Why am I seeing unburnt powder?

[tisch006]

I'm pretty new to reloading. Only a couple hundred rounds.

I cleaned my stock XD-40 last night and found some unburnt powder. Not sure what this is telling me.

Here's my recipe:

180 gr Berry's plated RS

5.4 gr WSF

CCI #500 primers

1.135 OAL

once fired federal bass

I'm interested in any thoughts.

Thanks!

[twodownzero]

You're probably using too slow a powder for the velocity you're trying to reach. Generally speaking, powders burn better at higher pressures.

That also looks to be around the "starting" load. Bump it up a bit and I am willing to bet it cleans up.

Or, do what most of us do...use a faster burning powder.

Edited August 28, 2010 by twodownzero

[kamikaze1a]

You could try gradually/slightly increasing your crimp. Does your shells look all sooty after firing?

[G-ManBart]

It really depends. Some powders will leave some unburned, or partially burned, granules even at normal pressures. Factory Winchester Ranger 124gr FMJ+P leaves all kinds of unburned powder in the gun, and it's definitely at full pressure....not sure what powder they're using in that, but it does leave a lot of residue (not that it seems to hurt anything). R,

[G-ManBart]

You could try gradually/slightly increasing your crimp. Does your shells look all sooty after firing?

Increasing the crimp doesn't do much for increasing the pressure (if you're thinking that will cause a more complete burn) in a taper crimped cartridge like .40S&W. It's also a bad idea to do that when using plated bullets like the OP is...as soon as it cuts into the plating, the accuracy is usually terrible. .420" give or take a thousandth or two, is the way to go and proper resizing should produce sufficient bullet pull (neck tension) to ensure that the charge burns normally. R,

[tisch006]

It really depends. Some powders will leave some unburned, or partially burned, granules even at normal pressures. Factory Winchester Ranger 124gr FMJ+P leaves all kinds of unburned powder in the gun, and it's definitely at full pressure....not sure what powder they're using in that, but it does leave a lot of residue (not that it seems to hurt anything). R,

Well that makes sense. Thanks!

Being very new to reloading I wasn't sure if unburnt powder was generally indicative of one thing or another. The gun seems to really like this recipe and they fly straight!

I'll run them over the chrono soon to see if they make major and then bump up the charge if needed.

[G-ManBart]

It really depends. Some powders will leave some unburned, or partially burned, granules even at normal pressures. Factory Winchester Ranger 124gr FMJ+P leaves all kinds of unburned powder in the gun, and it's definitely at full pressure....not sure what powder they're using in that, but it does leave a lot of residue (not that it seems to hurt anything). R,

Well that makes sense. Thanks!

Being very new to reloading I wasn't sure if unburnt powder was generally indicative of one thing or another. The gun seems to really like this recipe and they fly straight!

I'll run them over the chrono soon to see if they make major and then bump up the charge if needed.

You're welcome. I forgot to add that Win Ranger 180gr FMJ .40S&W doesn't leave much (a little) unburned residue, but it does leave a touch of black soot on the cases...and they're around a 180PF load. R,

[kamikaze1a]

I beg to differ. I have found that a firmer crimp gives me better or more complete "burn" and I believe slightly higher pressure. When I see a lot of fouling on the outside of my cases, I found increasing the crimp decreased the fouling. The only explanation I could come up with was that the crimp delayed the release of the bullet at ignition causing the casing to expand more and better seal against the chamber walls. I have no way of testing if the actual pressure increased but the pressure in the case increased or rather the case expanded more... As for more complete burn, it seemed to be the case in a couple of loads I used where I found less unburnt powder after screwing down the crimp die a bit but that was with a revolver and a roll crimp. I would think that would correlate to a semi with a taper crimp to some extent.

As for crimping plated bullets, to be honest, I've never tested crimping and accuracy with plated bullets but I have done quite a bit with cast and jacketed (with and without cannelure) and not found negative results from proper crimps. In some cases, I got smaller groups with a firmer crimp than no crimp or light crimp but that was out of my barrels with my loads. What you say about the thin plating could be true though...

[Sal1950]

WSF is a slow burning powder very close in speed to the Hodgdon Universal that I use. A trick I've been using for some time now is to use Magnum primers to get a more complete ignition and cleaner burn, works very well for me. This approach does increase pressures a bit and should be used with caution but your load of 5.4 is just above the book starting load and would probably be fine, but I think I'd cut back to 5.2 for a first small trial run just to be safe.

Sal

[carter300]

I say "Par for the course" I use 3.5 gr of TG and CCI Mag primers still get unburnt power on my arms when I shoot from a bench. Now during a match I have no idea, as powder can't stick to something moving the speed of sound.