Causes and Prevention of Squibs

[Graham Smith]

It just gets stranger and stranger. Last Thursday evening, I took a few boxes of practice ammo that were carefully loaded last weekend and sorted by head stamp then weighed each one until I had 50 that were within 1 grain of each other. Took those to an indoor range Friday and shot them. There were a couple that clearly sounded "weaker" than the rest and damned if there wasn't a squib in there as well.

I am REALLY concerned that this is something other than too little powder but I have no idea what that might be.

[bbbean]

It just gets stranger and stranger. Last Thursday evening, I took a few boxes of practice ammo that were carefully loaded last weekend and sorted by head stamp then weighed each one until I had 50 that were within 1 grain of each other. Took those to an indoor range Friday and shot them. There were a couple that clearly sounded "weaker" than the rest and damned if there wasn't a squib in there as well.

I am REALLY concerned that this is something other than too little powder but I have no idea what that might be.

Have you checked your powder funnel to be sure there isn't some blockage or possibly a humidity issue? I had a rash of problems earlier this year and ended up identifying the problem as the compressed air I was using to blow loose powder off the press. Apparently, I'd held the button down long enough to for the air to cool the powder funnel, and some water condensed inside. This caused several light loads followed by a clump of powder on one load (which obviously alerted me to the problem). If the funnel hadn't dropped a clump of powder, I might still be scratching my head.

Once I dried the funnel thoroughly, no more problems.

[NoSteel]

Graham, can you list your exact brass prep technique please. (Do you deprime before cleaning or tumbling, clean before tumbling, if so with what, Lube, etc)

The reason I ask is I ran into a problem this past week trying to work up a new load using WST powder. I had worked up 100rnds of which I had several where I had to check for a squib because of the light recoil. None lodged in the barrel but many failed to come close to even cycling the slide and made it feel like a 22lr... At this point I suspect brass contamination for my problem which I won't elaberate on right now but I suspect an brass cleanliness/lube issue that became apparent when switching to this powder. I typically use TiteGroup which seems to burn consistantly no matter what I stick it in so I think the WST was highlighting issues I've had for a while. With help from everyone here we should be able to narrow this problem down with you.

Any chance you can post a pic of the primer and inside of the case of one of the failed cartridges??

Edited August 17, 2009 by NoSteel

[Graham Smith]

The brass I have is pre-cleaned, once fired brass. I put some brass in a zip top bag and shoot it with a couple shots of Hornady lube then shake it up and then dump it into a shoe box and shake it around a bit and let it air dry before loading. I'm going to start running the brass through the tumbler myself starting this weekend.

I used to run my brass through a EGW (.40) die on a single stage before loading, but so many people said that they just used the die on their press that I switched. I'm going to switch back to my old method this weekend.

Like an idiot, I did not keep the brass from the squib for a closer examination.

[Graham Smith]

Update. I had previously sorted out my loaded practice ammo by headstamp and weighed them, rejecting anything less than 1 gr off my computed average weight. And I still had a load that went bang instead of BANG - not a squib but close.

So, yesterday I took those remaining and checked them again. None below my acceptable weight but I did find a few that seemed a bit heavy. I took a couple out and pulled the bullets and weighed the powder. One was 0.1 over but the other came up short! When I looked in the case, there was powder clumped and stuck to the case wall. I have no idea what this could be but it's got me thinking that there could indeed be a problem that is unrelated to powder weight.

The brass I am using came "pre-cleaned", so I did not bother to run it through the tumbler before use - and that may have been a mistake. So, yesterday I started cleaning my unused brass. I'm going to set aside all my existing loaded ammo and start fresh.

[DougCarden]

Graham, once I started using a old cake pan and laid all the cases flat and then applied the case lube I have not had any squibs or light loads. I think if you keep case lube away from inside the case mouth and let it air dry you should be ok.

Good luck,

DougC

[BMartens]

Reading back through the posts I think you have pretty well narrowed your problem down to lube in the case.

If you have to lube, don't use a bag. Shaking the cases in a bag will cause the case mouths to scrape lube off the inside of the bag and into the case. And don't keep using the same bag. Wipe it out or get a fresh bag if their is any build up of lube. If I lube anything I use Cabela's spray lube and it seems to do the job quite well.

A very, very small amount of lube goes a long way with pistol cases.

I don't lube with carbide dies. Some do, some don't. With clean brass I don't think you need lube and I clean everything that goes through my press. If I wear out a die, I'll just get a new one I guess. I'm still waiting to wear out my first one though.

Skip the lube and see if your problem goes away.

[mlmiller1]

Did you read my post about the hornady one shot? It is on the first page of this topic. I really think if you will change to a different lube, your problem will go away.

MLM

[GrumpyOne]

I don't lube with carbide dies. Some do, some don't. With clean brass I don't think you need lube and I clean everything that goes through my press. If I wear out a die, I'll just get a new one I guess. I'm still waiting to wear out my first one though.

Amen, brother! I've heard too many horror stories... many on this thread! I use carbide dies and have never used lube.

[JThompson]

FWIW, the one thing I watch when I'm reloading is the powder charge bar moving in the measure --- that's essential for my peace of mind. I also tend to run a full powder hopper and top off every 2-300 rounds....

I'm with Nik on this... Also I will, if possible, choose a powder and a load that let's me see the powder in the case and also overflow if doubled.

[Graham Smith]

I went to a three day pistol camp this past weekend and went through about 1500 rounds of my own reloads. There was one failure to fire but all the rest were consistently good. Before starting to load those rounds, I checked the press completely and revised my methods back to those I had used at the end of last year - before the problem started. I'm not sure if there was any one thing wrong, but there were several little places in there that could create problems and I believe I've eliminated them all.

I made sure that the powder measure was positioned correctly and snugged down so it didn't wiggle.

I made sure that the powder measure was moving completely and freely in both directions .

Even though the brass was cleaned before I got it and looked it, I went back to cleaning it myself before use.

I took the .40 U die off the press and returned to doing that as a separate step.

I started spraying some One-Shot into a baggie then putting in the brass and mixing.

FWIW, making sure the powder measure was snugged down and that the powder bar didn't bind was probably the least cause. I've test it with the measure loose and the variation is minor. I'm more inclined to think it has to do with the brass prep and resizing as a separate step. The most notable thing about resizing as a separate step with .40 is that an occasional case will take a lot of force to resize. If this happened on the press, then it could keep the plate from moving up completely which would effect three other cartridges. Also, even after cleaning, I still run across a really dirty case once in awhile when resizing - they are easier to spot when resizing separately because there is only the one thing going on.

Anyway, I hope that I'm now free of this curse.