Is it the guns, the primers, or me??
Went to the range today to try out 50 rounds each of .38 spl. 148g HBWC and 158g LSWC I had just loaded with 2.6g and 5.3g of HS-6 respectively. Magtech primers and new Starline cases in all rounds.
I was using two guns I had never fired before; a new S & W 686+ 6" bbl and a 1957 S & W pre model 15 4" Combat Masterpiece. Before using my hand loads, I wanted to shoot up 50 rounds of a variety of commercial standard .38 spl and .38 spl +P I had accumulated over time. Using both guns I fired off those 50 rounds with no problems.
Then I started on my hand loads and, to make it short, 6 of the 148g wad cutter loads failed to fire and 16 of the LSWC's failed to fire. I reloaded 4 of the unfired rounds and tried to fire them again (one at a time)...two fired, two didn't. I didn't try any more.
I seat primers with an RCBS hand held device and see no visible difference in any of the loads...none higher or lower than the others. And I have fired a number of rounds with Winchester primers and had no FTF's with them.
Since it happened with both guns that had functioned flawlessly with the commercial ammo, the FTF's happened with both guns, and the primers that failed to fire appear to have been struck solidly, I am, therefore, leaning toward blaming the primers.
Any comments, observations, suggestions?
Oh yeah, What do I do with the live rounds with damaged primers?
Thanks,
Jack
Went to the range today to try out 50 rounds each of .38 spl. 148g HBWC and 158g LSWC I had just loaded with 2.6g and 5.3g of HS-6 respectively. Magtech primers and new Starline cases in all rounds.
I was using two guns I had never fired before; a new S & W 686+ 6" bbl and a 1957 S & W pre model 15 4" Combat Masterpiece. Before using my hand loads, I wanted to shoot up 50 rounds of a variety of commercial standard .38 spl and .38 spl +P I had accumulated over time. Using both guns I fired off those 50 rounds with no problems.
Then I started on my hand loads and, to make it short, 6 of the 148g wad cutter loads failed to fire and 16 of the LSWC's failed to fire. I reloaded 4 of the unfired rounds and tried to fire them again (one at a time)...two fired, two didn't. I didn't try any more.
I seat primers with an RCBS hand held device and see no visible difference in any of the loads...none higher or lower than the others. And I have fired a number of rounds with Winchester primers and had no FTF's with them.
Since it happened with both guns that had functioned flawlessly with the commercial ammo, the FTF's happened with both guns, and the primers that failed to fire appear to have been struck solidly, I am, therefore, leaning toward blaming the primers.
Any comments, observations, suggestions?
Oh yeah, What do I do with the live rounds with damaged primers?
Thanks,
Jack