45 acp reload problem

[covert]

This is the first time a casting and reloading pistol rounds. I cast a bunch of round nose boolits. Load 15 of them up, only one goes off. I've reloaded countless rifle and shotgun cartridges up, with no problems. So I pull 4 switch to a new box of primers press them in with my lee priming tool (I used rockchucker to press them in the first time).
This time 3 of the 4 go off. I also wet tumbled the brass before I loaded it. dried it briefly in the oven. I don't know maybe it wasn't dry enough? I also did a med. crimp with lee die, not the factory crimp die just regular. There were good primer strikes, and factory ammo went off with no problems, so its not the gun. Any ideas? Thanks

[FLINTNFIRE]

What brand of primers? there have been some problem primers sold in the past. Second question , seated fully ? try primers or reloads in another gun, and were the primer pockets dry as a bone so to speak or if you have pulled one does it show wetness?

[covert]

I did notice some of the powder grains sticking in the case (damp or static) I don't know. first batch of primers were rem.. second was cci.

[MtGun44]

Water in the primer pockets would sure do it.

How about high primers? Will they shoot the second time you hit them?

High primers is a pretty common reloading problem, so look for this first.

Bill

[wallenba]

You said medium crimp ? That was a taper crimp, right? How did you check the headspace? It might be possible that the strikes were light enough to fail, but deep enough to leave a dimple. Just covering all the bases here.

[Bucking the Tiger]

I have had similar problems with a slight trace of moisture in the brass. Any clumping of powder when you pull them apart is a sure sign.

[covert]

Ya its a taper crimp. case length .895. Headspace, I don't have a gauge for 45 acp. I'm thinking its a slight moisture problem now. I'll load some more today, I'm sure there completely dry by now. Thanks for the ideas on what to check.

[Tom Herman]

Welcome to the wonderful world of reloading!
All good advice so far...
The way I prepare brass is to first wash it with detergent and then wash repeatedly until the detergent is removed.
All the brass then goes on a dedicated cookie tray (one that is never used for food again!), and into the oven at just above boiling (about 225/250 degrees) for 45 minutes to an hour to dry.
Provided you've sloshed the brass around to pretty much empty them of water before you put them in the oven, this does the trick.
I would NEVER wash and rely on the brass drying naturally! Ditto with scrap bullets destined to go into the casting pot: I've seen the Tinsel Fairy visit from naturally dried lead that looked just fine.
After I dry the brass, it goes into my Dillon tumbler, and only when it's dry and now clean does it go into the reloading press.
You simply can't rush anything. Take the time to slowly and deliberately do everything.
A rushed job, or dirty casings, and you get garbage out.
Best of Luck!

-Tom

[Angus]

Moisture is the reason I won't wet tumble. Into the Harbor Freight vibratory tumble they go along with 2/3 rice to 1/3 Lyman walnut media. They come out shiny with no worries about a trace of moisture ruining a batch of ammo.

[wallenba]

Welcome to the wonderful world of reloading!
All good advice so far...
The way I prepare brass is to first wash it with detergent and then wash repeatedly until the detergent is removed.
All the brass then goes on a dedicated cookie tray (one that is never used for food again!), and into the oven at just above boiling (about 225/250 degrees) for 45 minutes to an hour to dry.
Provided you've sloshed the brass around to pretty much empty them of water before you put them in the oven, this does the trick.
I would NEVER wash and rely on the brass drying naturally! Ditto with scrap bullets destined to go into the casting pot: I've seen the Tinsel Fairy visit from naturally dried lead that looked just fine.
After I dry the brass, it goes into my Dillon tumbler, and only when it's dry and now clean does it go into the reloading press.
You simply can't rush anything. Take the time to slowly and deliberately do everything.
A rushed job, or dirty casings, and you get garbage out.
Best of Luck!

-Tom

I do a similar thing. I ultrasonic clean, rinse, and use an old toaster oven. works great, but discolors the brass. Tumbling shines them up again.
Like Tom says, don't rely on air drying.

[Lizard333]

I use SS media exclusively to clean my brass. I used to put my brass in a 200 degree oven and just shut it off. Worked well enough. Now I put all my brass in a food dehydrator on the highest setting. 15 minutes and the brass is good and dry, no discoloring.

Btw, I'm thinking your problems stemmed from wet brass. I had a lot if the same problems you had using brass that wasn't dry enough.

[prs]

Ya its a taper crimp. case length .895. Headspace, I don't have a gauge for 45 acp. I'm thinking its a slight moisture problem now. I'll load some more today, I'm sure there completely dry by now. Thanks for the ideas on what to check.

Sure you do! Use the gun's barrel for the plunk test.

prs

[Jeffrey]

Another thing to watch out for is primer handling techniques. Traces of oil on fingers that touch anvil side of primers can / may deactivate that primer. Oil is poison for priming compound.
Argh, Jeffrey

[jonp]

Welcome to the wonderful world of reloading!
All good advice so far...
The way I prepare brass is to first wash it with detergent and then wash repeatedly until the detergent is removed.
All the brass then goes on a dedicated cookie tray (one that is never used for food again!), and into the oven at just above boiling (about 225/250 degrees) for 45 minutes to an hour to dry.
Provided you've sloshed the brass around to pretty much empty them of water before you put them in the oven, this does the trick.
I would NEVER wash and rely on the brass drying naturally! Ditto with scrap bullets destined to go into the casting pot: I've seen the Tinsel Fairy visit from naturally dried lead that looked just fine.
After I dry the brass, it goes into my Dillon tumbler, and only when it's dry and now clean does it go into the reloading press.
You simply can't rush anything. Take the time to slowly and deliberately do everything.
A rushed job, or dirty casings, and you get garbage out.
Best of Luck!

-Tom

I have found that with 45ACP brass about 20 min in the oven at 175 does the trick.

[jonp]

Sure you do! Use the gun's barrel for the plunk test.

prs

took the words right out of my mouth. The best gauge there is is the barrel of the gun you are loading for.

[fouronesix]

I also wet tumbled the brass before I loaded it. dried it briefly in the oven. I don't know maybe it wasn't dry enough? I also did a med. crimp with lee die, not the factory crimp die just regular.

Two very likely possibilities jump right out. Either the cases had a little water left in them when loaded or the crimp used provided no headspace control when chambered.

Make sure cases are completely dry and taper crimp only. The "regular" crimp as produced by a seater die is a roll crimp and not intended for cases that headspace on the case mouth. You should use a separate taper crimp die for such cartridges.

[runfiverun]

it's residual water.
runfives wifes favorite trick.
her second favorite one is to let the set screw come loose on the powder dump.
that way you get 1/2 gr load variations.

[btroj]

Oooohhhhh, never give away the wife's secrets.

I suppose I don't need to worry about this, my tumbler doesn't use water.

If using a wet method for cleaning brass I would imagine making sure all the water was gone would be pretty important. Seems like that much water should have been noticable sometime in the brass handling process.

[TheDoctor]

I had a similar problem years ago, when I discovered the joys of ultrasonics. Would clean my 7mm mag brass with them, but didn't tumble the brass after it dried. Would put the brass in the oven for a bit to heat it if I was going to reload it soon. Also started using a hand primer around the same time, and ended up with a combination of problems. Was actually over seating my primers, AND sometimes still had moisture in the case. Went to the range one day to test some loads, and several did not fire at all. Others, I swear you could hear the primer go off, THEN the powder would light. Sort of unnerving. And since there WAS a delay on some of them, it was pucker time when lifting the bolt handle on the ones that did not go bang. Most of the ones that would not fire, when I pulled the bullets, I had to knock clumps of powder out of the case. That taught me that a case may look dry, but is not. Old guy at the range, upon hearing the slight delay on some of my rounds, taught me that you do NOT squeeze a hand primer all the way! Oops.

[Angus]

TheDoctor, I've never overseated a primer and I always squeeze them to the bottom with my Lee primer tool... The older round one, not the new square variety.