.308 Win Hang-fires

interesting, could be either the primers or the powder. I bought the PPV for my 6.5 Grendel, never even thought of using it in .308 until this thread. Probably won't ever use it again in .308 but now I know it's a good fallback if I ever need to

On a side note today PV had IMR 4064 and I snagged 5 pounds just for this rifle
 
I will likely just stick to Varget for 308. Part of the reason I wanted to try PP Varmint was cause I am down to 1.5 pounds of Varget and none in sight anywhere.
 
I have been seeing a good many listings the last few days for IMR 8208, H4350 and today IMR 4064. Rumor has it Varget should be showing up next month but you will need to be quick. Monitor the thread over at Accurate Shooter reloading forums, that is how I snagged the 4064. Could have gotten 8208 and 4350 at the same time but I still have a good supply of both of those so I decided not to be greedy. Lots of primers popping also , some even at halfway decent prices
 
Pro Varmint is in the burn rate are below W748 and above IMR4895.

While I know burn rate is not specific, it does tell you what general area the powder is in and you can cross ref to associated uses.

As noted it seems like one of a number of issues. Case size is suspect (too short on the shoulder) as a hang fire and no fire can be symptoms of a case giving way as it is hit by the firing pin.
 
RC20 said:
Pro Varmint is in the burn rate are below W748 and above IMR4895.

While I know burn rate is not specific, it does tell you what general area the powder is in and you can cross ref to associated uses.

As noted it seems like one of a number of issues. Case size is suspect (too short on the shoulder) as a hang fire and no fire can be symptoms of a case giving way as it is hit by the firing pin.
Click to expand...
If the case base to datum was too short, I should also experience this issue with other powders. I am going to tear apart the failure to fire and inspect the powder and primer. The firing pin indented that primer like it does all the others.
 
Since Hounddawg showed it should work, all I can think of is the powder is contaminated or there is a failure to seat the primers completely or you have a batch that is a little less energetic than average. If your mainspring is old, that can make the primers fire less energetically. They should be seated about 0.003" past the point where the anvil feet touch the bottom of the primer pocket. The only other experiment I can suggest is to sacrifice a few of the cases by drilling the flash holes out to the more common 0.080" or even up to 0.125" so the primer doesn't have to work as hard to get its flame out there. See if any of that clears the problem up.
 
Same lot of primers work well with BLC-(2). I will sacrifice 10 cases or so and drill out the flash holes. I do have a 1/8" bit, but I also have a 3/16" bit as well. The 3/16" bit should give me a little more than .090".
 
BLC2 is not particularly easy to light. If you have no problem with lighting it with your current flash holes, then I suspect the powder. If you have a kinetic bullet puller and some loaded 308 ammo with large primers, you could also pull a few and dump the powder and substitute yours and your bullets. If they have the same problem or have very wide velocity variation, it is definitely the powder. Powder has a number of failure modes, including behaving as you describe, though it is often clumping a bit by then.
 
you have any other calibers you can try that PPV in? It has a good rep in .223 and 6.5 Grendel. My money is on contaminated powder
 
Unclenick said:
BLC2 is not particularly easy to light. If you have no problem with lighting it with your current flash holes, then I suspect the powder. If you have a kinetic bullet puller and some loaded 308 ammo with large primers, you could also pull a few and dump the powder and substitute yours and your bullets. If they have the same problem or have very wide velocity variation, it is definitely the powder. Powder has a number of failure modes, including behaving as you describe, though it is often clumping a bit by then.
Click to expand...
Yes, it has been clumping. I thought it was just because it is such a fine powder and it sat for a few years. I will throw away that pound of powder and try the next pound. I have four pounds of this powder. All from different lots.
 
hounddawg said:
you have any other calibers you can try that PPV in? It has a good rep in .223 and 6.5 Grendel. My money is on contaminated powder
Click to expand...
I originally purchased this powder for 6.5 Grendel. I have been using it in 5.56x45 for a while. In fact, I have around 1000, 69 grain Sierra Matchkings loaded with Power Pro Varmint. I have had no issues with the 5.56x45 ammunition, but like I said earlier, most of the bottles of powder I have are from different lots. This bottle of powder had not even had the seal broken until I opened it a couple weeks ago.
 
Unclenick said:
BLC2 is not particularly easy to light. If you have no problem with lighting it with your current flash holes, then I suspect the powder. If you have a kinetic bullet puller and some loaded 308 ammo with large primers, you could also pull a few and dump the powder and substitute yours and your bullets. If they have the same problem or have very wide velocity variation, it is definitely the powder. Powder has a number of failure modes, including behaving as you describe, though it is often clumping a bit by then.
Click to expand...
I do not have a single large primer 308 case. It might serve me well to buy some. Although the rifle is shooting well enough and my load with Varget gets less than 20 fps extreme spread and around 5 fps standard deviation.
 
He'd have noticed before he tried, as 3/16 (0.1875") is wider than a small primer pocket (0.175") and would not go in to touch the flash hole.


KT,

The clumping happens when the nitrocellulose starts to break down. Acid radicals wind up in the oily-looking surfaces that result.

CLEAN THE DICKENS OUT OF ANY GUN YOU SHOT THAT POWDER IN. I once shot a bunch of surplus rounds through an M1A which had occasional weak and failure-to-fire rounds. Later, I pulled some down and found the powder clumping and oily looking in some of them. A month after shooting them and despite cleaning, my bore had a layer of red rust on its surface. The nitric acid radicals in the deteriorating powder did that.

So treat your gun as if you had fired corrosive primers in it. Preferably, use a corrosion inhibited water-base solvent like Bore Tech Eliminator or Hoppe's Elite, as they will dissolve the acid radicals. When you've run your last dry patch through, put some JB Bore Compound or Iosso Bore Cleaner other a metal polish like Flitz on a patch, and run it back and forth in the bore to lightly polish off acid-activated surfaces.
 
I don't have any .308 Win that takes small primers (nor any .45acp that does, either). Don't know where to look, not interested and wouldn't accept any as a gift. IF there is any benefit to using small primers in .308, I don't know what it is, and I doubt it would apply to my guns and my shooting….
Click to expand...

308 brass with small primers was originally offered by Remington to form small-capacity cases like the 7mm BR. Some folks tried it in larger capacity cases and it worked…sometimes. IME the small primers, as well as large pistol primers in regular cases, work fine at temps above 40*F. There is a reason that .308 brass has large primer pockets….








.
 
Laurie Holland did a 3 part test on the .308 Lapua Palma in Target Magazine

http://www.targetshooter.co.uk/?p=2613

an excerpt


Then, as to the claim that SRP ‘Palma’ cases reduce MV ES (extreme spread) values compared to their LRP brothers – the reason for the American Palma teams asking Lapua to produce the cases in the first place – the weight of evidence based on actual range experience and competition results is so great that few if any will question this now.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top