over the years i guess i've had my share of reloads that hang fired, misfired etc. Just thinking about that, i believe that about 90% of the problem rounds came from 2 things. #1 misseated primers. Not seated deep enough, or somehow seated a bit cockeyed. or #2 - getting to much case lube inside of the case which leaked down into the primer. Just a thought for the day

Cant remember the last time I had a hang fire.
Last miss fires I had was with the 243AI. load was h4831sc ccibr2 primers and 95gr burgers
I had two out of the same lot.
took them apart the powder was there and the primers had nice deep dimples and should have gone off.
I marked it up to the primers being defective.
i had picked up a few hundred primer at a sale for $2.00 and I am not sure but they may have been in that lot of reloads.
I have shot several thousand of these primers with out a hitch.
Dave

My last misfires were caused by ammo that had been loaded with deteriorated 4895 and let sit for 2 weeks. roger

I had a total of 6 misfires out of 40 rounds a couple of days ago at the range.

I was in a big hurry when loading and did not clean off the case lube as well as I normally do. Haste makes waste!

had only one misfire...in last 1000 rounds.
Hand prime all to FEEL the seating of the primer.

My one misfire wasn't even a misfire....just a dumb ass putting his prototype bullet seating round (unprimed) in with the set of rounds headed for the field. Had a nice rabbit in my sites....a shame.... LOL

Contaminated primers, contaminated powder, shoulder set back too far in resizing, and NO POWDER have been the main causes of misfires I have seen.....

Yes, I have pulled bullets on some misfired handloads to find a bullet base black as hell, because there was nothing between the primer & the bullet base! Fortunately for the shooter (who had also "reloaded" the cases), the bullet(s) had remained seated, and there was at least one live round in his magazine, which went off & killed a black bear he was aiming at!

Boy, he was cursing those "damned handloads" until I was able to show him that he had forgotten the powder in about 1/3 of the rounds!!

I've had two in 40 + years of MY reloads !.

I dry lube case necks , my problem was with primers cci in both cases in my 44 mag of all guns !.

I've had misfires because of broken or real weak firing pins or springs in some older guns I have . Once I fixed those the misfires fired no problem .

Now I've screwed up more than a few shotgun rounds like No pellets or powder measure was empty which sticks wads in the barrel .
I how ever was on top of those and used a wood dowel to ram them through or drop my 8"X1/2" Dia. Copper bullet down the barrel knocks em right out .

A friend wasn't so lucky he bulged his Winchester pigeon grade 101 because of a stuck wad and didn't know it until it was to late !.

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

One of my friend had a number of misfires due to overzealous lubing of the inside of the neck. I don't know why he didn't think all that lube should have been cleaned out but that is what happens when you use the old priming arm on a press. Resizing a bottle neck case on the up stroke and seating the primer on the down stroke is not my way to load.
I have had two misfires in about 38 years. Both had the powder left out. Both were good lessons.

On the other other hand I have had a few rounds go through the washer in my camos and they fired just fine. But I don't recommend the practice.

In 40 plus years of reloading I have witnessed only one true hangfire; where you can hear the firing pin fall and then the cartridge fire. This was another shooters reloads and we never determined the cause. I believe that it was a flake of tumbling media in the flash hole. I have had two misfires due to my reloads. The first was in a 9mm in a M59 Smith. I failed to seat the primer all the way and the immediate action(next pull of the trigger) fired the round. The second was a 6mm Remington where I left out the powder. The primer pushed the 85 grain bullet about 6" up the barrel but there was no recoil. This happened in my early days of reloading and I learned a lesson with this; today I double check everything.

quote:

one true hangfire; where you can hear the firing pin fall and then the cartridge fire. This was another shooters reloads and we never determined the cause.

One explanation I have heard is that a primer may get crushed during seating. This 'breaks' the compound and/or the compound seal seal, which interrupts the ignition process by disrupting the detonation shockwave in the compound. Could be. Matches can fizzle before taking off.

I had a few primers that didn’t go off and a couple of hang fires a number of year’s back. They all happened with one brick (1000) of Remington 9 ½ M primers. I didn’t have a problem before that brick and I haven’t had a problem since it’s been gone. I’ve also had a couple of dud CCI 350 primers. I never really thought much about why they didn’t go off, because it just doesn’t happen that often to me.

I haven’t had one dud primer in this century,,, yet.

Ive had it. My primers were not seated deep enough. My Lee primer seater had worn out and I did not notice the worn bits inside the primer seater.
I killed the primer seater trying to load a batch of crimped 223 Rem cases without taking the crimp off first.
It was a good DIY lesson.

I've had a few, usually due to no powder.

However, the main trouble I have had is with shotshell reloads where I have used a ball powder.

We used to load 20 gauge shells and it seemed when they were a few months old they would misfire all the time. I never could figure it out until I started loading clear shells, where I started seeing how a lot of ball powder will blow past the wad when you are seating the shot cup. Over time it keeps leaking past. Anyway, the upshot is I only use flake powder nowadays when loading shotshells and I don't have any more problems.

Missfire= slow firing pin due to oil/lube buildup in old or New guns. Hangfires=old GI ammo that went from very cold to very hot weather. Powder H450 (discontinued) = heavy coating on powder, CCI mag. primer would start powder burning, then it would just quit.22-250 rem.

Very interesting, 243winxb. I knew about the oil (and dirt) build-up but the GI ammo!!! Any idea exactly what happens?

I have seen a Martini Henry loaded with a small charge of medium burning rifle powder, doing a 'double start' sort of thing. Kinda like a fizz - bang! Quite funny really. Not a hang-fire 'though.

I had my first misfire with my hornet yesterday. I re-cocked and it fired. The firing pin indent has never been impressively deep, leaving me thinking I need a new firing pin spring. Now I am convinced!