Primer's capability?
What is the capability of a primer to propel a bullet out of a rifled barrel? Today I received the following from my brother:
"A few years ago while hunting at our land, I shot at a nice buck and all I got from the ammo that Dad had reloaded in 1965 was just a pop, like a cap going off. Of course the deer turned around and looked at me and ran away. Had a nice set of horns. I was concerned that the bullet was still lodged in the barrel, so I went back to the cabin and checked the barrel. The bullet had gone out of the barrel about 10 feet and dropped to the ground. That was the last time I used the old ammo reload from Dad. Don't know what I will do with all the reloads Dad had for the .270 and .243. Now when I go hunting, I'm pretty much using new ammo."
I responded to my brother with the following:
"That is interesting, what you said about the bullet just popping out of the barrel. I used to reload with Dad, and he was always very careful. I do not think that it is because the ammo is old, and thereby the powder degraded. Dad probably missed putting powder into that casing you are talking about. He would never have overcharged a case, because that is really impossible in this case because a double-charge, in either a .243 or .270 would have overflowed the case capacity. And I doubt that he made an under-charged load, because I know how he operated. More than likely he just plain missed putting powder into the case at all. He probably was reloading and got interrupted, returned to the work, moved the loading funnel from one case to the next, thereby skipping a charge. If that is the case, then the pop you heard was simply the primer."
So, forum members, your comments are invited. Please, no snarky remarks about my deceased father and his reloading abilities, because you will totally be off-base.
"A few years ago while hunting at our land, I shot at a nice buck and all I got from the ammo that Dad had reloaded in 1965 was just a pop, like a cap going off. Of course the deer turned around and looked at me and ran away. Had a nice set of horns. I was concerned that the bullet was still lodged in the barrel, so I went back to the cabin and checked the barrel. The bullet had gone out of the barrel about 10 feet and dropped to the ground. That was the last time I used the old ammo reload from Dad. Don't know what I will do with all the reloads Dad had for the .270 and .243. Now when I go hunting, I'm pretty much using new ammo."
I responded to my brother with the following:
"That is interesting, what you said about the bullet just popping out of the barrel. I used to reload with Dad, and he was always very careful. I do not think that it is because the ammo is old, and thereby the powder degraded. Dad probably missed putting powder into that casing you are talking about. He would never have overcharged a case, because that is really impossible in this case because a double-charge, in either a .243 or .270 would have overflowed the case capacity. And I doubt that he made an under-charged load, because I know how he operated. More than likely he just plain missed putting powder into the case at all. He probably was reloading and got interrupted, returned to the work, moved the loading funnel from one case to the next, thereby skipping a charge. If that is the case, then the pop you heard was simply the primer."
So, forum members, your comments are invited. Please, no snarky remarks about my deceased father and his reloading abilities, because you will totally be off-base.
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While a primer won't usually propel a bullet out of the barrel, and especially not a rifle barrel, it is possible.
If the bore was clean and the bullet a bit undersized, it might. It might also be that there was some powder in the round. Conceivably, only a few kernels could do it. Of course, it could have been bad powder, degraded by oil or storage conditions.
It's way too late to learn the answers now.0 -
I'd put my money on a "squib" load.
I've never seen a primer that would expel
a bullet from a rifle barrel...not even
"MAGNUM" primers.0 -
I don't believe any primer would have enough power by it's self to Propel a bullet from either a 243 or 270 case and engrave the rifling and go the length of the barrel and then drop 10 feet in front of the muzzle. You could however take a primed 243 case and chamber in a control feed rifle of 270 caliber and then I believe you would get the bullet out the barrel and a POP. [?][?][?] 0 -
I've gotten a few lodged... never more than 5-6" down the bore. And no, I didn't blow anything up, I knew right off something was wrong.
Not in a rifle but a 38 special, I had a squib load from bridging powder flakes on an automatic dispenser. Near as I can guess, maybe 1/3 of 1 grain of red dot. Spit the bullet out, hit the sand about 15 feet out.
Ergo I vote squib as well.0 -
I hadn't thought of what perry said, but it WOULD be possible to chamber a 243 in a 270 rifle and have it held in place by the extractor well enough to fire. And then it would go "Pop, phoosh."
The original poster didn't mention anything about the empty being blown out (which it would be) or most of a charge of unburnt powder (which there would also be) but he got it second hand and years later, so ...0 -
I once had a very similar experience with some .30-06 ammo that had been hand loaded about 30 years prior to my firing it. About 1 in every 5 rounds acted like the powder load was way too light. We pulled the bullets from several rounds and found the powder weight to be exactly as indicated on the box label. Visually, the powder looked fine also. So we had the powder from several rounds analyzed. The analysis showed a worrysome level of petroleum in the powder from a couple of the tested rounds but a very low level in the others. We speculated that some of the cases must have gotten a bit too much case lube inside and over the 30 years of sitting around the lube had degraded some of the powder. 0 -
Thank you, one and all. I greatly appreciate your input, and your replies have been quite informative. A squib load is a possibility, however I believe that glabray may have a very good point. It is quite likely that the propellant became contaminated over the years from case lubricant. My brother mentioned that my father loaded the ammunition in 1965, and it has been sitting around every since. My brother has confirmed that the rifle was a Winchester Model-70 in .270 caliber.
Once again, thank you all very much. Bergtreffer.0 -
I've had powder hang up in the throat of my powder measure, letting just enough into the case to do what was described.
I've also had a magnum primer (no powder) drive a hard-cast lead bullet just far enough into the forcing cone of my S&W 28 to lock up the cylinder. Thank God it didn't go completely into the barrel.
I'm certainly not going to cast aspersions on anybody's loading practices. My theory is that, over the course of loading tens of thousands of rounds, mistakes can certainly occur. Even to the most seasoned hand loader.0 -
My money is on old primers as I've had the same experiences using old reloads having older primers. 0
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