Misfires

[Mr.Snerdly]

The Axis seems to have a few misfires using the military primers. I never thought much about it before but what are the chances of them going off outside of the gun? I hate to waste the powder, brass and bullet and I have been removing those components but someone said it is possible they can go off even though they didn't fire in the gun. What are the chances of that, how would you handle them?

[pdshooter2]

standard procedure is to wait ONE MINUTE after pulling the trigger.
then remove the round or refire
low pressure event if it were to ignite outside the chamber.
FORGET WHAT YOU SEE IN MOVIES.
NO CHAMBER TO CONTROL PRESSURE, you will get a pop less than a fire cracker

[charlie b]

Yep. Very unlikely it will go off after the time limit. About as likely to go off as any other unfired primer in the box. I'd pull the bullet and dump the powder. If you really want to save the case then put some oil in there and give it a little time to soak into the primer. Then you could decap it.

When running a tank range I was watching over the crews loading vehicles at the ammo pad. One soldier picked up a belt of .50cal and got a loud bang. Scared me (I was standing right next to him), and most everyone else. Turns out the belt of .50 cal had 'kinked' when the soldier picked it up. The point of one round (Armor piercing ammo) dented the primer of another and set it off. The links on the M85 .50cal cover most of the body of the brass except where they are open on the bottom (for the bolt to strip the round out of the belt). The open section was facing down. The brass casing was blown out through that opening and the bullet was sitting on the ground under the belt of ammo. There was no shrapnel. The case simply ruptured.

OTOH...while at the range firing the M3 grease guns (.45acp) the sgt (E7 plt sgt) was behind the soldier (holding his right shoulder so the recoil would not cause him to rotate). A round ignited 'early' (the M3 is blowback and has a huge bolt and semi-fixed firing pin). The case blew out and the sgt got some of the brass case embedded in his shoulder. Ragged edge brass. Dr had to pull quite hard to get it out. We aren't sure how it happened as his shirt and tshirt did not have holes in them. FWIW, he said it was more painful than the three times he was shot in VN.

So, yeah, if it does go off it won't kill you, but, it might hurt like hell. :)

[Mr.Snerdly]

^^^^Good to know. I imagine it would scare you pretty good though.

I always save the brass too. I just put it in the Lee collet die and push it out. Never had one go off and even if it did, no big deal.

[charlie b]

Yeah, standing next to a large pile of tank main gun ammunition and hearing a large bang is pretty unsettling. The 'nice' thing is, after a second or two, you realize it wasn't an explosion :) So, that's a good thing.

[BRADDAVIS]

Recently experienced the same results trying to shoot some old 308 IVI stuff. After several fail to fire I pulled all the bullets, collected all the powder and projectiles, replaced primers with current large rifle and reloaded them all, did not resize. Interesting fact in the same lot of 200 powder charges varied from 42g to 48g. I set them all at 45g and they shoot great.