450 Bushmaster Slight Hangfire

[fuzzy39]

Hi there. Question about some slight hang fires with some handloads in my Ruger scout. I have already shot 50 rounds of my handloads through this gun with no problems. Tonight I was shooting some rounds I made up yesterday. I was using LilGun 39grains with the 225gr FTX bullet in Starline cases and CCI small rifle magnum primers. I previously had used Remington 7 1/2 primers in my previous loads with no problems. The other difference was that I opted not to crimp these rounds I shot today as I had really not even flared the case prior to seating the bullets.

Well, my first shot tonight went off fine as did my second then my third had a definite few extra millisecond delay and the shot went 10 inches right. I shot a third round and it went off fine and it made a nice 1.5 inch group with the first two shots. I then tried a load with a grain higher and no problem with the first but once again another slight delay in the second shot. I tried a few more with slight hang fires always shooting way to the right.

Anyway, just wondering if anyone had suggestions.... I am certainly going to crimp the rest of these hand-loads and see if that solves the problem. If I does not I will be switching back the Remington primers and trying the CCis in my 223. I know the powder is fine as it was the same bottle as the previous 50 rounds I had loaded up and shot without a hitch.

 

[bigedp51]

The .450 Bushmaster headspaces on the case mouth and like any semiauto pistol cartridge a taper crimp is used to crimp the case only .001 or .002. Meaning the bullet grip is controlled by the expander and not a crimp.

Below a 9mm cartridge that was sized with a undersize die to increase bullet grip. The taper crimp is not used to increase bullet grip and just used to close up the case mouth .001 or .002. Did you give the reloaded cartridges the push test to see if the bullet moved after loading? A loose-fitting bullet with little bullet grip may cause a hang fire. If you were not firing one cartridge at a time and were feeding from the mag recoil may have changed the OAL.

For proper ignition, any primer should be seated with the anvil making contact with the bottom of the primer pocket. Did you use an adjustable primer tool that did not seat the CCI primers as deep as the Rem 7 1/2?

Did you check the case length of each case, many of the Starline cases I buy can be shorter than the minimum case length. Meaning a short case may have affected primer ignition.

My guess is case length or a few primers were not seated properly and caused the hang fires. Bullet grip may also effected ignition.

 

[fuzzy39]

I used Hornady priming tool for these loads just as my previous. This was also the same brass, ie. 2nd load. I did not check in a case gauge.

 

[bigedp51]

I just checked my Hornady reloading manual and the Hornady 225 FTX is not listed for the 450 Bushmaster and is only listed for the .45 Colt. And the Colt .45 loading data for the 225 FTX must not be deviated from. How did you come up with the load data for the 225 FTX in the 450 Bushmaster, there is nothing in my Tenth edition Hornady manual.

 

[fuzzy39]

Sorry, it wasn’t from Hornady Manual.... it was hodgdonreloading.com