What Happened Here? - 05/10/20
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.
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.