Strange happenings with BL-C2 powder

I just bought a new Ruger 77 Mark II .30-06 and I believe it is one of Ruger's earlier attempts with their new LC6 trigger. I took it to the range yesterday and experienced some very odd goings on. I have about 800 Remington 110 gr. RN bullets and some 14 lbs. of BL-C2 powder so I decided to use this combination to get the gun on paper and roughly zeroed. I have an elderly Lyman manual which gives a starting load of 51.0 grs. of the Ball C2 powder with a 110 gr. bullet, so that is the starting load I used. I used the CCI #200 primer, which is all I use now and has never given me any trouble. Shooting this load at the range could best be described as like shooting a flintlock muzzle loader. I pulled the trigger, heard a "ping" as the mechanism was being released and then a few tenths of a second later (once or twice as late as a half second later) the gun would fire. Nothing happened with the second round I attempted to fire, and when I looked at the primer it appeared to have been whacked hard by the firing pin. I did not have a high primer, as all primers were meticulously seated below flush with my Lee Autoprime. I thought this was all very bizarre and the whole session was very disconcerting, though accuracy with these loads was pretty good. I cursed Ruger's LC6 trigger and figured that they had either screwed it up or there is something wrong with the firing pin. Then I lost even more sleep last night thinking that I might have a defective batch of primers. Having just bought 5000 of these, it was a very sleepless night.

So, I just pulled the cartridge that didn't fire and was surprised to find some chunky green stuff in the powder. At first I thought it was a piece of media that might've been stuck in the flash hole but then there was a lot of it. I took a closer look and it appeared to be partially combusted powder. I popped out the primer, and sure enough the primer really had fired! I have never experienced anything like this before. How does the powder start to burn and then stop? With my hearing protection I had never heard the pop of the primer and thought it was a misfire. I now suspect the rifle is functioning just fine and the problem is my load. I guess I need to either increase the powder charge or use a magnum primer. I never use magnum rifle primers and frankly this is the first time I'm using BL-C2 in the .30-06. All my other experiences with this powder have been in .300 Savage, .308 Winchester, .30-30 and .223/5.56 and I never had any problems with poor ignition.

Has anybody else experienced similarly poor combustion? The only time anything remotely similar happened to me was when I used a starting load of 296 in Winchester's own manual with a 200 gr. JHP and Winchester's WLP in the .45 Colt. It actually stuck the bullet in the bore.

I am going to pull the few remaining .30-06 loads that I have left and increase the powder charge a few grains. And I'll try some different powder to see what happens. I hope the rifle will behave normally.

Dave Sinko

Dave,
I have only used BLC2 in 222 Rem and never in 30-06. I had an adequate supply of IMR-3031 and IMR-4895 for the 30-06. In the 222 Rem I never expereinced any problems using BL-C2.

Sir, your starting load actually sounds a little high, but not out of line. Sierra's Edition V lists 48.6 to start and 53.2 as max with BL-C2 and a 110-grain bullet.

I'm wondering if maybe your powder might be contaminated. How old is it? Does it smell funny? Have you used any of it lately in a different gun/caliber? Regarding the gun, have you tried any different ammo in it? Was it me, I'd try some factory ammo and see how it acts with that.

Hope this helps, and Semper Fi.

Ron H.

A very interesting problem! I agree with Ron that it would seem to be powder deterioration or contamination. Why not send a small sample back to Hogdgon's and see if they will offer an opinion? I absolutely would not be using any more of that powder until a solution was found.

According to one source, BL-C2 replaced the original BL-C about 1962, so conceivably it could have been around for 45+ years.

I have experienced what I call hang fires with BLC in .223. You pull the trigger hear the firing pin hit then get a delayed fire. I have had this happen with three different lots of powder in at least 5 AR15's. Most recently I could not get the powder I wanted and bought BLC again and it has happened again. It occurs on about 5% of the firings. But accuracy is not affected. I have used BLC in 308 without a problem in the past. This is just my experience with BLC in .223.

I likewise am inclined to suspect some sort of powder contamination. I've used lots of BLC2 over the years, although don't use it anymore, and don't ever recall having hang-fires or seeing green chunks in it. When I did use it I found it to be pretty touchy and unpredictable in the 223 round, and so discontinued use because that is what I was mostly reloading at the time. Zediker in "The Competitive AR-15" also comments on some problems with BLC2 in that round.

The Speer Reloading Manual #14 recommends magnum primers with BL-C(2) in the .30-06 (also in the .223 Remington). I've heard some ball powders are difficult to ignite. Try the magnum primers and see if it helps!

Further testing leads me to believe that there is nothing wrong with this rifle.

I worked up to 56.0 grs. of BL-C2 with both the Remington 110 gr. RN and the Hornady 90 gr. XTP. The 56 gr. charge weight is a maximum in one of Hodgdon's latest manuals. Even at maximum I still experienced the "hangfire" effect with every shot fired.

I also tried 49.0 grs. of BL-C2 with the 168 gr. Sierra MatchKing. This also produced the hangfire effect, though not as dramatic as with the lighter bullets. I also experienced horizontal stringing.

The rifle behaved normally with IMR 3031 and 4064 with a wide range of bullet weights. It's clear to me that there is nothing wrong with either the firing mechanism or the CCI primers that I am using.

I loaded my first 8 lb. keg of BL-C2 into the .223/5.56 and had no problems whatsoever in my DPMS carbine. The load is 27.0 grs. of BL-C2 with the CCI Small Rifle primer (not magnum) and various 55 gr. bullets. I have used this load with all manner of scavenged brass and Boxer primed steel cases and experienced complete customer satisfaction. It worked so well that I went and bought 16 more pounds. I will have to load some more .223 with this second 8 lb. keg and see if I get the same outstanding results. All three of these 8 pounders are of very recent manufacture. Either I have a bad keg or this powder just doesn't work well in the .30-06. I'll have to play around with it some more to find out.

Dave Sinko

IMHO, I think you need a magnum primer, at least that is what I'd use.
That powder in large quantities is hard to light.

This is why many of us use stick powder for rifle rounds.....Ball powder has too narrow of a range for lite bullets or lite loads. Not saying it can't be done, but stick powder is just more reliable for me.

Try some magnum primers. BLC2 has a heavy deterrent coating and is hard to light sometimes, and a larger volume of powder makes it worse.

John

I just scoped my Savage 24F combo gun and went to work with the BL-C2 in the .30-30 rifle barrel. This gun has always been very accurate with my 150 gr. cast bullets and BL-C2 so I decided to try it with the lightweight jacketed bullets. A healthy charge of BL-C2 behind the Hornady 110 gr. V-Max produced some stunning accuracy. I used the same CCI 200 primer and did not experience any hangfires. It is now clear to me that this powder is not suitable for the .30-06 unless possibly a magnum primer is used. I did not see any references to magnum primers in the old Lyman manual but they are recommended in some of the newer manuals.

Dave Sinko

Mag primers

I've read the same thing about ball powder. Magnum primers are the way to go.

BLC2 was originally intended for 7.62 NATO ammo. I wouldn't use it in larger cases.

And as others have stated , most ball powders work better with hotter military or magnum primers.

Yes, I continue to get excellent results with this powder in the .308 Winchester using the standard CCI 200 primer. No magnum primer necessary here. I also experienced the same hangfire effect with H335 in the .30-06, again using the CCI 200 primer. Not as dramatic as with the BL-C2, but I could tell it was there. I bought these powders for high volume loading in the Dillon 550B. Years ago when I loaded one at a time I always used the IMR stick powders and never had these problems. You learn something new every day.

Dave Sinko