454 Casull Squib Load

I got my Freedom Arms .454 in 1985. At that time, large pistol primers were recommended, then changed to Small Rifle. I am not aware that magnum primers were ever designated and I have used CCI 400 ever since.

Freedom Arms supplied primer pocket inserts to convert the LPP pockets to SRP size. They had to be swaged, but I didn't have a tool, so I just did my best to install the insert and then prime the pocket. It generally worked but at times, deformed the primer to some degree which didn't become a problem until one day at the range I had a squibb. I was totally perplexed because this never happened and I absolutely knew I had not missed a powder charge because I did everything manually, and I found powder had escaped from the case. I was about to fire another round when I asked myself, "Where did that bullet go?" Well, inspection revealed it was stuck in the barrel. The improper primer seating was enough to discharge the primer but not enough to ignite the H-110 charge. The FA bullet was a 240gr JFP; the barrel is 7-1/2 inches.

My thought is the OP's experience was primer failure, or, as big Al Hunter pointed out, media blocking the primer pocket.
 
That powder doesn't look burned at all. I would have guessed any primer spark with enough power to push the bullet into the forcing cone would ignite some of the powder.

I like Unclenick's recommendation of taking an equal amount of fresh powder and comparing how the 2 burn. My guess would be contaminated powder
 
I can't unequivocally rule out powder contamination, but I'm at a loss to understand how the contamination could have occurred, since none of the other rounds in the batch were affected, and I've never had a round not fire due to powder contamination in over 30 years of reloading.

This particular batch of 454s was loaded on a single stage press, cases were tumbled in stainless steel media, dried in a Lyman Cyclone case dryer and inspected for defects (split case mouth, obstructed primer pocket, etc.) before being charged with powder. Powder levels in all cases were compared by inspecting them in a loading block before bullets were seated. All rounds fired as expected except the ones I disassembled and the dud. Disassembled rounds showed no anomalies.

I can't come up with anything except a bad primer that ignited enough powder to push the bullet into the barrel but didn't have enough "oomph" to initiate combustion of the entire powder charge.

I haven't experienced a bad primer in over 30 years of reloading, but I can't come up with any other conclusion.
 
The fact the bullet was pushed out suggests the primer was OK. Usually, when you see pictures of powder involved in squibs it is yellow because the graphite has been burned off the surface. However, I do now recall an experiment I did with some very light loads of 2400 in .44 Special back in the '80s, and though the swaged lead bullets I used made it out of the barrel OK, the cylinder gradually jammed up because a lot of unburned 2400 was blowing out of the barrel/cylinder gap and got between it and the frame. So a charge of 2400 with enough space around it can, in fact, burn incompletely, even though the primer is fine. Once the bullet clears the case the pressure drops dramatically and can that can stop the burning, such as it is, at that point. But your charges were not that small and didn't leave that much space. Also, the jamming, in that case, occurred from the accumulation of some of the unburned powder from every round. If you didn't get residue from your other rounds, you were not having that issue. At least, not with your other rounds.

We might never solve the exact mechanism, but my thought is either a low charge (did you weigh the squibbed-out powder to see if it was close to 22 grains?) or a large drop of water that never dried out and was spread around the bottom of the case and not readily visible. A drop of perspiration or a nose drip falling unnoticed into the case maybe. At this point, it will be speculation. I can tell you that after adjusting 2400's model burn rate to match Hodgdon's Gold Dot load, QuickLOAD thinks you will be around 17,500 psi, which is a pressure where Unique and some other somewhat faster powders would be happier.
 
Unclenick,

Unfortunately, I didn't think to weigh the squibbed-out powder. That might have given a clue as to what happened. However, I always compare powder levels in a loading block before proceeding with bullet seating, and I think I would have noticed a low level in a case. The recovered powder looked to be a a full or nearly full charge based on the amounts in the scale pan when I was weighing the charges to set the powder measure.

I can't rule out some moisture or other contaminant getting into the case during the reloading process, but I'm at a loss to explain how that could have happened. A squib is a real surprise, and this episode has reminded me that one can't be too careful when reloading.
 
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