My first serious misfire

[pheasanthunter]

I have reloaded pistol ammo for years with out any problems.
With that said this past weekend out deer hunting with the .500 my son had a round stuck in the forcing cone. Primer went off and forced the slug into the cone but not out of the cylinder. With the gun"locked up" He was done until we got back to the house at noon.
We pushed the slug back into the casing and then pulled the slug. The primer had detonated but the H110 looked very strange about half of it was the normal color and texture and the balance of it was a brownish color and a couple of chunks had formed. Wondering if I had a moisture problem or if my case lube caused the problem?
The balance of that lot loaded were fine.... Any thoughts??

[Randy Wakeman]

Can you rule out a "bad" (weak) primer?

[Win Mag]

I am wondering if you lubed the barrel the night before the hunt.
Multi colored power doesn't sound right to me either.
If it chucks formed it sounds like some kind of moisture was in the power.Be it from lube or extreme change in temps if the charge was left in the breach ?

[pheasanthunter]

Randy... I've had primers that didn't light before.. this lite hot enough to move the slug it would have lite the powder. I think??

Win... yes the temps did change we were out hunting in 5 degree weather and it was snowing. the barrel had been swabbed but not an excessive amount of oil left in it.. I think the case lube should have evaporated prior to charging the round... I agree it was moisture of some sort but still wonder why the other rounds in the gun fired perfectly.

[homelessjoe]

Only moisture problem I've ever had with any ammo was with some shot shells my wife washed in the washing machine and forgot to tell me.

WinMag....I just can't picture "oil in a gun barrel" contaminating a metallic cartridge.
Ph...You shouldn't have case lube inside the case....unless you baptized yer cases ?
I've heard of oil on the primer causing problems....from bad handling.

Here's my guess....

Gun powder in metal containers....can sweat and rust the inside of the can...I've had that happen before and I just threw the powder away.

I've always thought my .44 mag was big enough for everything except dinO'saurs.
jOe

[pheasanthunter]

Homeless.. thanks for the reply but H110 powder is in a plastic container... and it was in good shape when the cartridge was loaded..

[Win Mag]

I read over the post to fast.And with a slug stuck in the barrel i was thinking ML for some reason
Old powder,powder that had sat out open for a prolonged time.Maybe sweat from your forehead dropped onto the powder.
Hard one to pinpoint down.If only one bullet misfired.
Did it appear it had a full chrg in the case.Sometimes the powder sticks in the powder dispenser,unless your weighing each chrg.Just some thoughts.

[pheasanthunter]

No problem... I scale everyone of my hunting loads.. I agree this one is stange....But I do appreciate the input.Thanks

[homelessjoe]

In 30 years of hand loading metallic cartridges I can say truthfully that I've never saw a reloading component failure. The closest I 've come is some brass case fatigue caused by using old cases.
One thing for sure iz....I'd do something different than you've been doing wither it was caused by something in your loading procedures or your components something like that could cause you a serious problem.
jOe.

[pheasanthunter]

I hear ya, really pretty scary when you know what might happen......
But you can't pin down what caused the failure.. It was only one round of the 40 I loaded that session... and not any thing that happened out of the ordinary while the reloading was going on. Lubed, decapped, sized and primed, scaled the powder and set the slug... Just like always.... Dry primers, dry powder.
The hunting conditions were cold and snowy...Thanks for the input...

[Randy Wakeman]

I don't know exactly what happened, of course, but a primer alone will stick a bullet in the forcing cone, even a mild or "1/2 full of primer energetic" primer. A soft primer doesn't make a lot of gas, but it takes very, very little to pop a bullet out of the brass. The gas needs to try to vent somewhere.

Ever use the Aquila powderless rimfire ammo? No powder at all, but it does more than pop the little bullet out of a pistol-- kills a rabbit quite dead with a close head shot.

[vangunsmith]

More than likely it sounds like your powder got some case lube in it from your case. Faulty primers are caused by oil also from handleling ect. As per faulty primers out of the box,CCI states that only one out of a milliion from the factory are faulty! vangunsmith