Duds , misfires ,WTH.

[harter66]

Please read all of it before you judge me as an "drop out donkey".

I have been working up new loads which has been an adventure all in it's own but this 1 is totaly new to me (been at this off and on since 1978).

It is always a suprise to pull the trigger an have nothing happen . It's a bigger shock in the middle of a string and to eject a loaded rnd . I stopped there start checking rnds did I miss a decap/forget to prime ..... no . Did I forget powder . I finished the session went home grabbed theimpact puller pulled the bullet well there it is no powder remove case and bullet. I look in the case and it looks like a compressed load ( I'm not even close to a full case ) and the powder is jamed and hard so I give it a couple of base taps nothing so I go to poke at it just to break up "the jam" and it's really hardclear through the charge .
I pour it in my scale pan and it's about1.5 grains light and in chunks of 3-4 kernnels and has a glassyhard tar look to it .

The bullet didn't move and is seated to the very bottom edge of the cannelar groove with a light crimp.The primer dropped the anvile out of it when I decapped it but that happens like 1 in 4 too .

I'm shooting as follows:
CCI 200 Large rifle primers
Federal brass that weighs in at 225 grains
Hornady 3033 150 SPBT interloks
47.5 grains ofIMR 4895 from a new can.

Just that 1 round that malfuntioned .
This combo is giving me about 2800 fps +- 35 out of a 21 1/2 " 1-9 30-06' Savage 110LH of 1965 vintage .

[falcon]

Federal brass that weighs in at 225 grains

Something does not computeunless you are using a Federal case I have never encountered.Looked at my table of brass weights: According to my tables from many years ago,a primed Federal .30-06 case weighs an average of 201.6 grains. Just weighed five cases to confirm my figures: Average weight of a primed casewas 202.4 grains.

[harter66]

Afellow at the range handed me 4 boxes 1 lot Federal Power Shock 150gr soft points brand new to go with his brand new 06' . Even the last of my WWII brass only tipped in about 189+- for the heavies . I use a Lyman Ohaus "M5" scale with a calibration weight and check true 0 every time I start a job and beforeI scale powder . I use the calibration weight maybe 3 or 4 times a year . The point in weighing the cases was to cull the odd cases that were beyond the 1gr over/under of the scale as my rifle is obscenely touchy see "range work ??".

I just tell it like I see it on the gear .

The powder clump was the question just wanted to give enough info .

I burned off the charge today took a second match in my burn bowl to get it to go wondering if it was a bad primer I've used about 10,000 cci's and never had a miss fire .

[skb2706]

Something got spilled or put in one case. My guess is over the top of the powder as opposed to in the case first.

[nksmfamjp]

It sounds like the powder and or primer got contaminated before/during loading. That would account for the light charge too.

[bronko22000]

What are you lubing you cases with? Being that this was the only misfire and that your primer didn't go off (assuming there was sufficient impact from the firing pin) and your powder was caked you definately got some contamination. I would suspect either case lube or oil got into the case somehow and contaminated both powder and primer. You're fortunate in the fact that everything got contaminated and not just the powder. A primer will generate enoughenergy to lodge the bullet in the barrel. That happened to me with some contaminated RL-7 powder which I got new from a local gun shop.

[harter66]

I'm using RCBS case lube 2 with a roll pad and a nylon neck brush .When sizing the neck I am now doing it in 2 steps one to neck size down in the diethen pushing the expander through the neck rather than pulling it through . I only roll the brush on the pad . Maybe just one of those things .........................