Newbie reload questions

ice2152

ice2152

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Hello all.

New to pistols and reloading. Ran off my first batch of reloads for my ruger sr 40. Went pretty well but have a couple of questions. A couple of rounds did not fire ,primer was struck but no ignition. 1 in a 100 Is this common? Haven't fired enough factory ammo in the pistols for my own knowledge. My second question is it common for sparks to come from the barrel of pistols when fired and what is the cause? I suspect just excess powder being ignited as it leaves the barrel. Any feed back is appreciated. Cheers.
 
Were the rounds that did not go off light strikes of normal?

Was the brass dry and unlubed before loading?
 
ice2152 said:
I don't know the difference of a light strike, there is a indent in the primer. As for the brass it was dry but i did not lube.
Click to expand...

A light strike will leave a much smaller, shallower impression in the primer than a regular strike. 1 in 100 is terrible for duds, I would say that 1 in 1000 isn't acceptable for my reloads.

Last monday a buddy had a round with no powder from BDX ammo (commercial reloaders). I have personally shot several thousand rounds of BDX ammo and seen probably another 10K-15K rounds fired. This was the first time I have seen any sort of misfire with their ammo and I expect my own reloads to be at least that good.

What are your load details?

As for the sparks that is not unusual depending on the bullet and powder used. My Redhawk throws 18+" flames with heavy .44 Mag loads and I am not using a powder known for making big fireballs.


Mark
 
make sure your primers are fully seated in the case.if you don't have a case cleaner/tumbler get a primer pocket cleaner.the primer should be slightly below the level of the bottom of the case when fully seated.the "feet" of the primer should make contact with the bottom of the primer pocket.you can't see when this is done,but run your finger over the bottom of a factory unfired case and you will get the idea.those little primers can take a little bit of abuse without letting go,just remember to move slowly when seating your primer.having them seated too shallow(not quite deep enough) will also create feeding and possibly out of battery discharges.trial and error with a few cases and you will soon get accustommed to it.seat a primer,check it,if necessary seat a bit deeper,check again.just go slowly and methodically until you get it.also keep in mind not all pockets are the same.most are uniformly snug,but there will be one or two out of a hundred which are a bit looser.spawn had an insight too,oil will kill a primer.don't worry about the sparks,just a bit of powder or charcoal from the barbecue.patience really counts when handloading.
 
I'm going to suggest that, as a newbie reloader, he either had some bad primers (it does happen) or the case he was using was trimmed too short, allowing the round to go too far into the chamber for the striker to hit it properly.

OP, did you trim your brass before you primed and loaded it??

The sparks you mentioned can occur with certain types of powder. What powder are you using?
 
Some pistols have a very short throat and a bullet can lightly engage the rifling. This cushions the round, so that the case shoulder is held off the chamber lip until the primer is hit. The softening may prevent the round from firing.

My Norinco pistols have short throats, so the bullets have to be seated deeper. Misfires should be rare, not 1 :100.
 
Here is my reload data, Cleaned the brass with my sonic cleaner (did not use the primer pocket cleaner, but will try that next), I didn't trim the brass, Using a lee turret press, Remington primers, Hodgdon hs6 powder used 6.2 grns from horandy manual , berry bullet .40 180grn copper jacket.

I'm leaning to the primer not being seated far enough. Should i have to seat the primer with force with the press? I have had some primers that i had to give some force to seat better. Makes sense to me now that if it was some grit in the pocket that would keep it from sitting right and igniteing. Thanks for the info everyone and any further info appreciated.
 
Just wanted to says thanks for the advice everyone. Made another 200 rnds and finally had time to try them out today. Not one failure and had some nice groups for me that is. I used a pocket cleaning tool before priming. seemed to do the trick. Thanks again.
 
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