)...

Good question. In muzzle-loading black-powder days, you'd shoot over snow, adding powder until you got unburnt powder on the snow. Maybe CrashMkII was shooting over snow.

 

[Scotty454]

If you have never been baffled by a problem, you don't have much experience. Please don't get hurt.

Well said. Some of the most valuable things I've learned in life have come from mistakes I've made. To suggest giving up before learning what went wrong is ridiculous.

 

[josquin]

Well said. Some of the most valuable things I've learned in life have come from mistakes I've made....

Hence Ganderite's sig line!

 

[Ganderite]

I learned something this week - I think.

I got a new priming tool (Frankford Arsenal) to replace my Lee Autoprime, which has worn out.

This new tool has an adjustable seating depth feature. I have a pistol that misfires 50% unless I use Federal primers.
A primer has to be seated deep enough to collapse the anvil legs. I got suspicious that maybe the misfires were because the primers were not seated hard/deep enough. If a primer is not fully seated, the firing pin finishes the job and results in a light strike.

So I made up some ammo with CCI primers (not Federal) and made them with 3 different seating depths. My theory was that is seating depth was the cause, the shallow and ordinary seating depth would have misfires and the deep seated primers would do better.

All 3 seating depths fired 100%. This has never happened with this pistol, except with Federals.

So now I am thinking that the misfire problem (and maybe your squib problem) is caused by primers not seated firm enough. Do you have any alternative way to seat primers? Can you give a handful to a buddy to primer for you?

 

[BrockPython]

I think Ganderite is on to something, years ago I put lighter springs into a revolver and ended up with rounds that would not go bang. Factory fired every time but not reloads off my Lee Pro 1000. I used an Auto Prime to ensure the primer were seated and it solved the problem. Yeah I know pushing on the primer of a loaded round could end with poor results but you kind of get a feel for it. Now it's become my SOP for rounds off the progressive press. Havering said that the ops says his Primers are going bang but the rounds don't make it out the barrel. Id try a primer switch

 

[josquin]

Earlier in the year I had some problems with occas. light primer strikes in my Model 19, 15 & Ruger GP100 and never quite found out what the cause was. (I had a thread on the S&W Forum running on this for a while.) Some of the "light strike" rounds would fire on a 2nd attempt. Any that didn't were disassembled and all had powder. The last time I was at the range I only had one FTF in about 200+ rounds, which was as I recall due to no or little powder. I'm using a Lee Classic Cast turret press.

The Model 19 & GP100 I had done internal polishing on and put slightly lighter hammer springs in (10 lb. as I recall), but the Model 15 was stock, at least as it came to me; the trigger pull is superb. Firing pin holes/springs were OK. I was using Winchester primers & Starline brass. I'm sure I was seating the primers fully. At one point I loaded some rounds with CCI primers (theoretically harder than Winchester) and they all went bang just fine, so the hammer strike force was OK.

FWIW I recently came across this thread on the 1911 Forum which dealt with a similar problem and goes into primer pocket depth and possible variations in Starline brass.

Not quite the same problem as the OP but in a similar vein. I guess until we hear from the OP we won't know if he's made any progress.