• If you enjoy the forum please consider supporting it by signing up for a NES Membership  The benefits pay for the membership many times over.

Hangfire

M

mferruccio

NES Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
73
Likes
1
Location
Attleboro
Feedback: 14 / 0 / 0
Had one a few days back. What is going on inside causing that delay? Is it all a primer issue or maybe a flash hole or powder problem? All of the above? Thanks.
 
Maybe a bit of tumbling media clogged the flash hole. The explosive pellet may have been crushed during seating or the primer may not be pushed fully home so the pin impact is cushioned enough to retard full detonation.

A tiny bit of the primer compound may have been contaminated by finger oils if it was touched with a bare finger or the firing pin impact may be soft due to a weak spring or crud in the bolt. I've also heard of hangfires if you're shooting and it's cold outside but I doubt that is your issue this time of year [grin].

Unfortunately, any evidence of what caused it was blown down the barrel.
 
Last edited:
What caliber?

Make sure your primers are fully seated and the round does not have excessive headspace (shoulder pushed back too far on bottleneck rimless cartridges or too much crimp on straight walled rimless.

The "finger oils" comment made me LOL.
 
EddieCoyle said:
The "finger oils" comment made me LOL.
Click to expand...

I threw that one in only because the old duffer that taught me to reload told me that finger oils can contaminate the chemical/s in the primer and that I shouldn't touch the business side of the primer. May be apocryphal
 
I have not had a hang fire with reloads. I did how ever grow tired of the hang fires with some surplus 8mm mauser ammo. I started pulling it to use the bullets.
I didn't take any pictures but what I found was the powder at the primer end of the case almost solidified. Much like the black powder pellets. I also looked down into the cases and you could see corrosive issues it appeared that the flash holes could be blocked up, again like a nipple on a black powder gun.
I re used the primed cases for some very light youth loads with new powder and the pulled bullets.
 
The only hangfire I've ever had (actually two on the same day) were .223 reloads using Accurate 2460-a ball powder and Federal primers. This was on a very cold day and people at the match seemed to know that this happens. Taking the advice to change to magnum primers solved the problem, never had another. Ball powders are hard to ignite in cold weather??
 
Only had that happen once - and it was with an M-9, and definitely not hand loads. It wasn't what I expected - not even a half second delay, at a guess, but just barely enough to notice.
 
timbo said:
I threw that one in only because the old duffer that taught me to reload told me that finger oils can contaminate the chemical/s in the primer and that I shouldn't touch the business side of the primer. May be apocryphal
Click to expand...

The priming compound is usually covered in foil, about 0.020"deep in the cup, and under the anvil. I've never seen or heard of fingers oily enough to damage primers.
 
After I wrote that I realized it was probably a fable...for a while I used to put the primers in the press by hand and never had a problem.
 
EddieCoyle said:
The priming compound is usually covered in foil, about 0.020"deep in the cup, and under the anvil. I've never seen or heard of fingers oily enough to damage primers.
Click to expand...

With ammo surviving as long as it does I think you would not want to know or be near someone with fingers that oily.
 
mac1911 said:
With ammo surviving as long as it does I think you would not want to know or be near someone with fingers that oily.
Click to expand...

Just got done eating greasy fried chicken.....now, where are those darned primers.
 
mac1911 said:
I have not had a hang fire with reloads. I did how ever grow tired of the hang fires with some surplus 8mm mauser ammo. I started pulling it to use the bullets.
Click to expand...

I had this problem with some of the crappy soviet block 8mm ammo, and found that when I put a stronger spring in the bolt, that solved the issue. I would dent the primer, but they bullet would never go off. I think the replacement was a 30lb spring or something - something that was at least 50% stronger than the stock spring in my VZ-24. Somewhat related to the hang-fire issue, but a useful tip.
 
Back
Top Bottom