Primer efficiency with light powder charges

M

m_liebst

New member
I’ve just started reloading 30-30 this year and have been working with light 30 cal. bullets powered by 23-25 grains of powder, for a semi gallery load type cartridge that’s a bit more plinking friendly, while easier on the shoulders.

What I’ve noticed, is that- with these light powder charges, I get a few cartridges that don’t fire.

To any of you who have experience with light loads:

Am I getting miss-fires because there isn’t a sufficient amount of the propellant close to the primer flash hole.... ? Is there a method or solution to allow for 100% ignition reliability?

I would appreciate any words of wisdom.

Mike
 
Some fire on second attempt..

How do you ensure primers are seated properly then.....
I’m using the Frankford arsenal professional primer seater, and seating just a couple thousandths below level to the brass.
 
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Factory primer seating vs home

What I also noticed- some of the factory produced cartridges I buy have an extremely flat and flush professional asthetic. What’s their seating technology...?
 
which light bullets, 100gr??

and which powder??

23-25gr of anything should be about a bit over half full in a .30-30 case, and shouldn't be a cause of misfires.

cast bullet loads with as little as 6-7gr of powder are listed, and I've shot a lot of 45-70 plinkers with 10gr of Unique in a much bigger case, with no filler or wad and never had any misfires.

One thing you can easily do, simply point the muzzle UP (vertical) before shooting. This puts the powder at the rear of the case closest to the primer.

If doing this solved your misfire problem then you may want to look into a filler or wad of some sort. But if you carefully position the powder at the rear of the case for each shot and STILL get misfires then your problem is probably primer seating.

Primers should be seated so the legs of the anvil are firmly in contact with the bottom of the primer pocket. This normally results in the primer being a few thousandths below flush. I've been using a hand priming tool (RCBS for the last couple decades) and while somewhat tedious, I find the feel of seating the primer is superior to press mounted systems.
 
Not knowing what powder you're using, another potential problem can be having the powder not burn properly and cause an over-pressure condition. Some powders don't burn correctly when sitting along the bottom/toward the front of the case and ignition of the entire powder charge occurs too suddenly. In other words, erratic ignition and/or failure to ignite at all. It's called Detonation, and although rare it can cause a serious over-pressure condition. At worst case it can "ring" your chamber and damage your firearm. Are you using "book" loads or just winging it on your own? You're asking for "words or wisdom" in your post. Here's mine: use book loads that are from reliable sources. Your problem has nothing to do with "primer efficiency" as stated in your post. The efficiency of the primer doesn't change unless you have defective primers to begin with.
 
Like NoSecondBest says, it's not likely to be a primer issue. What powder?
There are exactly 2 powders, using 110 grain bullets, that have tested, meaning safe, loads that run anywhere near 23-25 grains according to Hodgdon(just one manufacturer. No 100 or 110 grain bullet load using any Alliant powder is that light.). The Start load for a 110 using IMR4198 is 22.5 grains. If that's the powder you're using, there is no reason for the primer to not ignite said powder.
Any load using any powder that is not out of a proper manual is very likely an unsafe below minimum load. Also like NoSecondBest says, below minimum loads can be as dangerous as above Max loads. However, damage to the rifle can be the least problem.
 
It’s a 125 grain projectile. H322 is the powder. 23 - 25 grains of powder is what I’m loading into the brass. I have been tilting the rifle upwards when a miss-fire occurs, but I’ve gotten a couple out of around 80 -100 reloads that still won’t set off on the second try. I guess I’ll be doing a bit more research on primer seating...
 
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It’s a 125 grain projectile. H322 is the powder. 23 - 25 grains of powder is what I’m loading into the brass. I have been tilting the rifle upwards when a miss-fire occurs, but I’ve gotten a couple out of around 80 -100 reloads that still won’t set off on the second try. I guess I’ll be doing a bit more research on primer seating...
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If the primer is going off on the second try, you're not seating the primer deep enough. Sometimes you can strike a primer twice and get it to go off on the second try. Often times you damage the primer and it won't go off again. You're either not seating the primer deep enough, or you have a light striking firing pin due to a weak spring, dirt, or it's damaged. Your story is evolving in it's description of what's happening. Powder probably has nothing to do with what's happening here. It's all about simply setting off the primer.
 
that still won’t set off on the second try. I guess I’ll be doing a bit more research on primer seating...
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You need to "autopsy" the rounds that didn't go off. Pull the bullets and see what's there...

There are only a couple options, if the primer fired, or if it did not.

If the primer fired at all, there will be some burnt powder. Which may not LOOK like burnt powder. Partially combusted powder can sometimes have a yellowish almost golden color.

If the primer went off and the powder didn't ignite, that's a different problem than if the primer didn't go off.

If the primers didn't go off, the options are gun problem (not likely other rounds fire) primer seating issue (possible) contaminated /defective primer (unlikely but not impossible)

Find, and keep the packaging those primers came in. Especially get the Lot# of the primers. See if you have any other primers with the same lot # and track their performance, OR set them aside for now.

Contact the primer maker and explain what is going on. They'll want the Lot#, so they can check things, including if there have been any other reports of problems with that lot.

In my books H332 starting loads with 125gr is around 30-31gr, your loads are way light, but if load density was the issue it should be more consistent than 2 out of 100.

At the moment the most likely cause seems to be bad primer seating or defective primer, but that's not a certainty, yet.
 
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