Stabil Powder issue?

[James DeTorre]

I recently load 47.5 Grains of Stabil in new Nosler brass, CCI LR primers.
130 HH bullets .
they sat on shelf in garage three weeks before shooting.
Had multiple duds!
when I pulled bullets the powder didn't pour out. It was kinda stuck in the case.
***. Been doing this for 40 years.
need critical insight!

 

[Laelkhunter]

From your description, sounds like you got a "click" instead of a boom when you pulled the trigger? Maybe more like a primer problem than a powder problem. Can you deprime the cases and see if the primers failed to go off? If you have a compressed powder charge, it would cause the powder to get stuck in the case when you pulled the bullet and tried to dump it out. As stated earlier it sounds more like a primer situation, especially since you didn't mention unburned powder remaining in the barrel or cases of the fired rounds. If you had a powder problem, I'm thinking since some did fire, you would have had a few that seemed to be underpowered from the powder not totally igniting and a more muffled sound or not sounding right when it did go off.

 

[James DeTorre]

Tried primed case no powder. Primers went bang.
tried different powder, they went bang.
new clean brass.
This is not a compressed load.
wondering if Stabil is hydrophilic?
warm and humid in SC.

 

[338 dude]

Could it be a head space issue? with new brass sometime if you do not jam a bullet create a false shoulder leave primers slightly higher You may have light strike issues due to the brass being extremely short

 

[James DeTorre]

Thanks guys.
more work requied

 

[cohunt]

3 weeks and the powder is bad? Gotta be something else otherwise other people would had had issues.by now.

Almost sounds like contamination or primer issues to me.
How old are the primers?

Other thing to check would be to try the same powder/similar load with magnum primers. Staball is a ball powder ( hence the name "staball"-- is a temp stable ball powder)- often times ball powders like hotter primers

 

[xsn10s]

when I pulled bullets the powder didn't pour out. It was kinda stuck in the case.

That's a bit weird to me. I'd call Hodgdon and pick their brains on that one.

 

[Dmagna]

could be a thousand different things. I have a creed that has problems with lapua SRP brass. It will not shoot it, so I switched brass and it goes bang everytime now with no duds.

 

[Dmagna]

Ball powder has always seemed to stick in the case for me too.

 

[xsn10s]

Check how the powder flows in your original container. I imagine if flows ok otherwise that would have been a signal of contamination. I can't ever recall powder sticking in a case.

 

[James DeTorre]

What I can't explain is that same cases , same primers , same gun with different ball powder went bang.
only other variable was the loads that went click sat for three weeks on shelf in garage.
I will repeat the experiment on my next range day with fresh loads.
PS the only old components are my CCI Lr primers. They are 10 years old.
thanks for ideas

 

[J-B welder]

Given the subject of the thread, and the fact that they were kept in the garage, maybe you put something other than powder in them?

 

[can1010]

CCI did have some problems years ago and seeing they are 10 yrs old but more than likely they were not fully seated in new brass.

by replacing primers and the gun goes bang helps eliminate a weak firing pin spring or any mechanical problems

 

[Veteran]

How old was the Staball powder bottle? Sat on the shelf long time in humidity, ever opened before and sat there open?