oldrookie

Well, the oldrookie had a new experience today. After shooting about 20 loads, I was ready to call it a morning. I had shot all my xtps but I had 2 powerbelts left. Figured what the heck, I'll shoot them and call it quits.

Loaded the 1st one,zeroed in and pop....the primer went off but that was it. Made sure the bullet was still seated, put in new primer and pop, same thing. I decided to remove the breech plug cleaned it up, reinstalled. Made sure bullet was seated. I then installed a new primer....pop! After deciding this wasn't good (remember I am a rookie), I decided to remove the breech plug, dump the powder and shove the bullet out the end.

First, after removing the plug, all the powder was spent. When I went to shove the bullet out, it felt kind of light. The only thing to be shoved out was the plastic belt....there was no bullet. When those primers went off it felt and sounded like miss fires. No compression, boom nothing.

What just happened here?

sabotloader

oldrookie

WOW! I could only guess at what might have happened, but what an odd experiance.... The first time you reset you bullet did you feel the metal of the RR contact the metal of the bullet?

Of course if for some reason the bullet was forced out of the skirt it would just fall out, but if the powder was spent you should have still heard a little "boom" at least. I shoot patches out every once in awhile, to foul or dry a barrel.and even that makes a "boom"...

ODD!

MLKeith

Here is another possibility: Maybe you did not remember to put the powder in and when the primer went off it just dislodged the powerbelt enough to fall out of the barrel or go slightly downrange. That would explain why all the following were just pops as the hole in the cup let the pressure go through and the reason the powder was "spent" is because there was none in there to start with. Maybe?????

cayugad

I kind of have to go with Keith on this one...

I think you dry holed her.. You loaded with out powder. Give me a nickel for each time I done that he says..

209 primers are pretty strong. When you ignited the first one, that was enough to knock the projectile off the little plastic/polymer sub base. If you tilted that barrel even slightly to the ground as you removed the primer or wondered what had happened, that bullet would have fallen out. Next time there look in the grass around where you stand.

Or the primer might have been enough to simply blow it out the barrel a very shot ways. Primers really do have a lot of power.

When you removed the breech plug and saw the burned powder... what you were looking at is the burned powder and fowling from all your other shots. I am kind of surprised the little plastic sub base did not fly out on the next couple primers, but it might have been wedged in all that fowling..

That is my guess as to what took place...

oldrookie

Thanks for your thoughts guys. I did wait several times between loads to allow the barrel to cool a bit. It is getting hot and humid here. When I do take a break or find myself talking to someone, when in doubt, I always check. Always concerned about a double load. What you have suggested makes sense but I can't believe I loaded without powder...what a moron!

I did look for the bullet a few yards from the table and did not see it. Our tables are on concrete and with plugs in the ears I would not have heard it fall out.....talk about a village idiot!

sabotloader....I did feal the bullet when I reseated it.....apparently it didnt have powder behind it.

cayugad

I watched a young man at my range dry hole his new Tradition's Hawkins rifles twice in a row. He had just got the rifle, it was the first time he was going to shoot it, and was real excited about getting to shoot his new gun. After the second dry hole,I sat him down, we had a soda, laughed about his dry hole experiences, calmed him down, and he finished out the day without doing it again.

Not loading powder is nothing new. I've done it, and so has probably 95% of the people on the forum. No need to beat yourself up over it. That's what makes these rifles so interesting. Of course getting distracted is an easy way to miss load.

I also have dumped more powder on the ground I care to mention, when I doubted I had already dumped powder.

herman

Just to show how strong a primer is or the one I shot was this is what happened to me week before last.
I was going to try some R-7 and 250 gr xtps in my savage muzzleloader,decided to try a short black haverster sabot with the xtp.
I pulled the trigger but didn't hear anything I guess because I wear inside my ear and muffs.I actually saw the bullet land about 15 ft in the grass,so I took out the breech plug to see what happened all of the powder was in the barrel not a single grian was spent and the sabot was still in the barrel.
The primer had went off blowing through the powder around the sabot and went 15 yds.
If I had been useing pyro or other sub it would have fired ok,I just couldn't get over how far that xtp had went.The sabot didn't have any burn marks on it at all and the xtp looked like one that just came out of the box.

BowHunterFett

You should always pay attention to how far your ram rod is sticking out of the barrel, I have a mark on mine, just as a quick check to make sure of it being loaded correctly, the first time I forgot to put powder in, my whole rod went almost all the way in, that was odd but I didn't catch it. Plus, if you have this and you are in a hurry to reload a second shot, you might notice it.

oldrookie

Just for future knowlege, how does the above happen? Now, I could see powder getting "damp" and not burning. Do you think the powder was bad?

BowHunter, I do need to mark the rod. I replaced my field rod with a super range rod and had not marked it.

cayugad

A simple way to mark the ramrod without doing damage.. take some masking tape and after you have your rifle loaded, leave the ramrod on top of the charge. Then wrap some masking tape level to the muzzle, around the ramrod. You can mark on the masking tape with a felt pen, and it comes off nice and clean at the end of the day.