454 Casull Squib Load

J

JayCee

New member
Had a squib recently while shooting my Freedom Arms Model 83. The load I was using was a 255 grain X-Treme plated bullet, 22 grains of Alliant 2400 and a CCI 400 primer in a 454 case. This load is about four or five grains over a “Ruger only” 45 Colt load, but about 3 grains under the starting load for 454 Casull in most of the reloading manuals. I’ve used the load for ages, and I’m not aware that 2400 is squib-prone like H110/Win 296.

When I pulled the trigger, I got a “click” instead of a bang, so I held the muzzle downrange for 30 seconds in case it was a hangfire. When I tried to move the cylinder, I found it to be locked up tight. What I first thought was a mechanical problem turned out to be the bullet lodged just inside the barrel locking up the cylinder. I drove the bullet back into the chamber with a brass rod and thus was able to get the cylinder loose. When I pulled the bullet from the defective round, the powder appeared blackened but unburned (see attached pic).

I pulled apart several of the unfired rounds in that batch, but couldn’t find any issues. All charges weighed exactly 22 grains and I found no evidence of any contamination in the case or the powder. All charges were visually inspected prior to bullet seating, and all were at the same level in the case. Since there seemed to be no issues with the load, I proceeded to fire the remaining rounds in the batch with no issues.

I’m puzzled about what happened here. I’m thinking maybe an underpowered primer ignited a few grains of powder near the flash hole which provided enough pressure to push the bullet into the barrel without igniting the entire powder charge. But I’ve never had a weak primer in over thirty years of reloading.

Any ideas?
 

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What did the primer pocket look like?

A partial hole or an obstruction like tumbling media lodged in the hole may have severely restricted the primer flash. So the powder wasn't ignited and just the gas from the primer was moving the bullet.
 
If your charge does not fill the case up to the flash hole, you can get misfires. Big case/small powder charge is famous for squibs.
 
Case fill is around 80 percent, so there shouldn't be an issue with big case/small charge I wouldn't think.

Primer pocket looked normal...no obstructions.

Powder wasn't contaminated in any of the other rounds I pulled, and all the remaining rounds in that batch fired without any problem, so I don't see how that particular round could have had any contamination. Powder container is tightly capped and kept in a room with relatively constant temperature/humidity so there shouldn't have been any degradation of the powder.

This is the first time I've had an issue like this in over 30 years of reloading, so I'm genuinely puzzled...
 
If you are 3 grains below the starting load, that could be the problem right there. Maybe it's just so marginal that it is unlikely to happen twice in your life, but it happened once; it can happen again. Maybe you should use a different powder for your light loads and raise the powder charge when using that powder.
 
Low powder seems to be a high possibility.

Possibly a primer but the only ones I ever had fail were not powder in the case and you clearly did (did yo weight the mess to see if it matched the load - undercharged?)

I have sent bullets into a semi auto with just a primer and it has all the hallmarks of the primer did the push and not the powder (haven't done a revolver the same so others may have experience with how far a primer drives a bullets.

Rifle, it does not go very far and come right out. I acualy have gotten to like a no powder load there as it tests for a flinch (I shoot a lot of 06, 308, 7.5 Swiss and know I can get twitchy at the end of a days shooting)
 
Take some of the powder and an equal quantity of fresh powder and put a match to them to see if the squib powder burns normally in air. If a drop of oil or something like that got into the case, it could cause the problem. Ballardw's suggestion is still a possibility, as the obstruction could have blown out in the end.
 
The load I was using was a 255 grain X-Treme plated bullet, 22 grains of Alliant 2400 and a CCI 400 primer in a 454 case.
Click to expand...

Enlighten me, as I don't load the .454 Casull, but is CCI 400 the right primer? Small rifle??

22gr of 2400 is not a "light" or low density load, even in the Casull case, which is .1 longer but not significantly larger than .45 Colt case.

Powder didn't get properly lit, that's obvious. Plugged/partially flashole? bad primer? contaminated primer or powder??

Only one round from the batch....I'd bet bad or contaminated primer. Rare, but it happens sometimes.

Possible poorly seated primer, not going off with full force? Did the primer strike look normal? (not that it will tell us anything if it does, :rolleyes:)
 
Enlighten me, as I don't load the .454 Casull, but is CCI 400 the right primer? Small rifle??
Click to expand...
Yes, the Casull cases are small primer pocket, and most load data calls for small rifle primers.

I may be remembering wrong, but I think Dick Casull experimented with large pistol and small rifle. And the most consistent performance with the high pressure 454 loads was in small rifle primers.
 
Only thing I know about the 454 C was a local outdoors writer wrote a hoot of a story.

More or less, he was an idiot. But, as he wrote publicly he was our idiot.

So, he is out in the boonies getting chased by a mad moose (probably a female)

So he figures he will shoot it with his 454 (judgment call, usually best to hide behind a tree and they will go away but....)

One dud after another. Damned near gets stomped as he is not behind his tree to shoot. And of course he wound up behind a tree after all safe and sound.

Why? Well for practice he shot once or twice and then loaded her up again. So log many months latter, most of the rounds had been in the gun for a number of shoots.

The powder was seriously over compressed. No of course he did not take the bullets out of the gun when he went intot he boonies, you know, that just to check thing? Nah!

I think he admitted he was not crimping or not crimping heavy as well.

Sadly he is now gone, he was a wonderful how not to do it example.
 
Like ballisticxlr says, the powder looks wet. Any oil or the like flying around?
Plated bullets are NOT jacketed and do not use jacketed data. Where'd you get the 22 grains? 22 grains of 2400 with a 250 grain jacketed is a tick below minimum. 5.5 grains below minimum with H110 and a Barnes 250.
Highly unlikely to be the low powder load. Under minimum loads can be dangerous and cause a detonation vs a burn. Not with clumpy powder though.
X-treme of course wants you to buy their manual. Mind you, it's on sale for $5. No online data.
 
Plated bullets are NOT jacketed and do not use jacketed data. Where'd you get the 22 grains? 22 grains of 2400 with a 250 grain jacketed is a tick below minimum. 5.5 grains below minimum with H110 and a Barnes 250.
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Just wondering if you realized that you are comparing very different powders and complete opposite bullets? And correlating them to one another?

2400 doesn't have the same tendency toward detonation that H110 has. In 454 the load range for 2400 is a few grains from min to max. H110 min to max is 1 grain, in some loads less than 1 grain.

A plated bullet, as was stated, is not jacketed. It is softer than a jacketed bullet, and more susceptible to problems from high pressure/velocity. (Probably why the OP was loading down) Barnes bullets are solid copper, and must be propelled to high velocity to perform. And they are not soft.

The OP load at 22 grains is half way between the 45 Colt load for a lead bullet and full power 454 jacketed data. Seems a reasonable place to start for a plated bullet. I would suspect a primer issue. It seems that something burned inside the case, just not the powder. A question for the OP, what media do you clean your brass with?
 
All loads the same and the rest worked, so one load got wet?

And it is part burned, how can you tell (vapor out the end!)
 
And it is part burned, how can you tell (vapor out the end!
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That is based on the OP commenting that the powder appears to be blackened. That is either soot or wet. As that is the only round with issues, I doubt powder contamination. If the OP weights the bad charge and confirms that it is heavier than the original charge, I would agree with wet powder. But with current information I will stick with tumbling media stuck in the primer hole or a bad primer.
 
Unfortunately, I didn't save the powder from the squib. However, I did pour it out of the case onto the scale pan, and it poured just like normal powder - no clumping or sticking to the case wall which might have indicated that the powder was damp. It looked to me like it was covered in soot. That's why I conjectured that the primer was weak and had ignited only a few grains of powder at the back of the case. That might account for the sooty appearance of the powder.
 
Load of slow burning magnum powders use a small rifle magnum primer.
I had the same problems switched to a small rifle magnum primer and problem went away
 
I find it hard to believe you had 22 gr. of powder in that charge, in other words primer only. I have no idea how experienced you may be at reloading( not judging) but we all make mistakes, fortunately no harm no foul. just visually inspect each round before passing it to the next station.
 
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