Aiden Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 Hi all, Yesterday I had my first questionable round during a club practice night. Shooting the stage, hammer falls, gun goes bang but it sounds extremely quiet to me. I stopped immediately. RO did not hear anything different but most of the peanut gallery agreed it sounded like a squib. Slide was fully forward. Dropped the mag, racked the slide, and inspected the chamber. Nothing in there but some unburnt powder. RO inserted a zip tie and it cleared the barrel. Shot the stage again with the same batch of ammo with no issues. I cannot recall if it chambered the next round; I dropped the mag and racked the slide on autopilot. I was shooting a Tanfoglio Stock 2 in 40S&W with a Titan hammer and a PD 15.5lb hammer spring. I'm running Federal SPP with 165gr SNS over 4.1gr N320, loaded to 1.125. Cases are lubed with Hornady one shot, dry for 5-10 minutes, then I start loading on a Dillon 550. I visually confirm powder drop for each case, and case gauge every round in a Hundo.Should I blame powder contamination, bad batch of primers, bad primer pockets, or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 1 hour ago, Aiden said: Hi all, Yesterday I had my first questionable round during a club practice night. Shooting the stage, hammer falls, gun goes bang but it sounds extremely quiet to me. I stopped immediately. RO did not hear anything different but most of the peanut gallery agreed it sounded like a squib. Slide was fully forward. Dropped the mag, racked the slide, and inspected the chamber. Nothing in there but some unburnt powder. RO inserted a zip tie and it cleared the barrel. Shot the stage again with the same batch of ammo with no issues. I cannot recall if it chambered the next round; I dropped the mag and racked the slide on autopilot. I was shooting a Tanfoglio Stock 2 in 40S&W with a Titan hammer and a PD 15.5lb hammer spring. I'm running Federal SPP with 165gr SNS over 4.1gr N320, loaded to 1.125. Cases are lubed with Hornady one shot, dry for 5-10 minutes, then I start loading on a Dillon 550. I visually confirm powder drop for each case, and case gauge every round in a Hundo.Should I blame powder contamination, bad batch of primers, bad primer pockets, or what? Contaminated powder? Maybe Bad Primer? Not likely with federal Bad primer pocket? No My money is on a simple undercharge if anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 3, 2020 Author Share Posted January 3, 2020 How much unburnt powder might be considered normal? Would an undercharge leave a lot of it unburnt? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarge Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 2 hours ago, Aiden said: How much unburnt powder might be considered normal? Would an undercharge leave a lot of it unburnt? I guess it could. One shot has never hurt any of my powder so possibly something else got in there? Do you wet tumble? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ming the Merciless Posted January 4, 2020 Share Posted January 4, 2020 I would suspect a split/cracked case with a full powder charge. Low neck tension and a ventilated case equals low pressure, and less noise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 4, 2020 Author Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) 10 hours ago, Ming the Merciless said: I would suspect a split/cracked case with a full powder charge. Low neck tension and a ventilated case equals low pressure, and less noise. Hrmm. I've never had a cracked case make it past case gauge. Wish I had found the brass. 18 hours ago, Sarge said: I guess it could. One shot has never hurt any of my powder so possibly something else got in there? Do you wet tumble? I buy processed range brass, no idea how they clean it. Occasionally I'll find weird stuff in them. I've never had issues with the process when loading major, but changed to Federal primers and loading short for minor the last 1,000 rounds or so. Wondering if it's dumb luck, or if I'm dumb. Edited January 4, 2020 by Aiden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perttime Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 I've seen a lot of unburnt powder when starting VERY conservatively from a "minimum load". The other time was a squib in my revolver: most likely I had a wet case when loading. The bullet got stuck between cylinder and barrel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiknSwans Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 I had a similar experience and found that I had shot a 9mm in my .40 S&W gun. I had dumped a bunch of 9mms into my .40 container of ammo. Very embarrassing . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AHI Posted January 5, 2020 Share Posted January 5, 2020 19 hours ago, Aiden said: Occasionally I'll find weird stuff in them. Just a guess but contamination . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aiden Posted January 6, 2020 Author Share Posted January 6, 2020 Thanks everyone for the input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Postal Bob Posted January 6, 2020 Share Posted January 6, 2020 (edited) Too bad you didn't find the empty case. It could've also been a primer either crushed/deformed/seated sideways when seating, lessening the primer flame. Federal SPP are very soft, and can easily get deformed if not seated in straight, or too much seating force is used. Edited January 6, 2020 by Postal Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nhyrum Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 If you wet tumble, I've known many people to not wait long enough before priming, resulting in similar issues, but I think more so dead primers.My thinking is with such a small charge in a large ish case. If you want to keep the same charge, maybe try Magnum primers, but I prefer using powders that get as close to a compressed load as I can for the velocity I want, and still get a complete burn. I don't like those tiny charges. Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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