Sorting Completed Rounds for Squibs

[RickT]

In setting up my Mr. Bullet Feeder I experienced the perfect storm of total incompetence. Prior to Mr. BF I had loaded over the last year more than 40K rounds of 9mm 147gr Bayou without incident. I then switched to Acme bullets and experienced a rash of inverted bullets and bullets seating either crooked or simply falling over in the cases. Only bad things can happen when you have to stop a progressive press (LNL AP in this case) and sure enough I discovered "a" squib when test firing the load.

I wanted to see if I could sort by weight to identify squibs. I sorted the completed rounds into 1 grain bins from 177gr up to 184gr and then proceeded to disassemble the rounds. Everything below 177gr was empty (7 of 7). Half of the 177gr to 179gr were empty. None of the 13 rounds between 179 and 180 were squibs. I fired the remaining rounds without problem.

My mixed brass averages about 62gr. Powder charger was 3.8gr. Haven't weight the bullets, but let's say 115gr. So the average round would weight 181gr, but 182gr looks more like what's pictured.

when way beyond a learning moment. I've given up on separate seating and crimping with the bullet feeder so I have a perfect view of the

powder before the BF. I'm going to reinstall by RCBS lockout die. And I've since got the setup going properly for the Acme bullets - adjusted the collator correctly and slightly opened up the bell.

My one suggestion for others would be to weigh your bullets and cases, mixed or otherwise. If for any reason you suspect an empty round, weigh it; if its weight is anywhere near the sum of the low end of the case and bullet weights you at least know with a virtual certainty that the round is a squib. Of course if it's only one round you're going to take it apart anyway.

[Zoomy]

My nephew had a potential Squibb problem when I let him reload his own ammo on my XL 650. A part broke on my powder charge system. He had already loaded 320 rounds before I checked and saw there was no powder going in.

He was loading .40 S&W in mixed brass using 155 gr extreme plated bullets and 4.3 gr of Titegroup. I decided to weigh the round that I knew had no powder and use it as a baseline. I then started weighing rounds and found a wide variation. I knocked apart a round that I was sure had no powder. It turned out that it had powder. I weighed about 20 empty cases and found a 5.7 grain spread in the weights.

Bottom line I decided it was not worth the risk of injury and we both worked at knocking apart all the rounds. We found 6 that had no powder. Cast bullets make it a bigger problem since in my experience that can vary several grains in weight.

Edited February 23, 2016 by Zoomy

[jmorris]

Guess the bullet feeder didn't help much speeding up that session. A squib is still better than a double.

[bwikel]

I only have two things to do when loading on my 650 with MBF.......pull the handle and look in every case for powder.

[Zoomy]

I only have two things to do when loading on my 650 with MBF.......pull the handle and look in every case for powder.

This.

[GrumpyOne]

Pull them all.

[Reshoot]

Okay, you lost me there somewhere. How does a bullet feeder problem lead to uncharged cases? Unless, you are manually advancing the shell plate, bypassing the charging station.

When something goes wrong, in my progressive press, (which is very rare) the FIRST thing I do is rotate the shell plate, removing all cases. I do this just to avoid the risk of an uncharged round.

[Zoomy]

Okay, you lost me there somewhere. How does a bullet feeder problem lead to uncharged cases? Unless, you are manually advancing the shell plate, bypassing the charging station.

When something goes wrong, in my progressive press, (which is very rare) the FIRST thing I do is rotate the shell plate, removing all cases. I do this just to avoid the risk of an uncharged round.

This. When OP mentioned that he had a squib I assumed that the only way it would happen is if the round had no powder in it or not enough powder. Edited February 23, 2016 by Zoomy

[RickRak2000]

The MBF unit simply places a projectile onto the case mouth. It has absolutely nothing to do with charging cases with powder.

If you (or anyone else for that matter) begins to have a technical or mechanical issue with your MBF unit not operating as designed,

please feel free to contact me about it and I'll help resolve the issue if I can. (e-mail is the preferred contact method)

[Hi-Power Jack]

If you do not have a light, and are looking into each and every case BEFORE

you seat the bullet - you will end up with squibs ....

(Don't ask how I know - I have 250 cartridges, some of which are squibs)....

[cnote]

I think you are going backwards here, why would you not seat and crimp with separate dies? Prior to the bullet being dropped you have plenty of time to check if powder is in there. Fortunately for me, I have even caught a couple of cases that looked over filled ( impossible unless something breaks) , stopped , emptied the brass to find crud dried in it that the tumbler did not clean out.

This could have caused a pressure problem and may have been bad.

Pull handle, visually check each case 100 times, add primers ( etc if needed) and repeat

[Neomet]

At the risk of getting flagged for piling on... stare at the powder in every single case and scrap any batches where there might possibly be a defect. Pulling bullets is about the most annoying, mind numbing thing to do but the Range Gods find great pleasure in making sure that squib is the first shot fired on the quickest double of your life.

[G-ManBart]

All it takes is one unusually heavy case to leave you with a squib....not a good thing for most of the shooting we do.

I load in batches of 100rds. If something happens weird with the press, I set aside the cases in the bin, and those on the shell plate, and reserve them for slow-fire practice. Worst-case scenario is I have 100rds set aside for accuracy work.

[LilBunniFuFu]

All it takes is one unusually heavy case to leave you with a squib....not a good thing for most of the shooting we do.

I load in batches of 100rds. If something happens weird with the press, I set aside the cases in the bin, and those on the shell plate, and reserve them for slow-fire practice. Worst-case scenario is I have 100rds set aside for accuracy work.

When this happens I have 100 draw from holster repetitions, I don't even slow fire those.

[rustybayonet]

I love my 550 stopping mid cycle not a problem and with the added light, I look in every case for powder. After a bit you can even tell if you have a low charge.

[jmorris]

Okay, you lost me there somewhere. How does a bullet feeder problem lead to uncharged cases?

Read his post, he said he bought bullets that didn't do what they were supposed to and some fell over. A sideways bullet on top of the case can't enter the seat die and that means powder won't be put into a case along with one case being dumped into the bin with an uncrimped bullet IF he lowered the ram enough to index the press when clearing the sideways bullet.

In other words incomplete strokes.

[Tom S.]

Old habits die hard. I had an issue with squibs in a batch of 9mm's I loaded on a Lee progressive, so I started carrying a hardwood dowel in my range bag. Now, after over 20 years of loading on the 650, I've never had a squib, but I still carry the dowel.