Interesting experience...

[Slider_]

Went to my local indoor range tonight with my 15-22 for the second time. Did some testing with ammo to see what shot best. Something strange happened though. I had 1 round of federal gameshock act like an OOB. But I don't think it was. Sounded really loud and a massive puff of black smoke shot out of the ejection port with the spent case. Bullet hit the target fine, but there was a ton of smoke coming from in between the upper and lower on both sides. Finished off the mag and checked everything out. Didn't look like anything was damaged so I loaded up again.

Switched up the ammo a few time for the next 100 rounds or so and then switched over to CCI Blazers. Went through about 30 rounds of that and had another round cause smoke to come out from in between the upper and lower again. This time no big bang or black smoke shooting out of the ejection port. Finished off the rest of the Blazers without a problem and headed home. Keep in mind when this happened I was not rapid firing. I was in either a rested or standing position taking my time between shots so an OOB seems unlikely. Any thoughts as to what happened? I went through about 150 rounds tonight and all of them shot fine with the exception of the weird smoke. Should I just chalk it up to being a rimfire? Thanks for any insight

 

[hunterfisher808]

Might be unburned powder granules building up in the oil/lube/wax build up in and around the barrel and slide of the gun till some random spark ignites it and it cooks off.

 

[shawnfergie]

I had this happen with a CCI Blazer as well. No loud noise or anything weird other than the smoke. I didn't find the casing and the next load chambered fine, no problems. From what I've been told if it had been an OOB then the next round wouldn't have chambered correctly.

 

[Slider_]

Might be unburned powder granules building up in the oil/lube/wax build up in and around the barrel and slide of the gun till some random spark ignites it and it cooks off.

hmmm... that would make sense I guess. The only thing that gets me is why now? I used the same box of gameshock and blazers last time and didn't have this happen. Even cleaned and lubed the upper and lower. Is it possible to have that many unburned deposits after 50-60 shots? Any way to help prevent it from happening again?

 

[Slider_]

I had this happen with a CCI Blazer as well. No loud noise or anything weird other than the smoke. I didn't find the casing and the next load chambered fine, no problems. From what I've been told if it had been an OOB then the next round wouldn't have chambered correctly.

Thanks for confirming it wasn't an OOB. Thought it was a little strange that the next round chambered. The loud noise only came from the gameshock. Which by the way, has anyone noticed that gameshocks have more of a recoil than mini mags or blazers? They're all really close in fps. Just something I noticed.

 

[Rustpot]

It's most likely the type of powder they use that causes a difference in recoil- fast burn powder will hit the pressure peak sooner and give a sharper recoil.

One of the loads I had made up for my .40 pistol a year or so ago was done with slow burn powder. It was a soft recoil, but I got unburnt powder everywhere and a large flame out the end since the powder was still burning when the bullet exited and the barrel started to unlock. Never had any ignite in the gun though.

 

[grimreaper21]

Based on that do you think it would be noticibly cleaner? Or maybe just theoretically cleaner?

 

[Scuds03]

It's most likely the type of powder they use that causes a difference in recoil- fast burn powder will hit the pressure peak sooner and give a sharper recoil.

One of the loads I had made up for my .40 pistol a year or so ago was done with slow burn powder. It was a soft recoil, but I got unburnt powder everywhere and a large flame out the end since the powder was still burning when the bullet exited and the barrel started to unlock. Never had any ignite in the gun though.

Yea I think the Remington Gold bullets are like this. I got a box just to test them even though everyone syas they suck (which they do) and I noticed that even though they have the same grain bullet weight and velocity as other rounds they have significantly more recoil.

 

[Slider_]

It's most likely the type of powder they use that causes a difference in recoil- fast burn powder will hit the pressure peak sooner and give a sharper recoil.

One of the loads I had made up for my .40 pistol a year or so ago was done with slow burn powder. It was a soft recoil, but I got unburnt powder everywhere and a large flame out the end since the powder was still burning when the bullet exited and the barrel started to unlock. Never had any ignite in the gun though.

Hadn't thought about burn rate. Good point. Have you noticed any slow burn LR's that don't finish burning by the end of the 15-22 barrel?