What causes hangfires?

[benenglish]

Hangfires are the subject of another thread. Instead of hijacking that one, I thought I'd start a new one.

In my early days of handloading, I assembled a batch of .44 mag ammo that hangfired. Every single one would fire about 3 to 4 seconds after the hammer fell. This behavior was very consistent.

I wish I knew what I screwed up on that batch. Never did figure it out. I was using 2400 powder and the hangfires left quite a bit of yellow, almost-crystal-looking residue in the barrel. This residue was completely different from the powder residue left by properly functioning ammunition using the same powder, bullets, and primers.

Speculation from more experienced handloaders would be welcome.

 

[jrbfishn]

Damp or improperly mixef black powder will sometimes do that. Could have been a bad batch of powder.

from an idgit coffeeholic

 

[shortround]

Most hang fires are caused by incompatible primer & powder combinations.

I have experimented with "magnum" primers in fast burning powders, and never found a problem with middling loads.

I have found that "standard" primers with several ball powders give a click-boom in cold weather.

Never had to wait 3-4 seconds for a load to go bang, however.

You might also have had a batch of weak primers. Did you use them in any other loads?

 

[benenglish]

Never had to wait 3-4 seconds for a load to go bang, however.

I'm remembering from 40 years ago and to the kid I was, it seemed like forever. It definitely wasn't "click-boom". It was "click, wait a beat, boom". They were all very consistent in that way, even if the delay was just a single second or so...which is probably closer to what actually happened.

You might also have had a batch of weak primers. Did you use them in any other loads?

I bought 5000 primers at a time and it was this one batch of fifty rounds that hangfired. I used the rest of the primers for properly-functioning loads both before and after loading the hangfires.

I'm not sure that means anything, though. Given how little I knew back then, the hangfire primers might have been in an open tray on the workbench while I cleaned a gun, spraying them who who-knows-what chemicals. That's just a guess but it's definitely within the realm of possiblity.

 

[Vaquero]

I'm leaning toward the tainted primers in ben's case.
I've never had a hang fire.

 

[Texasjack]

I've loaded tens of thousands of rounds and never had a hangfire. I agree with the guess that it might have been "tainted" primers. It doesn't take much oil to mess them up.

Now I have had what I thought was a hangfire at the range and it turned out a primer was inserted backwards. That was fairly embarrassing.

 

[hoghunting]

I wish I knew what I screwed up on that batch. Never did figure it out. I was using 2400 powder and the hangfires left quite a bit of yellow, almost-crystal-looking residue in the barrel

Your powder had deteriorated as the yellow residue was sulphur, powder was probably stored in garage that was too hot during the summers. Have seen the same thing happen to ammo stored in an uninsulated cinder block building - this was the PD's practice ammo.

 

[benenglish]

Your powder had deteriorated as the yellow residue was sulphur, powder was probably stored in garage that was too hot during the summers. Have seen the same thing happen to ammo stored in an uninsulated cinder block building - this was the PD's practice ammo.

There's a distinct possibility that the particular box that gave me hangfires was stored in a high-heat environment. While I've always kept powder in the house, a single box of ammo could have been sitting in a hot car for a whole summer. I have no memory of that but it's certainly possible.

Thanks for the insight.

 

[Vaquero]

Storage and heat/cold.

Ben, if I need to start a thread, say so and I'll edit this and start one.

OT, kinda.

Ammo storage needs to be dry.
Too hot? Too cold?
Consider the environments of wars. And the logistics of small arms munitions storage, transport, and use.

I contend that a bad batch is just that. A bad batch.
Component storage is the culprit here.

 

[shortround]

I can clearly remember shooting some factory ammo 30.06 Sellier & Bellot at -20 Degrees F in a 1903A3 in 1984, which was one of the coldest winters on record in Germany.

My first round at that temperature went "click-boom."

I dumped all the other rounds in the magazine well, and the German range master walked up to me and told me that was normal, especially on the Russian Front, some forty years earlier.

"Zat isst vy U keep ze site on ze target until gun goes boom!"

 

[Dawico]

I have never had a hangfire but have been lead to believe primers are the culprit.