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Out of battery, and why you shud use a shell checker


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this weekend I had another out of battery but this time in my Marlin,,,  was not having an issue,,, just went to close the bolt and it happened,,  wudn't chamber another round, yelled broke and went on,,,

 

about 2/3s of the case was left in the chamber along with the lead,,,  looked strange tho,,, there were two bullets in the case,, and it still had it's original crimp...

I checked the remaing piece in a cylinder chamber later and found it stopped just before the case disappeared,,,

I figure it stopped at that point and the inertia of the firing pin overcame the return spring and set off the primer,, I also figure that is what happened last year with my 73 ,,,

 

now EVERY cartridge for EVERY shoot will get checked

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ShyAnnie,

 

What kind of firing pin are you using in your Marlin that uses a 'return spring'?

 

It sounds like to me that during your reloading, a bullet got stuck up inside your bullet seater.  Then when the next round was cycled thru the press, you placed your bullet on top of the shell case, pushed it up into the bullet seating die and pushed BOTH bullets down into your case.   If this is the situation,  its understandable that you had a 'catastrophic' ignition.

 

'NORMALLY', when 2 bullets are seated inside one shell case, it creates a slight bulge in the lower portion of the shell case.

If this were your situation, your bolt moving forward could have possibly had enough forward force to push your firing pin forward and cause this situation.

 

And because you are a fast rifle shooter, your energy in working your rifle helped create some of the variables that gave you those explosive results.

 

Glad you weren't hurt and didn't leave a wet spot in your drawers..... ;)

 

..........Widder

 

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8 minutes ago, Widowmaker Hill SASS #59054 said:

ShyAnnie,

 

What kind of firing pin are you using in your Marlin that uses a 'return spring'?

 

It sounds like to me that during your reloading, a bullet got stuck up inside your bullet seater.  Then when the next round was cycled thru the press, you placed your bullet on top of the shell case, pushed it up into the bullet seating die and pushed BOTH bullets down into your case.   If this is the situation,  its understandable that you had a 'catastrophic' ignition.

 

'NORMALLY', when 2 bullets are seated inside one shell case, it creates a slight bulge in the lower portion of the shell case.

If this were your situation, your bolt moving forward could have possibly had enough forward force to push your firing pin forward and cause this situation.

 

And because you are a fast rifle shooter, your energy in working your rifle helped create some of the variables that gave you those explosive results.

 

Glad you weren't hurt and didn't leave a wet spot in your drawers..... ;)

 

..........Widder

 

mmmm I guess it doesn't have a spring,, duh!!!

 

no wet spots, tho lucky 13, the TO may have had that situation..

 

I have learned not to spend a lot of time with malfunctions now a days.. spent maybe 5 seconds on it before declaring BROKE!!

 

 

 

 

.

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I use a single case guage I got from dilllon I check every match round prior to boxing them for. The match, also. Check every 12 ga even factory, would believe how many I find too large, before every match I use a MEC sizer and put them back in the box then both boxes go in my ammo bag for my cart.  Shy did it bulge you barrel?

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5 minutes ago, Blackey Cole said:

I use a single case guage I got from dilllon I check every match round prior to boxing them for. The match, also. Check every 12 ga even factory, would believe how many I find too large, before every match I use a MEC sizer and put them back in the box then both boxes go in my ammo bag for my cart.  Shy did it bulge you barrel?

nope,, never made it out of the chamber,,,, altho I have a Marlin with 3 bulges,,,

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:ph34r:  I find a Lee factory crimp die to be very useful.  I used to gauge every rifle round for wife and I, and it was a pain.  It was also necessary, as I had experienced some 'failure to chamber' incidents.  After employing the Lee die I have found EVERY round is within spec.

I now give a visual inspection to remove any extra lube (although this will soon be unnecessary as I'm going to coated bullets) and to find the once in a while split case mouth.

 

Really glad you had a favorable outcome.  I've seen some folks decide to 'just lever it a bit harder' if cartridge isn't chambering easily.

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1 hour ago, Marshal Dan Troop 70448 said:

Just think, if both bullets in case had fired, and gone down range, you would have gotten a "P" for a  double tap.  MT

that wud have worked, it was a quad tap,,,

 

and no squib, original crimp in place,,,   and wasn't jiggling the lever or such,   just, ha! put two bullets in the same case

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You danged gamers over here trying to turn a rifle into a shotgun. That ain't right! Some of us can't fit two round into one case! :P

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I also use a Dillon case gauge for all calibers that I reload for and use Wilsons where Dillon doesn't offer that caliber.

 

Amazing what you find on what should be all perfect rounds.

 

ALL rounds for a match are checked in the gauge. Bought a used shotgun barrel to gauge the shotshells...., even new interesting to me that even new rounds don't always just drop in!

 

All of this ammo handling and checking has allowed me to find in advance a few split casings that were not noticed earlier. Well worth the extra time and effort to ME.

 

Bugler

 

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1 minute ago, Snakebite said:

Chyenne, just pull a cylinder out of your pistol and use it.

I have one,,, was rushed all week and forgot to pack it and dint take time to check them with cylinder until that happened..  duh!!

 

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All my brass is checked prior to loading for small splits at the case mouth.  A crack will always get bigger.  All my match ammo is run through a case checker, and checked on a flat plate for high primers.  I rarely find any problems because of the initial check, but maybe once a month I'll get a cartridge that won't go in the checker cleanly or get a high primer.

 

You can get a stuck case to go off if you keep trying to chamber it.  I've see it happen twice.  When I'm running the timer and I see what looks like a either a stuck case or a squib stuck in the chamber, I'm "yelling put it down, put it down".  I'd rather give a reshoot than have an unchambered round go off.

 

NNV

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I've had 6+/- out of battery's in the past 5 years with a '73 44-40.

The last one bent the extractor, and bruised fingers. The black pinky finger nail from the previous OOB was half grown out.

 

Decided to fixit, and discovered the after market firing pin extended out of the old style boltface while at rest.

 

Replaced old with new bolt and firing pin.

 

Problem solved!

 

Amarillo Rattler

 

 

 

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You're probably lucky it didn't chamber and all the gas released out the back. Otherwise who knows what 2 bullets in the bore would do to the barrel. Maybe bulge it, maybe worse.

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During my many years of reloading, especially on a progressive press, I have had a bullet stick up inside the bullet seater.

 

And then that next round would end up with TWO bullets in the case.   One has been a .38 and one was a .45 Colt case.

The .38 case showed no signs of 2 bullets.  But the .45 case did show a bulge and would not chamber in a cylinder.

 

Anyhow, here is a good method in reloading, especially if you use a progressive press.

Only allow about 40-50 rounds to drop into your completed round tray before emptying that tray.   IF you have an empty case and some loose powder in that tray, that will probably indicate that one of those cases could possibly have 2 bullets.

 

If you load hundreds of rounds before checking your tray (or finished pile), you might not even catch a few grains of powder scattered among l00's of rounds.   But its easy to catch with only about 40 in your tray.

 

Just something to consider.

 

And, we all know its a good thing to clean out your bullet seating die periodically.

 

..........Widder

 

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1 hour ago, PaleWolf Brunelle, #2495L said:

I have plenty of batteries (all sizes) and almost always use my Spell-checker.

 

:P

 

:lol::lol:   and who said PWB didn't have a sense/since/cents of humor... ;)

 

I'm needing a few 123 size.  

 

..........Widder

 

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I have not had issues with a sticky seating die since I switched over to coated bullets. The occasional 357 magnum brass would clean out the seating die when loading 38 specials, learned this by mistake.

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