What Happened?

[hangnoose]

malfunction?

it sounds to me like the primer did fire as it was supposed to, but the powder did not ignite for any of the above mentioned reasons. there was enough pressure to lodge the bullet in the bbl. maybe enough of the flame got outside of a poorly seated primer, or the powder was contaminated. is the powder old? or stored poorly? try lighting a SMALL bit of it with a long match or lighter. do you use brass polish when you tumble the brass? sometimes a glob of brass polish & media stays in the case between the primer and powder. pull the heads out of a few rounds and have a look see.

 

[fredj338]

Slow powders, light bulelts & little to no crimp are never a good combo. It is possible, I have had hang fires with 180gr bullets in 44mag w/ less than full power loads, but the result should not have been a squib. Personally, stop using the TrueBlue & get an app 45acp powder, like WST, W231, Unqiue, AA#5, etc.

 

[Waywatcher]

Thanks for all the advice. I returned to the range today. I had two FTF. I checked the ammo and found 2 NOT fully seated primers. Could that have caused my problem? I have reset the primers and now the ammo is up to specs. While taking apart the ammo to figure this out, I was wondering is it safe to decap live primers?

A primer not-fully-seated is more likely to just give a click with no results than partially firing like you're experiencing. Primers generally go off, or they don't. In your case it sounds like they are going off, because primers have enough energy to lodge a bullet in the barrel.

It is safe enough to decap live primers, but I wouldn't recommend reusing them after doing so. Depriming pushes on the primer in the opposite direction of a firing pin.

I think you have a primer/powder/load mismatch. Using magnum primers would probably fix it, or using a different powder, etc.

 

[moxie]

Check how you are seating the primers. Agree that if they aren't fully seated it can cause problems.

Your OAL seems very long for that bullet. I'd think it would be down in the 1.240" range.

What happened is a classic squib load except that some small amount of powder was there and it didn't burn.

The best way to check your powder level is to use a loading block. With 50 rounds just shine a very bright flashlighlight slowly across the rows. Any differences or absences will pop right out. You want them all the same.

I like Bullseye and Unique for .45ACP.

 

[jfp357]

Thanks Moxie

 

[rwsmith]

Whatever the reason......

Can't overemphasize this...Did you check your barrel to see if the bullet lodged in there?? This often happens in a squib round because the primer gives enough pressure to move the bullet out of the cartridge.

If you get a squib, NEVER fire another round until checking your barrel. I've slowed down the rapid fire shooting because I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[arjay]

I've deprimed live primers safely on my press ,just keep your hands and eyes out of the line of fire.

 

[Rule3]

You are talking two different events here.

They have nothing to do with each other.

The first post appears to be a squib. Primer went off, no powder pushed bullet into barrel.

Your second problem of FTF due to high primers, simply re-chamber the round and let the hammer hit it again and it should go off due to the first strike seating the primer in further.

How are you priming. on the press, a hand held device or what?

As to depriming live primers, yes it can be done. I have done it many times,

Wear safety glass and SLOWLY deprime. be sure to have a cup or something with a rag to catch the live primers, you can re use them.

If you do not feel comfortable doing that, then break the rounds down with you "mistake" hammer and then fire the empty cases in the gun. In a semi auto it's a pain and in a revolver the cylinder will jam as the primer backs out.

If I get a light strike at the range I always cycle it again. 99.9% it will go off.

As mention, there are better powders but that also has no bearing on a failure of the primer.