Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What causes this?

I stole this pic from another forum but my 243 Win is doing this with WLR primers. I was burning some ammo the other day and in 10 rounds I had 2 do this. I've only had this happen with WLR primers.

WW Brass 1x fired
WLR Primer
45grs imr-4350
80gr TTSX

Being about 4 grains over max might have something to do with it.

According to the Barnes manual I am under max.


Case life has been good with this load, bolt lift is fine, no pressure signs until I got a new batch of primers.

I checked Hodgdon's, which can be on the warm side, and it looked to me like you were over.

Did you work up, or just start with this load?

No, I worked up to this load, started @ 42grs as I worked up accuracy increased and 45grs and 45.5grs shot great with no signs. I went with 45grs and I've fired almost 100 of them with this charge.

Barnes lists 46grs imr4350 @ 3425fps as max


Rem 700 A
24" 1/9.125" Twist

Velocity 3276fps average with 45grs


I bought 200 primers from the local store, would rather have CCI200's, but I ran through the 1st pack and these are from the 2nd pack.


Here is the thread I stole the pic from: http://www.tndeer.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=302403

We call that the STOP button in my gang.

Well dang, I was hoping it would be something up with this lot of primers. Because it has never done this prior to this new box.



Looking at the velocity numbers they don't seem out of line for an 80gr bullet do they? Not arguing, just wondering?


42grs - 3082fps
45grs - 3276fps

I've had WLR primers do this with less than max loads. I now only use them in .30-30 or other low pressure rounds.

There have been some lots of WLR's that proved defective in exactly that way fairly recently. What's the lot number of your supply?

DAL594G


I thought I remember reading something about Win primers having issues but I couldn't remember if I was thinking straight.


Thanks

Certainly a crappy picture. Is the venting in the primer or adjacent brass?

Primer leakage. It's hell on a bolt face!! I contacted Winchester twice last year due to this issue and got a 40 rebate coupon for my trouble. 1 guy mentioned they may pay for the bolt itself and then quickly backed off that notion. In a Remington 700 ADL it's annoying. In a Cooper it really begin to p!ss me off!

Yes it is a bad picture and it is primer leakage. I wish I could find the 2 pieces of mine that did this but I have misplaced them.

I've been keeping a list of the lot #'s reported to cause the problem. Hadn't run across that one yet, but that doesn't it might not be one.

Barnes data for the 80 TTSX shows 45.5 grains of H4350 as max, and H4350 and IMR4350 are very similar in burn rate, so you're not above max by any means. You might want to contact Winchester. They've replaced primers purchased by some handloaders in the past year or so.

Will do, thanks for the info.

BR primers have a little thicker cup of that helps.

I seated some CCI200 primers today in WW brass and they were noticeably tighter when seating over the WLR primers in the same batch of brass.

Pistol primer cups instead of rifle. Either a factory screw up using wrong cups or wrong packaging. I made that mistake in 338 win. Mag. Once. They shot fine with no pressure signs but all had pierced primers. Took a little time to figure out it was just a mistake of grabbing the wrong pack of primers.

Would you post your updated list please?

Bearcat,
I believe it's the primers. I had the same thing happen a few years ago on my 1000yd BR rifle. Went nuts reducing loads etc. happened to some others I was shooting with also. My bolt looked like it was attacked by a flock of woodpeckers. the primmer company claimed the primers were exposed to either ammonia or fertilizers in a ware house reducing the integrity of the primer cup metal. I got a bunch of free primers and a new bolt for my bat actioned rifle.$$$$! But I had to sign a paper that I would not name the primer company.

My primers looked just like yours best I can tell from your picture.

Lefty