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First,I'm not an expert. I'm just another opinion. Disagree if you want.

If we were discussing an overbore cartridge,(7mm STW,257 Wby,6mm-06,etc)
I'd be more open to an overcharge of appropriate powder being the problem

But in a more balanced cartridge,like 308 and 223, loading density (with appropriate powders) 90% or more.

If that charge is 42 gr,then 4.2 gr more would be approx. 100% fill.

IMO,it takes some determination,or at least inattention,to seat a bullet in a 100% full case.Yes,we must ay attention. A Powder Cop die, a cleverly mounted magnifying dental mirror, a camera,or just a determined eyeball can monitor case fill. Good idea.

"That bullet seating operation did not feel right" Checking it out is a good idea.

We are using "at least once fired" 2016 Lake City brass?

Unless you shot the new loaded ammo or bought new brass,brass history is open to question. Who removed the primer crimp? If the OP did,I'll buy it was once fired.

If you were sold "Once fired processed" brass ,realize it was likely fired in a machine gun. You don't know the headspace condition of that machine gun.
A serious "stretch ring" case thinning is possible.
That could cause a catastrophic case failure.
High pressure along with case failure might be what happened.

Sure,we can get overpressure by overcharging,to the point of locking a bolt or blowing a primer

But,for the sake of a theory,lets say pressure was fairly high due to military brass. The "margin of error" was thin.

A catastrophic brass failure can be destructive

But as Columbo might say "There are one or two things that bother me"

Looking at the three fired sample cases,I see no brass extrusion into the ejector hole. I see no primer cratering. I think I would see those with a batch of overpressure loads.

And I don't think brass failure would crach the bolt face abd open up the bolt firing pin hole.

IMO,this is some serious overpressure,and I question see it happening with any amount of 4895 you could inadvertently seat a bullet over.(my assumption,unproven)

I'd lean toward it being a pistol powder contamination,whether the powder measure held one charge,or the measure was not fully empty ,or a powder container was contaminated.

But,what do I know?
 
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Disclaimer: don not do this! Not in books and should never be done!


I was loading cast bullets in 30'06 with really slow WC860 which is pulldwon 50 BMG powder. I read to get it to burn efficiently, I could add one to three grains of bullseye. I tried it. It made a huge difference. I used a crony, and was going off some one else work. It worked for me. The change in velocity was amazing with just one grain. Up to three, I was getting the clean burn and velocity I wanted.

If a grain or two of a pistol powder got into the first round it could act as a second primer or accelerator or cataylist (sp) or what ever to a standard pressure round.

We will probably never know and can only speculate. I am lucky I figured out what I did wrong in the situation I posted in # 38.

David
 
Sorry for the late response. Been doing funeral detail(I am active duty and get pulled for this sometimes). i got the puller. i very much like the rcbs collet bullet puller. it made pulling 250+ bullets soooooo much easier. I just finished pulling all the bullets and weighing each charge. max deviation in powder charge was .5gn. which makes me rethink using my auto powder measure (the one that came with my Dillon RL550B) especially for long range bullets, but does not explain the vastly increased pressure. Im no expert, but i dont think .5gn difference would have done that. Especially since in my testing i shot some that were .5gn higher and all i saw was flatter primers.

I am amazed how many people have responded. have not gotten to read them all yet. I will try some of the suggestions once i finish reading through all the posts.

Thank you for your responses I am learning a lot from this. Its learning the hard way, but at least i am learning.
 
@ everyone who is thinking wrong powder.

I looked back through my online bullet orders. The previous rifle bullets i loaded before this run were 300BLK. I loaded these with 150gn projectiles and 4227 powder. Its possible that a small amount of 4227 could have gotten mixed in there. which if i remember correctly is also extruded powder(this was in 2018). As i weighed each powder charge i took from the pulled bullets I was looking for differences in powder did not see any with ball or flake powder mixed in.

I dont know if 4227 would have caused this. from what i understand its not that much farther up the burn rate chart. I think if a whole load of 4227 was thrown this would be possible. I have thrown all the powder i pulled into an empty container and pulled the label off and clearly marked it for disposal haha. might be overkill. Also what is a safe way to get rid of close to a lb of powder? soak in water? draw my name in the back yard with it and get money on youtube by videotaping it?

It is simply not possible that i had pistol powder in with the rifle powder as i load pistols with a different powder measure. This is not to prevent contamination, its just laziness i don't like switching powder bars(who said being lazy doesn't have some upsides!). i have a hell of a time getting them adjusted back correctly.
 
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@T. O'Heir - you are correct #34 not my first choice. i live in the middle of nowhere. the local shop was sold out of CCI LRP all they had left that they had 500 of was #34 which were more expensive. but they said 7.62 right on the box so i really didn't think much of it. might have been a poor choice.

@ pathfinder - you are correct my auto powder measure is showing a deviation of up to .5gn with this extruded powder. i will try BL(c)-2

@unclenick - you are correct i looked through all my orders for bullets and i did in fact have 168 ELD. Please forgive me this was over 1.5 years ago i loaded these. and i have loaded 178 eld-x for this rifle before that. i must have mixed them up in my head.

I do not have any rifles that shoot .311 or .303 and there fore no bullets of that nature. only 5.56 308 and 300blk.

I think i will send it to remington. couldnt hurt. might be awesome and they fix it for me.
 
IF.... 42.5gr of 4227 were used.... 120,000psi

IF.... on the other hand the same VOLUME of 4227 (39gr) were used .... 92,000psi



what is a safe way to get rid of close to a lb of powder?
Click to expand...
Just sprinkle it into/onto your grass.
GREAT fertilizer.
 
@daleA you are totally right. i thought i would get blown up with some serious negativity. But i'm in the military so being yelled at is kind of my job. Also, it scared me to think i might have lost my face if it had been any worse so i figured i had better figure this out of quit reloading cause i like my face where it is and i have almost been blown up a couple times so yeah.... not interested in going there again. I would like to say to everyone thank you for being respectful.

@ FrankenMauser - you are correct I really didn't think about that. this could possibly have been the very first round i loaded in that batch. i was using a progressive press and all the bullets fall into a tray.

IF 4227 could have done this THEN it is possible a case had enough 4227 still in the powder bar from when i switched from 300BLK. I think this is possible.

It was 1.5 years ago but i remember loading two sets(50 rounds each) of load development 50 rounds going up .4gns or 1% of 42.5gn max load each 5 rounds with the only variable being the powder. one for my rifle and one for a friends rifle. we both eventually shot them together to see which of our rifles liked which speeds/bullets. I think i loaded the 300BLK while i was waiting to shoot the test rounds. Then switched back to 308 once i had the load i wanted and just loaded the next 400.

does anyone know if 4227 would cause this big of a pressure difference? the max amount of powder that could have been trapped in the powder bar when i dumped the powder back into the container would have been 16gn of 4227 because that is what i loaded in the 300 BLK.

either way this makes the most sense to me. This is what i believe to have happened. This makes me feel better. I know what is most likely to have happened and what steps i can do to prevent this ever happening again.

yes i will be dumping all the powder in the back yard. not playing around with possibly 4227 contaminated 4895 powder.
 
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Proportionally (if 16gr/4227 were left in bar), you get ~80,000psi *
That's less than proof load, and should not have caused failure.


* Theory only, since duplex powder columns have energy release reactions all their own. And if truly "mixed-in," even more reactive in kicking progressive burn rates up.
 
How many loadings did the brass have?

You said you reamed the primer pockets? How much did you ream to remove the crimp?

You also said that a couple rounds before the KB, they were tight clambering them and then the one that went off, went into the chamber easy. Was there anything wrong with the cases when you ejected them? Just wondering if something got stuck in the chamber/throat/barrel and then caused the problem.
 
Won't matter. If a case has been fired a lot of times the primer pocket will get loose and the case will become un-reloadable before it would come close to having a split head like that.

Wisest.fool,

If you got a duplex load 4227 and 4895 over a magnum primer, it would considerably accelerate the ignition of the 4895, and I think that can be expected to account for the problem by the same mechanism that undercharges can occasionally double pressure: the powder lights up faster than the bullet can start to move, creating very high start pressure. That would have an effect equivalent to increasing the burn rate of the powder.
 
@ 50 shooter these were once fired. I know because i had to remove the military crimp on them

@ all I am fairly sure this was due to powder contamination. I am not a professional at his by any means, however I am pretty confident in the other variables. The purpose of posting this was to figure out how I went from reliable accurate rounds to one very overpressure case. The purpose for me to reload is to increase the amount of trigger time I can get with my limited budget. I started this while stationed in Hawaii which has very high ammunition prices. With that being said i developed several loads with easily procurable bullets and powder and stuck with them. Then one of those rounds that had been working so well blew up. Freaked me out. I felt like i hadn't changed any variables. but obviously i had.

I am gonna call this case closed and implement safeguards to prevent this in the future. Thank you everyone for the testing tips and i am amazed at the combined knowledge displayed in this forum. I am also going to stop checking the forum but feel free to contact me {by emailing me through the board} if you feel i missed something important. I will post results on the status of the gun if it ever changes from paperweight.

Thank you again.
 
A guy here did not dump the Varget out of his powder measure before filling it with H50.
A .50 BMG loaded with Varget is reportedly even louder than usual and even the very strong Armalite required a mallet to open.
So what did he do next? Shoot one apparently part Varget.
 
I'm glad you feel that you found the cause, and that you intend to learn from it.
I've known one particular reloader that makes stupid decisions or mistakes (like intentionally going way over-max, or substituting powders), blows up or maims a gun, and then goes right back to doing the same things.
 
Nothing like blowing up a gun to get your attention. Complacency can really sneak up on you, I know. I've tightened up my loading procedure a lot in order to increase the safety factor, no more progressive for me. I've gone back to my Lee Classic Turret and that's as fast as I need for pistol, and my single stage for rifle is great.
 
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