SmallCaliberCentral

I went to the range tonight to test some loads in my Savage LRPV .204 On the fourth shot I experienced a proplem. I was testing my reloads that consist of Win brass, cci br4 primers, 25gr Varget, and 39gr sierra bk. With the pull of the trigger I experienced a non existant recoil and the crack of the shot wasn't there. My first thoughts were that I must have forgot to add powder but after removing the case I found unburnt powder in the case and in the barrel The bullet cleared the barrel and the spent case had no signs of defects. All my shots that followed were fine. Any ideas?

The primer must have worked to kick out the bullet and powder. I have never heard of the primer not igniting the powder but that must be what happened in this situation. One time my Dad missed a row in the loading block and didn't charge them with powder. He thought he must have chambered an empty and fired another-resulting a dead Remington. That first bullet didn't clear the barrel and he blew it. You are lucky it didn't have worse results, glad you checked it befor shooting another round.

Weird.
Unless you spilled coffee in that case I have no feasible explanation.
25.0 Varget with 39bk is a starting charge. Starting charges can exhibit blow back if theres not enough pressure to seal the chamber. New brass can exacerbate this problem. New brass?

The unburnt powder is strange though. No good reason for that that I know of.
I have seen a similar occurence in my Dads old 25-20. Every charge including factory loads would leave lots of semi burnt powder residue in the barrel. Overmax charge of H-110 finally started burning clean. Still don't know why

Using AA 25-15 in my 204 I got similar results. I simply discontinued using it though others have had great results with it.

I would bump up to 26.0 Varget or more and try again.

The brass was on its fourth loading, neck sized only. I followed up the 25grains of Varget with a group of 25.4grains and had no problems. Unless someone has any other ideas I think I'm going to just consider it a fluke.

Under Hodgens data 26.0 Varget is the starting charge for the 40 V-max. I think you need to step on the accelerator Good Luck.

love2shoot

There is a possibility that you crushed the primer when seating it. When primeing with a press you have alot of leverage and could crush it.

There is also a possibility that the fireing pin just struck the primer with minnimum force to set it off. You would not get the normal flame to ignite the cartidge as in the other rounds. This ususally happens if you size the shoulder back to far on that cartridge. The round moves foreward to far in the chamber and the fireing pin cannot hit it with enough force to ignite it normally.

You had to have powder in the case as a primer alone does not have enough energy to shoot a bullet out a rifle barrel.

Grayfox

Grayfox,
I use a lee hand primer so I doubt I crushed the primer. I have yet to full length size or body size my brass yet I have only used the lee collet die. The primer had a solid strike just like the other rounds that did fire. I should clarify that when I said I found powder in the case and barrel I don't mean a full charge but maybe a couple of grains worth. Thanks for the input guys.

How do you clean your brass? If you use ultrasonic cleaning the inside of the case could have been wet yet If you tumble you may have had something in the flashhole that restricted full ignition. I'm just throwing this out because it seems very odd that this happened. Hope it helps.

I guess I'm low tech.... I clean my brass with 0000 steel wool for now. I guess I'll never know why it happened.