I had my first hang fire yesterday. I had reloaded for my M1A in .308 & 96 Swede in 6.5 X 55. I used CCI 200 primers in both. I was trying different powder/bullet/seating depth combinations. I didn't have any problems until I fired the loads with Benchmark. The hang fires were up to 1/2 to 1 second. One shot my brother heard the firing pin click then the round went off. Other powders worked okay and the Benchmark worked fine in the .308. In the swede loads with benchmark I did have the bullets seated about 1/8" out farther than with loads with other powders. Can bullet depth make this much difference or do I have another problem?

Thanks Steve

Steve:

I haven't heard that seating depth has anything to do with a hang fire. And I have not had any hang fires.

I did have a couple of mis-fires more appropriately non-fires. The firing pin indented the primer but the round didn't fire. I'm still not exactly sure what happened but I did check the case with various headspace, cartridge and comparator gauges and found that I has set the shoulder back a little. That means the cases base was forward of its appropriate position and the primer material possibly was not crushed on the anvil.

I would blame the powder for a hang fire. It could be old and deteriorated. The flash hole in the case could be partially plugged. The primed could be old and partially deteriorated. However, I have also shot powder that was 20 years old and it performed just fine.

The mechanics of a hang fire would be that there was improper ignition. The primers flash may have been just a "spark" instead of a flush of flame. And the powder may have just fizzled a while before deflagrating.

The ignition is really not an explosion. Rather it is a fast burn. In a hang fire, somehow, the progression of burning has been retarded, either by some foreign substance coating or by detrioration of powder with age or by excessive temperature clumping the powder.

At one time Winchester had really big problems in Africa with their .458 Winchester and ball powder. It would fuse into lumps in the heat and cause poor unreliable performance.

Kendall

The only hangfires I've ever experienced were the fault of very old primers which had been sitting in primed cases and the cases exposed to the atmosphere (and dust, grime, oil, etc.) for several years. This is not the case with your hangfire, I presume.

I would look at whether your sizing die is pushing your shoulders too far back, causing excessive headspace (no, this is not a condition of your chamber, but a function of the effective length of the ammunition you use in it). This condition would make the striker blow weaker and could cause a hangfire.

Also, an obstruction in the flash hole like tumbler media would be a good suspect.

When starting to use any of the old military rifles, I've found it best to junk the old striker springs and install a Wolff extra-power "Blitzschnell" striker spring. For most rifles, Wolff offers several levels of power. For example:

Your rifle's original "issue" spring had a load of 16 lbs.; after fifty years, this may have decayed a lot. That's normal for springs, but it means the primer isn't struck hard enough to burn properly; instead, it sort of fizzles. Not good; really, BAD.

But, Wolff likely offers a new 16-lb. spring, plus 18-lbs, 20-lbs., maybe even up to 28 or 30 lbs. Suddenly, it's possible to get speedlock performance from a '96 Swede, KAR98, even a 1917 Enfield or a SMLE. Whatta miracle, all for a few dollars. So, start there. Probable website:
www.gunsprings.com

Works for me...........
Paladin

Is it possible that you did not get the primers seated to the bottom of the primer pocket on the offending rounds?

Sorry it took so long to get back.
Thanks to everyone for the input. I did check my primer depth. I resize after tumbling so the primer should be obstacle free. Both the powder and primers were new. So I tried a Wolff spring. Thanks Paladin, so far I seem to be hangfire free.

Steve