Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles What Happened Here?

I loaded 50 rounds of ammo to do some load workup. I had two failures to fire. Each round was safely ejected and safely set aside to be dealt with later. My failures to fire were, firing pin fires and sounds exactly like if I were to dry fire on an empty chamber. Both primers have a nice indent. I pulled the bullets from the two rounds expecting to dump out the unburned powder. There was no powder to dump and the inside of this new Nosler brass was as dark as if it had fired. So, what happened? Remember, there was no sound other than the firing pin falling, just a click. I fear, and speculate, somehow, I missed charging two cases.

It was a batch of RL19 and the primers were Federal Large Rifle Match. I can only make assumptions as to what went on inside that casing. I speculate bad primers because of the lack of sound. I'm open to bad powder which could muffle the sound of the primer firing (Is that possible) while slowly burning/disintegrating. I will try to preemptively answer questions.

1) Are you sure you filled those two cases? The only answer I can give is that I always take a flashlight and look inside the cases to insure even powder fill. I am 100% sure I did so here.
2) How can you be so sure? Well, I could be wrong based on complacency due to repetition; but, in this instance, these were all shiny new cases and now these two particular cases look like dirty fired rounds.
3) How can you be sure the primer did not ignite since you were, we assume, wearing hearing protection? Well, I was wearing hearing protection and I have fired primed uncharged cases before and I know what a primer sound alone makes. It was an audible "click", exactly like dry firing.
4) The one mistake I did make is I did not measure the length of the bullets; but, I am loaded to max mag length and they removed from the chamber as normal (unlike it would if the bullet were to have moved forward).

Finally, below is a picture of the base of the bullet. It clearly looks powder burned or powder dusted.

No powder would be my only guess and I would assume, the only real possibility

No powder and your primer fired. Case neck tension kept the bullet in place. The primer alone will dirty up a case like that. I may have duplicated this feat once or twice.

Old70

Yup. No powder - plain and simple. Shyt happens.

Has to be no powder. Otherwise you need to explain a full charge of powder burning slowly enough to not push out the bullet and yet not leave any unburned powder in the case. I can't concieve of a way to do that.

Like I said, I'm open to the fact I did something wrong. Well, I guess, if one makes a mistake one has never made in over 40 years of handloading and after tens of thousands of rounds, it makes sense that the same mistake would be made more than once in the same batch. I always told my guys when they were doing their pre-combat checks on the Bradleys before we went on missions: Placing it all in memory is great; but, following the checklist makes for ensuring it's done right and no steps are skipped. When we commit things to memory through thousands of repetitions, we then, as we proceed, assume we did every step correctly.

If "there was no powder" to dump out, that means you didnt put powder in. Id be a lot more vigilant in making sure EVERY case is charged with powder. No powder/NO bang.

Are you charging the cases straight from the powder hopper?

Yep. Standard procedure. I then, take a flashlight and look in every case. I'm guessing that, in doing multiple different loads, trying to do five at a time with a different charge, in two sets of five I failed to do that which I have always done.

Another vote for no powder, not that I’ve ever done anything like that. 😎

We are all human. We all make mistake. There are not exceptions in real life, only for the internet warriors.

I've done that twice in the last 42 years. Both times in pistol rounds, both times the bullet lodged in the barrel. Glad I wasn't doing timed splits.

I thought I would never skip a case either then did it several years ago loading rounds for my wife's deer rifle. Got to the range and had "that click". Turns out I didn't powder 4 cases. Powered the first one in the row got distracted and when I came back moved the funnel to the next row thinking I had finished the row. Thankfully is wasn't in the stand with powder-less ammo and now I use a flashlight and check every case before seating. We're human and it happens...sure sucks though!

I only load with powders that fill the case 90% or more.
I also load the ENTIRE block with powder, check powder height on ALL, remove and weigh any that don’t look right then seat the bullets.
I have charged 50 cases at the range prior to a match only to discover I grabbed the wrong batch that contained NO PRIMERS...what a mess that was.

Definitely no powder, if there was, it would have been still in there.

Cheers.

Very common...Varget H4350 R26 R19 ...have all been know to spontaneously disappear for no apparent reason.

Sunday I experienced a no powder incident with a factory round.

The popping of the primer didn't even budge the bullet in the case neck.

It turns out the brass was a crap lot as well. I had to cull from forty pieces down to fifteen to get decent case necks with only ten really good ones.

I prime then powder then seat, all before moving to the next case. This became my standard loading procedure after mass loading under a time hack before a match. That match I discovered I missed a case and loaded a bullet with no powder in the case. The primer sent the bullet into the throat where it lodged and wouldn't allow any round to chamber. Rather than finishing the round with my Kimber I borrowed a friend's Nighthawk and finished the match in last place.

Thanks, Dinny

I have to vote "no powder" too. And also admit that I have done this once myself. I had a .257 Roberts round look like EXACTLY like yours. When I pulled the bullet, and deprimed it, there was nothing inside, and the primer had fired. The 100 TSX did not even budge as far as I could see and it wasn't even crimped. I probably got lucky it didn't lodge in the barrel, but it seems to be common form the other folks who have chimed in revealing their own similar screw-ups that hunting rifles don't tend to move the bullet with just a primer detonation.

There's a first time for everything,
Rex