i sold a friend of mine a like new Begara B14 hunter in 6.5 creed a few days ago and he's took 3 deer with it since, today he let his son use it ,sitting in a box blind and his son pulls down on a buck and "SNAP" , does not fire, shucks another round and it fires off, killing the deer. Theses were handloads that i give him to use with the rifle, he sent me a pic of the round and the primer looks like to was struck enough to set it off .. Any ideas what caused this ? The primers i used are Federal 210.

Always a chance at a bad primer. Ive seen same box of factory ammo have 3 dead primers

How cold was it?

about 35 this morning here

Shoot enough and some fail. Lost a nice mule deer buck when I was young to a Remington brand factory 25/06 failure. I keep most on a shelf. Have 4 or 5 factory duds. Then there are the rimfires that fail to light on regular occasion.

It happens to all of us sooner or later. 👍👍 for not staring blankly at the gun while the buck strolled off but stepping up, jacking a fresh one in and dropping him.
You'd be surprised how many shooters go "deer in the headlights" when a dud happens at crunch time.

Good lesson for him to never use someone else's hand loads.

I get what you’re saying , but I had these loaded up to fit this rifle .

Doesn't seem cold enough to matter. I'd agree with the above: just a fluke, bad primer.

Headspace?
You don't think so.
Check, and know.

Put a piece to Scotch Tape on the case head.
Will the bolt close easy.
If so, add tape. Rear until bolt is stiff to turn.




Check firing pin protrusion.

Is it in spec?

Shouldn't have been cold enough to cause lube issues.
Gun shouldn't be old enough to have lube/dirt issues.
But clean it anyway.


Could very well be a bad primer.
Checking mechanical possibilities is the only thing in your
control to try and maintain reliability.

Did you pull the bullet to make sure it had powder in the case?

Wouldnt primer ignition still make a bang?

No. I did it once in a 308. Bullet never left the case.

Thanks for the response guys ..

I’d never had a misfire I recall and then back in the fall I had 2 different rifles shooting two different rounds (7-08 and 280) and one of each misfired! 2 in one very short range session. I’m going to take the bolts apart and check to make sure firing pin isn’t gunked up.

I've never pulled the trigger on a primed round with no powder. The primer doesn't make even an audible pop... like a cap going off?

A possibility is the primer wasn't fully seated and the force of the firing pin strike was lessened enough in seating the primer that the primer did not ignite. Firing the cartridge again might have it work properly.

Did they try "shooting" the round a second time?

I called him today and ask him to try that , we’ll see .

Every now and then, you may have a primer not seat correctly/deep enough. It's possible that the firing pin "pushed" the primer just enough to keep it from firing, but enough to dent it....you will learn a lot just seeing if it fires the second time. If not, pull the bullet.

Primer might not have been seated all the way to the bottom of the pocket. Might be a bit of grit in the firing pin channel.

Not that i noticed.
There really can't be a pop if the bullet doesn't move.
It didn't. I had no idea what happened until I pulled the bullet.

That was my wakeup call to always, always, check every single round
in the block for powder level against it's neighbors.

Could be a host of things which has been pretty well hashed over. Check em all to be sure.



As far as primer and no powder....it won't go bang. Seems like nothing happens...like a dry fire. Pull the bullet. If the base is sooty, the primer ignited and there was no powder. If powder is in there, the primer was bad, wasn't seated properly, case was oversized in the die and shoulder way too far back, mechanical issues etc etc.

Got distracted loading 270Win one night and forgot to powder 4 rounds. Thankfully I found the error at the range not the stand. All I heard was click and bullet didn't move. Shaking the round with no sound confirmed suspicions.

If not a bad primer, take bolt apart and clean firing pin. Colder temps could have slowed pin down due to excess lube/grease.

I have had more than a few duds using Remington factory ammo. That said I also had a lot of Magtech primers that were unreliable bought during the Obama shortages. I have had exactly one CCI primer fail to pop.