hang fire at the range

[Land Owner]

tazman - I read all of the linked thread on SEE, which is now termed EPE. Very interesting for those that are shooting "reduced loads" of slow burning powder. One "take away" from that link is StarMetal got himself banned at 8009 posts!

A question is, if Mfg's publish recipes with minimum starting loads, should a reloader be "concerned" when his powder charge is equal to the minimum as he works his way up?

[Rich/WIS]

Have had issues with ball powders and standard primers giving delayed ignition, but have never heard of the problem with stick powders. In my case a change to a magnum primer cured it. Only noticed it after I used electronic muffs, could hear the click of the primer hit. Probably used in excess of 100K CCI primers with no issues. Win primers are equivalent to magnum primers since they are formulated to light ball powders.

[tazman]

tazman - I read all of the linked thread on SEE, which is now termed EPE. Very interesting for those that are shooting "reduced loads" of slow burning powder. One "take away" from that link is StarMetal got himself banned at 8009 posts!

A question is, if Mfg's publish recipes with minimum starting loads, should a reloader be "concerned" when his powder charge is equal to the minimum as he works his way up?

I am not the expert on this topic. That is why I posted the link to someone else's post. My best answer is just my opinion and worth what you paid for it.
The published minimum loads should be safe to use. If there is a problem, you would need to take that up with the publisher.

[tazman]

Have had issues with ball powders and standard primers giving delayed ignition, but have never heard of the problem with stick powders. In my case a change to a magnum primer cured it. Only noticed it after I used electronic muffs, could hear the click of the primer hit. Probably used in excess of 100K CCI primers with no issues. Win primers are equivalent to magnum primers since they are formulated to light ball powders.

I had an issue with delayed ignition with IMR3031 in a lightly loaded 45-70 cartridge years ago. I had several delayed ignition and a couple of failures to fire.
On disassembly, the primer had fired but the powder did not ignite. There were indications that some of the powder charred but didn't burn.
I began using filler to hold the powder against the primer after that and the problem went away.
I no longer have the specifics due to losing the data book in a flood.

[murf205]

I’ve had 2 episodes with gang fires and both of them were with ball powder and std primers. The first was a 357 mag and It was a non bang event on a couple of occasions. The primer pitched the jacketed bullet about 1” into the barrel of a Ruger B’Hawk. Mag primer fixed the problem. The next one was H335 in my 350 Rem. It was a pronounced click bang. A mag primer fixed the problem but a 358 Norma reamer REALLY solved it since 335 is not a preferred choice in that case. Non the less, a mag primer kit it properly but the accuracy was non existent.

[BigAlofPa.]

I had some but it was only about a 1/2 second or so. Reminded me of shooting a flintlock.

[Norske]

I had a 45-70 round loaded with a Western Powders double-base powder fail to ignite with a CCI primer. I laid the rifle on the bench, pointed downrange for 2 minutes. When I got the "misfire" home, I pulled the bullet and poured the unburned powder into the trash. When I rapped the case mouth against my palm, a piece of charcoal about the size of a hat pin head fell out. Since then, Western Powders has published a reloading manual, and they use Winchester primers on almost all rifle loads.

[Petander]

If I ever get a hangfire I will stop shooting that ammo right away.

I once got my T3 Tactical 300WM bolt stuck so hard,Sako had to remove the barrel to open and repair the rifle.
We were test shooting a batch of new-to-be factory ammo, it was behaving strange. Dirty brass,bad groups if any... then one just said "pfft" and seized my rifle. I was using a suppressor but the report was less than normal, sort of slow ignition feeling I think...

Turned out there was a bad primer lot in that test ammo. But to think about those pressures... and those cases were full of slow powder. Approaching SEE or EPE...

Now:

I have a long history with homemade reduced subsonic loads in many calibers including 45-70, 300WM etc. Suppressors have been legal and paperwork-free for decades over here. Always with fast powders,always. N320, 3N37 etc... Never had a problem.

I was talking to a Vihtavuori load developer last year,asking how to load light (325-400) boolits in 470 NE for light loads-not subsonic. We talked some medium rate rifle powders, he mentioned many times not to go lower than 65% fill. Easy to figure out with Quick Load. But you can't go very low even with mediums. Fillers may help but I rather use enough powder,fillers are another art form in itself.

There are very good reasons for not to go below minimum loads. Not enough (slow) powder can give a completely unpredictable burn and crazy pressures. Bad primer can do the same.