Squibbed yesterday

[55_grain]

.30-40 model 1898 Springfield "Krag"
180gr Sierra RNSP
WC844 powder (load using H335 data).
CCI LR primer
Formed from .303 brass - the neck is a little short, but has more then .30" of contact with the projo.
Bullet is seated to book-suggested OAL, yes, I have more than one book. It does not touch the rifling.

Hornady's web page shows 31.0-34.0 gr of H335 for this load.

I had previously shot this rifle using 50 rounds of 30.5gr of the above load. All good. Nice accuracy from a 100+ year old rifle, I was hitting a 8" plate at 100 yards offhand with a sling about 75% of the time. No pressure signs, cases were really dirty, which is usually a low-pressure sign.

I reloaded them (tumble, lube,size,tumble,prime,etc..) with 31.5gr of the same powder to get a better seal between the brass and chamber wall. This is still a mild load, ~2000fps or so. I haven't put it across a chrony yet.
The first 30 of these were fine. Similar results on the plate. Brass is still dirty.

#31 didn't do anything when I pulled the trigger. Huh. No noise that I heard, nothing.

I pulled the cocking knob back and fired again. Still nothing.

OK. After 10 seconds or so I ejected the case, which landed on the bench. It looked like all the others. I figured that I hadn't operated the bolt enthusiastically enough and #30 had not extracted/ejected and had simply re-chambered itself.

I operated the bolt to load #32 that was waiting patiently in the magazine. The bolt didn't close by about an inch. The projo from #31 was stuck (barely) in the chamber.

I knocked it out with a USGI cleaning rod easily. The remaining rounds shot off nicely, although I was a little twitchy and didn't hit much.

When I got home later, I was sorting the brass to find #31. As I stuck them upside down into a tray, 17.8gr of powder fell out of the brass. Yeah, I measured it. It was clumpy, and some was discolored from the primer.

I don't know how much powder got burned/left on the bench/got lost in my pile of brass on the ride home, etc. Since I charged these one at a time with a off-press Lee powder measure, I don't think I undercharged it. It would have had a full charge or nothing. Either I had a bad primer or didn't develop enough pressure (remember the short neck) to light it off, or ??

Neck length on a .30-40 is .464" (long neck, looks a lot like a .30-30 round if you're not familiar). When formed from a .303, the neck is 0.09" shorter.

Before you go off on my powder choice, I've used ~10 lbs of this stuff quite happily in .223, .308, 7.5x55 Swiss, 6.5 Swede, and others, including 2 lbs or so out of this particular 8lb jug. It's good stuff. I'm not opposed to using a heavier charge of a different powder. I'm also willing to add another 1.0gr to my last load, that's still under book max for this rifle.

Let to my own devices, I'll probably try to find a load for Varget or Benchmark or 4895 or some other extruded-type powder rather than the harder-to-light ball powder that I've been using.

I'm not sure of my best corrective action here, so I'm opening this up for your comments. Have at [STRIKE]me[/STRIKE] it!

 

[EddieCoyle]

I use magnum primers with that stuff.

Also, WC844 is usually pull-down milsurp powder. You have no idea how the powder was handled or stored, or how old it actually is.

I'm not in the least surprised you got a squib.

 

[55_grain]

It is milsurp powder. It was sold from one of the usual distributors of such things as virgin powder tho. It's up to $160/8lb now, not the deal it used to be in the past...

 

[cockpitbob]

My pet load for the 175gr Sierra MK is 47.3gr of IMR4350. It gives me 2,400'/s out of a slightly shortened barrel on a sporterized Krag.

 

[55_grain]

My pet load for the 175gr Sierra MK is 47.3gr of IMR4350. It gives me 2,400'/s out of a slightly shortened barrel on a sporterized Krag.

Hodgdon's website says 46gr (compressed) is the max load for a 180gr for 2445fps in a 24" barrel.
Did you exceed max based on the slightly less heavy projo? Or do your books have a different load? Thanks!

 

[gerrycaruso]

Do you clean your cases wet or dry? Sometimes I get in a hurry and some of the cases are still wet inside. I use a lot of WC844 and WC846 and haven't run into a problem yet but you're right, it's not the bargain it used to be

 

[cockpitbob]

Hodgdon's website says 46gr (compressed) is the max load for a 180gr for 2445fps in a 24" barrel.
Did you exceed max based on the slightly less heavy projo? Or do your books have a different load? Thanks!

First, I should have said 47.0, not 47.3.

I'm glad you asked. I haven't reloaded for my Krags in 11 years so I had to look through my old log to see what I was thinking. I do NOT run hot loads, especially in a weak single-lug action. I do recall I wasn't getting results that agreed with "the books". I got creative. To get a good load with (hopefully) safe pressures I did something interesting and compared velocity and case swell to factory ammo.

I bought a box of new 180gr Winchester factory ammo.
I pulled the bullets from 15 cases, neck sized them and reloaded them with my primers (CCI-BR2), various charges if IMR4350 and 175gr Sierra MK bullets.
First I fired 4 factory rounds noting the velocity, primer signs and amount the case swelled near the base. I would compare my loads to that.
Factory ammo gave me 2,460's and about 0.0045" of case swell.

Next, I did the same with my loads, starting with 43.5gr. At 46.2gr velocity was only 2,340'/s and case swell was 0.003".
At 47gr it was barely up to 2,400'/s and 0.004" of swell and the primer was starting to look like the factory primer(but who can tell with different primers having different wall thicknesses). I saved one factory round for the end as a cross-check and it performed the same as the first 4.

Looking back, this all seems too weird and I need to review this the next time I load for a Krag. I'll be changing to H4350 instead of IMR4350 anyway. I don't remember the load being a compressed load. I'm a nut for accuracy in all things, so I can't believe my scale was lying to me (I do check its zero and with a weight). I know the chrono is dead on and I was comparing to factory ammo velocity anyway. Strange....

 

[55_grain]

Do you clean your cases wet or dry? Sometimes I get in a hurry and some of the cases are still wet inside. I use a lot of WC844 and WC846 and haven't run into a problem yet but you're right, it's not the bargain it used to be

Dry. Using regular corncob or walnut media. I liked the powder better when it was ~$12/lb!

First, I should have said 47.0, not 47.3.

I'm glad you asked. I haven't reloaded for my Krags in 11 years so I had to look through my old log to see what I was thinking. I do NOT run hot loads, especially in a weak single-lug action. I do recall I wasn't getting results that agreed with "the books". I got creative. To get a good load with (hopefully) safe pressures I did something interesting and compared velocity and case swell to factory ammo.

I bought a box of new 180gr Winchester factory ammo.
I pulled the bullets from 15 cases, neck sized them and reloaded them with my primers (CCI-BR2), various charges if IMR4350 and 175gr Sierra MK bullets.
First I fired 4 factory rounds noting the velocity, primer signs and amount the case swelled near the base. I would compare my loads to that.
Factory ammo gave me 2,460's and about 0.0045" of case swell.

Next, I did the same with my loads, starting with 43.5gr. At 46.2gr velocity was only 2,340'/s and case swell was 0.003".
At 47gr it was barely up to 2,400'/s and 0.004" of swell and the primer was starting to look like the factory primer(but who can tell with different primers having different wall thicknesses). I saved one factory round for the end as a cross-check and it performed the same as the first 4.

Looking back, this all seems too weird and I need to review this the next time I load for a Krag. I'll be changing to H4350 instead of IMR4350 anyway. I don't remember the load being a compressed load. I'm a nut for accuracy in all things, so I can't believe my scale was lying to me (I do check its zero and with a weight). I know the chrono is dead on and I was comparing to factory ammo velocity anyway. Strange....

That's an interesting method that wouldn't have occurred to me, so thanks for the write-up.

I think I have some IMR4895, probably going to make up some starting loads using that instead of continuing with the WC844.