BAKPAKR
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This was my first thought, too. If there was still powder in the case when you pulled the bullet, the residue on the base of the bullet would make me think you had a powder problem, not a primer problem.
First time for everything- anyone else seen this before
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I do small loads and 100% QC checks on them, especially on powder capacity consistency/uniformity. I do not know if everybody else does it, but I do a shake test after II run through my seating die to make sure I did not forget to the powder.
Muddyboots
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Do those primer strikes look really cratered from hard impacts?
xsn10s
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All the components "should" of worked well together. I'd check to see what primer hole size. I'd also do what Bret suggested and try burning that powder to see if it was contaminated. I think with your load a Lee Factory crimp might help with ignitions. With a different bullet than yours I've seen the Lee Factory crimp produce better ES/ SD and accuracy which I believe is due to more consistent ignition.
I saw this a couple of months ago. I took a friend out to his 300 WSM and he was confirming a load he had worked up with the 166 Hammer Hunter. It was his fourth or fifth shot out of the ten rounds he'd load to shoot that day. I saw him break the trigger and nothing happened. I told him to keep the bolt closed and give it a minute or so before he opened the bolt. When he did, the round had a perfect primer strike, so i rolled the bullet on a piece of wood to loosen the neck and pulled the bullet and the base of the bullet looked just like yours. The culprit for him was that did have powder in the case. Oh the look on his face!
The only time I've had a primer do exactly that I forgot to put powder in, but I can't remember if the bottom of the bullet was blackened or not
Randy Tidwell
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My observation is how did the base of the bullet get singed if the powder didn't go off? If there was powder that didn't ignite, it would have been a barrier between the primer and bullet.
Did you try to ignite the powder after the bullet was pulled.
My thoughts is no powder. You are lucky the bullet didn't get jammed in the barrel. A primer has enough power to drive the bullet into the rifling.
JMHO
Did you try to ignite the powder after the bullet was pulled.
My thoughts is no powder. You are lucky the bullet didn't get jammed in the barrel. A primer has enough power to drive the bullet into the rifling.
JMHO
Laelkhunter
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I guess I should have asked if any powder was in the case when you pulled the bullet. As others have suggested, you might have overlooked charging this one case with powder.
xsn10s
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So I'm going to assume that there was powder in there and it was fine. The OP said it wasn't clumped together so I'm also going to assume that it was dry. Since HH seem to shoot better with a Lee Factory crimp I'm starting to wonder if it needs a lot more neck tension for good ignition. Due to the parabolic bands there seems to be less bearing surface on the bullet. The OP used .003" neck tension, maybe bump it up to .004" or a little more. Just my thoughts on this, I'd be careful if you go the increased neck tension route. The tried and trued method is the Lee Factory Crimp.
xsn10s
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I'm going to assume that there was some smoldering. I agree it is weird, but since it happened to other people I'm not going to discount it. Good point on the bullet not getting jammed into the rifling. So that makes me wonder if the fault was the primer. Not enough primer compound or possibly a contaminated primer. If the primer was a "pandemic" era primer it could be sub par. With as many primers that are manufactured it's pretty amazing that we don't hear of many primer failures.
dnb86
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Yeah just a odd one I'm gonna just say I forgot powder at this point I've seen powder missed before and heard of experiences from other people just never have seen the burn marks on the base of the bullet like that but just thankful the bullet didn't get stuck and this didn't happen while looking down the scope at buck thanks for the input guys
Had it happen twice, both times there was a very cooked bug inside.Primer will leave a scorched mark on the bullet.
xsn10s
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Did you dump any powder out when you pulled the bullet?
