CCI primer problem - maybe?

[steve medlock]

I've been loading and shooting a lot of .44/40 recently as I'm trying to find a good load for my Uberti '73 .

The current load is 13.5 gr of 2400 using either my own cast bullets or Kranks .44 mag bullets and previously Winchester primers.

Getting low on primers however, I bought 600 CCI Large Pistol Primers No.300 from my local gun shop and loaded 50 rounds to shoot yesterday.

It was disaster from the outset though, a few rounds working as they should be mostly feeling underpowered leaving unburned powder in the case and up the barrel. Seemingly the primers had been blowing the powder out of the case without igniting it. I unloaded a few this morning but couldn't see anything amiss.

Primer or powder problem?

Steve.

[zanes]

Possibly a primer problem (bad batch or whatever) but FWIW I've loaded a few thousand .44 mag/.44-40 with CCI primers from about 4.2gr of Bullseye up to 18gr N110 (not in the .44-40 obviously!) and some in between with N320 and not seen this issue, so I don't think it's inherent to CCI.

I did have a batch years ago where I don't think I quite dried the cases properly after wet cleaning, but they were just going click rather than being underpowered/poor burning.

I don't think a primer by itself would get a bullet out the barrel so I'd guess you've had at least partial powder burn in all cases.

Would someone in your club swap some different primers to try?

[Dai.T]

You could if available try a different batch of primers? Or could your powder have got damp?
A friend of mine ultrasonically cleaned some cases and wondered why he had performance issues like yours. He hadn’t dried the cases enough and the powder got damp!
Cheers
Dave

[loiner1965]

think ive used 2400 in my .44 mag but a bit more than your load.....found it to be a dirty powder and i just did a quick quickload on your data and it says only 75% powder burnt....have you used this load before with out problems?
not sure if suitable for 44-40 but i think tinstar / true blue and unique are excellent

[steve medlock]

OK thanks all - plenty to think about.

It's sounding to me really that its a damp problem of sort so first of all, I'll try to eliminate the primers. I'll re-prime some cases and go back to my previous 8 gr Unique load and see if there's still a problem.

If not, I'm fairly sure the cases would have been dry so maybe it was my powder.

I'll be back when I've shot the Unique loads!

Stephen - I've not looked at Quickload before - looks interesting.

Thanks
Steve.

[loiner1965]

OK thanks all - plenty to think about.

It's sounding to me really that its a damp problem of sort so first of all, I'll try to eliminate the primers. I'll re-prime some cases and go back to my previous 8 gr Unique load and see if there's still a problem.

If not, I'm fairly sure the cases would have been dry so maybe it was my powder.

I'll be back when I've shot the Unique loads!

Stephen - I've not looked at Quickload before - looks interesting.

Thanks
Steve.

i use 10 gns of unique in my .44 mag and its accurate....not as clean as tinstar but i have 2 tubs of it lol