doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Reloading hazard

Once in a while when discussing blown guns, the prospect of a primer in the powder charge is mentioned. I've always wondered HOW such a thing could happen... I just found a way.

Equipment: MEC Grabber 761R circa 1980. Alliant Promo. Fiocchi 616.

While loading some of my first batch of Promo loaded shells, I was weighing charges frequently for consistancy. Operator error (inattention, distraction, old age, lack of intelligence, whatever) resulted in me cycling the press with no shell in station number 2.

Powder dropped of course, but no primer was visible. I 'recovered' from this event in my usual way, namely undo the primer feed chain, catch the next charge of shot in an empty shell, lock the bar to the left, and clear out the shells under construction so as to provide a clear loader for the cleanup.

On the second cycle of the press, the primer appeared. It had been stuck in the powder drop tube, held there by powder packed around it.

This was something of an attention getter.

The 'what if' is obvious.

Yup, 'Ol Murphy' is always around ....!




Best,

Great information Jonesy and thanks for the heads up!!
When reloading you're always thinking how something like this could possibly happen, yet it does. And regardless if it ONLY happens once in a million shells that is one to many.

I wonder how much more pressure is developed with the primer in the powder? I have not heard of this causing a barrel to blow,so I'm curious.

Thanks for the heads up. I try to watch the primer go into the rotating tabel but not all the time. I will check closer from not on.

Regards, Gordon

I think that the proper test gun for primer in powder has to be a K80. They seem to be always blowing up according to posts over at trapshooters.com bbs. .

Just to clarify what the idiot (me) did... since my writing is isn't all that clear...

I forgot to feed the thing a shell, and didn't catch the mistake until cycling the press with a vacant second station. That station primes and drops powder.

The key point, and the learning experience here, is that if you do that the powder drop tube can pick up the primer that was waiting there to be seated in the shell you forgot feed it. It's out of sight in the tube, jammed there by the powder that was dumped and it could very well make it into your next load.

Shotgun, you do yourself an injustice to suggest that you were muddle-headed. You apparently knew to look for "the" primer despite the fact that there would be "a" primer atop the mess or jammed nearby in the index plate after it advanced. Not everyone would notice the presto-chango-whereditgoto after the aggro of the spill. And that Promo is pretty thick salami so might well get a grip on both primer and reprime/drop tube. Thanks for the headsup.

jack

I wonder, too. But if you look hard enough in the published data, you can find instances of a simple primer change resulting in a peak pressure increase of 3,000 psi. Add in the unknown effect of primer ignites powder ignites second primer and I wouldn't be surprised if it were greater than that.

The change in chamber pressure with primer change is due to the powder sensitivity to faster ignition from a hotter primer, not from the primer's addition to the powder gas. Nitro powder burn rate increases dramatically with increasing pressure. A "hot" primer gets the powder going faster which ups chamber pressure initially which ups powder burn rate.

Lacking data, I doubt that a stray primer in the powder would burst a barrel. Does anyone have actual pressure barrel data?