Hang-fire "analysis"

[montana_native]

I had this topic on another site but the discussion sort of died out. I thought I would try here.

I was fire-forming my 243 AI the other day. In addition I was trying some loads for the fire-formed cases. I was using IMR-4350, Lapua Brass, CCI-200’s and 87 gr V-maxes to fire-form with. Found a great load that shot a 0.219” group at 100 yds. I then switched to the fire-formed stuff. CCI-200’s, H-414 and 105 gr A-maxes. First three shot group was 0.390”. Second group had two shots right on top of each other then I had my first hang-fire ever on number three. It was 90 fps slower than the others and the delay was under second but a very pronounced two-bang hang-fire. The shot was obviously a flyer about 1” away from the others. The last group was terrible at about 1” or so in a triangle.

I called it a day and headed home. Some thoughts from the other board led me to believe I might have had the following occur:

Primer not seated deep enough which is a distinct possibility since these primer pockets are so tight on this brass
H-414 and cold weather might not be the best mix with standard primers
Tumbling media in the flash hole, though I usually am pretty anal about checking those
Simply had a bad primer
Too much grease on firing pin

Gun is a custom 700 Remington with a Krieger barrel, factory trigger and bolt assembly. When I began to clean it I noticed a LOT of carbon fouling. Much more than after the previous cleaning after the same amount of rounds. Could this have been from the hang-fire round? Could this excess fouling have contributed to the last poor group? This thing hadn't shot a group over 3/4 MOA prior to this.

Thanks for any insight.

 

[Preacher]

Hang fires are normally associated with not having the primer seated hard enough..
A greased up FP would have caused the problem from the start, and got better after it warmed up a bit.. not worse.....
a bad primer is possible I suppose, but I doubt it, usually if they are bad they don't work at all...
I've shot a ton of 200 cci's and AA2520 (Ball Powder) in weather well below the O mark with never a problem with ignition....
So it all boils down to the primers were not hard seated enough..........
Just my opinion on the matter..........

 

[sward]

I had sort of the same problems but more of them!!! I had loaded 30 rounds up trying to work out a load for my 300 rum, using cci BR primers, 96.5gr RL25 and 168 CT's.
I too read a thread about the "Hang-Fires" and assumed the primers were the culprit, although, i used the same ones for my 260 and 308...but never had a "Hang-fire"
I have disasembled the bolt and there isn't excessive grease on fp.....soooooo..???
I ain't sure what the freak is/was going on!? Out of the 30 rnds i'd say that atleast 7 did it..... ???

Good question and i'd like to learn more so i would know reason why it was happening to me too!!!!!!

Steven

 

[sward]

Guess i need to try seating primers more huh.....bad when you read something and then get so involved with what you are saying that you've forgotten what you've read!!!!

Steven

 

[dmickey]

Had the brass been annealed? Another possibility (although I haven't been able to verify this) is that the case has been over annealed. The blow from the firing pin pushes back the shoulder causing excessive headspace. Then, upon firing the case stretches back out to the chamber's shoulder, thus eliminating the temporary excessive head space. If I can get hold of some of the dummy primers that are made for reloading classes, I could check this out as I have about seven or eight cases made into .250 Savage that exhibit this problem (out of more than a thousand!)

 

[lpreddick]

on several occasions i have noted newly primed brass to have the primer slightly backed out of the primer pocket several days later!!! i have had a few slight hangfires since then all in new brass. i try faithfully to slide a finger tip across the primer before chambering .

if i can see you, i can touch you. BANG!