Happend once last week and twice today. Shooting my 9mm, sounds more like an explosion that a round being fired, I guess because it is burning much slower. Lots of smoke and unburnt powder on the slide. I can tell the slide moved much slower than normal, like a powder puff load. The powder (Win Autocomp) and the primers (Win SP) are from batches I've been using for a while, I'm guessing six months or more, probably bought the primers over a year ago. Most disturbing, hope there aren't any more, kind of shakes your confidence.
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Incomplete powder burn
- Thread starter jag2
- Start date
FMJ bullets (115) over 5.6 grns of Auto. Definitely not powder puffs. I've only got about 100 rounds left from that session. I also load some with Accurate #5 and Bullseye, be interesting to see if the problem shows up with them. That would narrow it down. I load 6000 to 8000 a year and never experienced this before.
NoSecondBest
New member
It's definitely not the primers. They won't go bad for decades if stored properly. I'd guess that it's due to variation in powder charges. If you're not weighing each charge you may be having a problem with your powder dispenser (you didn't say what you're loading on). One other thing it could be is your crimp. If your cases are not completely uniform, your crimp won't be either.
Sounds like the powder is lighting partially, then finishing the burn after blowing out of the muzzle. If if it simply not burning well, you'll not only see it in the gun, but if you spread some paper out in front of your firing point, you'll collect the powder on it.
The load you are using is Hodgdon's maximum for a Speer Gold Dot bullet. The Gold Dot is a short, plated bullet rather than a jacketed one. A Speer tech warned me that loads developed with it may not match jacketed bullet loads well. Usually they are too high, but that can reverse under some circumstances. One of these is that the Gold Dot will typically be seated deeper than an RN FMJ, and the extra powder space can lower start pressure enough to be an issue with a powder whose burn rate is on the slow side for the bullet weight used.
I note that Autocomp loads on Hodgdon's site aren't given for anything under 115 grains. IME, the lowest bullet weight for a powder is usually a little too light for the powder. I expect 124's and 147's will light it up more consistently.
Read Allan Jone's article on the effect of bullet types on pressure.
The load you are using is Hodgdon's maximum for a Speer Gold Dot bullet. The Gold Dot is a short, plated bullet rather than a jacketed one. A Speer tech warned me that loads developed with it may not match jacketed bullet loads well. Usually they are too high, but that can reverse under some circumstances. One of these is that the Gold Dot will typically be seated deeper than an RN FMJ, and the extra powder space can lower start pressure enough to be an issue with a powder whose burn rate is on the slow side for the bullet weight used.
I note that Autocomp loads on Hodgdon's site aren't given for anything under 115 grains. IME, the lowest bullet weight for a powder is usually a little too light for the powder. I expect 124's and 147's will light it up more consistently.
Read Allan Jone's article on the effect of bullet types on pressure.