Hang fires?

You have discovered how to make click-bang ammo. I made a box of 8mm ammo once that was all click-bang.

Formula is ball powder, standard primer and light bullet with no crimp.

If you have a large quantity of click -bang you can try crimping the case mouths. This might solve it.

Ball power is harder to ignite, so a magnum primer is a good idea, especially with lighter bullets.

If you use ball powder with regular primers and they work ok, you don't know how close you are to a problem. For hunting ammo, I would be worried about a cold day. A click-bang or a squib could spoil your day.
 
Thats not much powder in the big case. Too much air space soaking up the primer pressure along with the other factors.
 
In a way it's a shame that the stronger primers are called "Magnum" primers. It tends to suggest that they are only needed for the cartridges that hang the Magnum name on themselves.

In reality the stronger primers come in handy any time we create a load which might have difficulty in getting lit up. It might be from small charges for plinking loads that don't ignite consistently with regular primers or it may be due to using a powder which is hard to ignite either at all or with any good degree of consistency. And such situations can occur in "regular" cartridges just as easily as they can with the ones that use "Magnum" in their name.
 
Ganderite said:
You have discovered how to make click-bang ammo. I made a box of 8mm ammo once that was all click-bang.

Formula is ball powder, standard primer and light bullet with no crimp.

If you have a large quantity of click -bang you can try crimping the case mouths. This might solve it.

Ball power is harder to ignite, so a magnum primer is a good idea, especially with lighter bullets.

If you use ball powder with regular primers and they work ok, you don't know how close you are to a problem. For hunting ammo, I would be worried about a cold day. A click-bang or a squib could spoil your day.
Click to expand...

I luckily only made five of them. Should I still crimp the case with the magnum primers in.
 
jrcarbine said:
Well that's what it said on Hodgdon website.
Click to expand...

Maybe so but it is a factor. I didnt know from personal experience about the light bullet no crimp but it would do the same thing, delay the pressure rise. A magnum primer would probably fix it and im sure the hodgdon website specified it.
 
Many years ago I did the exact same thing with H-414 in 30-06. Used standard LR primers (CCI I think) and got the click-bang load strangely the load was accurate. Switched to Fed 215 and it turned out to be a fantastic load. the problem would be greater in the larger 300 Win mag case.
 
I'm newest of th'new to reloading... I'm not certain it's a true hangfire in my case (h380 in a 6.5x55 CCI LR), but since reload data for me varied (6.5x55 140gr sp) I started low instead of middle of all published data....it's the very first time I've heard the "click" of a hammer falling on a live shell. I stepped up load to most modern sources (ball powders vary by batch so all test data is accurate when published, not not nec. what you have at home), and worked closer to mid instead of low numbers, and all is good since. I hate to say it, but it happening in my very first batch of 5 was kinda unsettling!
 
I was using 42 gr h380 and cci l.r primers with 129 gr. Bullets in my 6.5 x 55 and i could just hear the striker fall. Switched to fed mag primers problem solved.
 
You haven't experienced a real hangfire until you get them with 777 out of a .54 Hawken with a steel butt plate! Only use real BP now.........Harold
 
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