Help With primers! Failure to fire.

slicknova

slicknova

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So I've loaded up 40 or so rounds, First 20 Great, Federal cases, All fired. Next 20 were Remington cases and I had 4 Failure to fires. The primer is struck, Well, In my opinion, but did not go off. The primer in question is a federal Large rifle Magnum Match. I've never used match primers before, So far I'm not impressed.

Any one have this happen before? I'm a few years into reloading but this is new to me!
 
Bullet is seated just off the rifling, and neck sizing was impossible as the cases were 300 win mag and are now 308 norma mag, I decided pictures might help. Its my firs time posting pictures so here it goes.....

20130315_181616_zpsac6c045b.jpg
 
My guess would be excesive headspace , as you said these were reformed brass? If the headspace ( shoulder ) was pushed too far back on forming the primer strike may have been weak enough to destroy the priming compound "pellet" on the first attempt of firing , and the following hits just cratered the primer cup. How hard were the brass to chamber when they were loaded into the firearm? Was there slight interference fit with the chamber or did they just drop right in ?
 
blaser.306 said:
My guess would be excesive headspace , as you said these were reformed brass? If the headspace ( shoulder ) was pushed too far back on forming the primer strike may have been weak enough to destroy the priming compound "pellet" on the first attempt of firing , and the following hits just cratered the primer cup. How hard were the brass to chamber when they were loaded into the firearm? Was there slight interference fit with the chamber or did they just drop right in ?
Click to expand...

They felt snug.... Why the difference then round from round? and I always though belted magnum cases head space of the belt???
 
slicknova said:
They felt snug.... Why the difference then round from round? and I always though belted magnum cases head space of the belt???
Click to expand...
I've read several different things about that. One place I was looking showed huge variance in belt dimensions that would cause lots of headspace problems that don't seem to occur nearly as much as they should given the measurements. They concluded that modern belted magnums headspace off the shoulder in the vast majority of rifles. Most places do say the belt is used for headspace though so I don't know for sure.

I know I get stiff bolt closures with my 300WM more than any other bolt rifle when only neck sizing. Not sure what that means.

As for the primers, my friends No.4 Mk.1 Enfield had lots of FtF's with CCI primers with multiple strikes as well. He blamed the "junk" CCI primers and later found out he had huge headspace issues and the cases where rattling around in the chamber with the bolt closed.
 
I think something is cushioning the blow. It is shock that sets off the primer, not just energy.

If you neck size the fired cases and reload them to the exact same dimensions, they might all now fire because the shoulder is supported.

When you form brass next time, put a 8mm expander button through the neck and then partially neck size. This little false shoulder should keep the case firmly on the bolt face.
 
one thing that kills primers is oil. and it doesn't take much,if you have handled primers with your fingers after you lubed up your cases for resizing, that is probably enough to cause problems.
 
IMHO, you have a bad batch of primers. If you had headspace issues, you wouldn't have such deep strikes.

I recently bought a bunch of primers ($20/box) at a yard sale. Same thing happened. They were at least 25 years old but that has never been an issue before. Some went bang, some didn't.

I tried some from each brick in primed only cases. All were the same. Some went bang, some didn't. Primers looked just like yours, well struck.

I normally won't buy components at a garage sale for just this reason.

All of the bricks looked as new. No water stains, no corrosion on any of the primers. All bright and shiney.

The only thing I can pin it to is poor storage or manufacturing faults.

I threw all 5 bricks away. They reside in the landfill.

This happens, especially if they get to hot. Same thing will happen to older double based powders.

Just pull the bullets in what you have, pop out the primers, soak the all in varsol and dump them in the garbage.

I use those same primers. They are very consistent and work well at all temperatures.
 
I had a similar problem, turns out when I was priming with the press I was crushing some of the primer anvils with all that torque, when I used the hand primer, the issue went away. The belt on belted magnums is just there for looks these days, they headspace off the shoulder like most rifle cartridges. You could also be pushing the shoulder back too far when resizing causing headspace issues.
 
If there was no powder in the cases that didn't fire, you wouldn't hear the primer go off and it usually doesn't drive the bullet out of the case.
 
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