Thread: Fed large rifle

Went to the range to day fired 50 rounds had 4 miss fires lot 2rp217,
Ill Be pissed if it happens on a animal.

Originally Posted by muka88

Went to the range to day fired 50 rounds had 4 miss fires lot 2rp217,
Ill Be pissed if it happens on a animal.

Primers? If so, I wonder if you've seated them properly.

I seat on the press so leverage isn't a problem they seem to look ok, will post some pictures when i get a chance

I don't ever recall a primer failure with Federal that wasn't down to either poor primer strike, or more likely, contamination. If you use bare fingers to load them into the priming tool, and/or are using a petro based case lube without being fastidious about contamination then problems can occur (don't ask how I know . . . )

I know Federal “were” having issues with small rifle primers so that might be all sorted but I use CCI small rifle for .222/.223

I use Federal large rifle primers for large calibres & never had any issues.

I reloaded a mates .300 WSM with Federal magnum primers & he was getting misfires which we believe was due to a pour batch.

On inspection with the misfired cases it showed the primers seated flush, good firing pin strike but they didn’t go bang!

After switching to a different batch of primers... no more issues!

On a side note I use a Lee hand tool for priming so there’s no touching of primers.

Ah, the old bare fingers
You would have to be oozing great dollops of human oil (or whatever humans ooze) to kill a primer and even then it would take some time.
I have soaked primers in oil to kill them and they still went bang (frighteningly so) at seemingly full tit when tried next morning.
Even soaking them in water doesn't kill them straight away.
Alcohol which would maybe disolve the seal over the priming compound may be more rapid.

More likely a primer seating problem - maybe even a combination of too deeply (crushed) seated and excessive FLSing (if OP FLSed.)
Or not seated down onto the anvils.

OP - photos of the strike will assist in most cases.

Also have you stripped the cases and removed the primers to check they haven't partially gone off?
I had this happen once in several thousands of rounds with a CCI primer.

Federal primers are pretty damn good. The only brand I won't use now is the goldie coloured Winchesters.

.I tend to play devils advocate when it comes to explosives or powder fails. I'd check all my own procedures first as some of the fellas are suggesting, then if you cant find anything amiss, take them back to the shop. 8% fail rate, if it isn't user error, is a big deal and unacceptable. it means either the primers have been compromised during distribution or storage or its a production error. Worth making someone aware of it if you can't solve the issue.

Originally Posted by sixtus

.I tend to play devils advocate when it comes to explosives or powder fails. I'd check all my own procedures first as some of the fellas are suggesting, then if you cant find anything amiss, take them back to the shop. 8% fail rate, if it isn't user error, is a big deal and unacceptable. it means either the primers have been compromised during distribution or storage or its a production error. Worth making someone aware of it if you can't solve the issue.

Sound reasonable i will use tweezers with the next Bach was not aware a little oil could stuff them up.

Had two back to back on animals from federal large rifle primers in a 260. Shot all my reloads back at home and had another 2. 4 from a batch of 50 pissed me off(binned the other 50 primers). Seated the same as my other primers, not covered in crap, stored in a cool dry place and firing pin fine. Was not happy to say the least

I use federal 210 primers an drop each one into the old school press mounted priming arm with my fingers....never had an issue. I just wash and dry my hands before starting.

Is it safe to pull the projectiles?

Like most people here, I've used thousands of federal 210 LR primers without a single failure.
(not that many thousand - but it sounds good to say it.)

It would be worth checking your bolt is OK. Especially clean and lube the spring. Someone posted here experience with a tikka where the firing pin had got a little rough with corrosion and the problem went away once he polished it up a bit. Incompletely closing the bolt is said to cause misfires but unlikely if you've never had it before.

As I understand it federal are softer than some so should be more tolerant to weak pin strike. I've had trouble with one rifle that gave misfires with factory ammo (gold primers) and one brand in reloads but the Federal SR have never misfired for me with that rifle. It would appear that a marginal rifle problem can show up with misfires using one brand but not another. So my personal experience is to back the brand.

Originally Posted by muka88

Is it safe to pull the projectiles?

Don't see why not. Use safety specs while you do it.

Are you gonna use the green rcbs hammer, or the hornady cam lock bullet pulling die?. If you have yet to get either, I'd go with that.

A set of pillars and my press with no die in it,
Poke the bullet up through the hole in the press grab the bullet then push the handle up.
Scratches the jacket but i just re primed them and seated the bullets back and ill use them on paper.

Originally Posted by muka88

I seat on the press so leverage isn't a problem they seem to look ok, will post some pictures when i get a chance

Too much leverage is a possibility when priming on a press.
I better check my batch numbers this afternoon....