The Firearms Forum banner

223/5.56 Hangfires

1K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  gdmoody 
#1 ·
Recently was given about 550 pcs of Rem 223 and LC 5.56 rounds. I was told that the person who (passed away a few years ago) kept them in a container in his basement, unfortunately he also experienced some flooding from time to time. Upon inspection the cartridges looked OK (some slight discoloration), but generally cleaned up well. I took about 50 rounds to the range to test them, and for the first time in my 60+ years of shooting, I experienced quite a few delayed ignitions. The delays were in some cases about a full second (sorta like shooting a flintlock). After about a dozen of these hang-fires I decided to cease shooting. That evening I pulled about 50 rounds and found that the powder in many cases was obviously still wet/damp (after about 3-4 years). The commercial brass were all water soaked, some of the MIL LC 5.56's were completely dry, some were also damp like the commercial stuff.

So....I pulled every round apart, dumped the powder, de-primed, tumble cleaned and sorted all the brass.... Lesson learned......there is no free lunch, but I do have about 500 FMJ bullets, and cases to go with them.
 
#2 ·
Here's a tip:

NEVER SHOOT SOMEONE ELSE'S RELOADS!!!!

You are lucky nothing really bad happened, like swinging the gun towards others or yourself during the delayed fire of the cartridge. Some reloaders are obsessed with max velocity and throw the manuals away and load to the moon. Who knows what lurks in other's reloads? Don't shoot other's reloads if you hate hospitals and hate having to repair or replace your guns.

Also compromised brass with corrosion is unsafe brass because it is weakened. Only reload good quality uncompromised brass. Never load above manual Max loads!

LDBennett
 
#4 ·
I didn't read a thing about them being reloads, but I only read it twice!

A couple of years ago had some hang fires in one of my AR's. Since it had never happened to me before then, I didn't really recognize it for what it was, I just knew that something was wrong. The delay was only a fraction of a second but I stopped shooting that AR. When I shot the ammo in another AR, it shot perfectly fine. I swapped the bolt carrier groups between the two rifles and both of them shot perfectly. It had to be some sort of head space problem and swapping the bolts "fixed" it. It has never happened since.
 
#5 ·
I'm pretty sure that these were not all reloads, the LC ammo still had the primer crimp, bullets were seated with an adhesive. I agree with LD, any corrosion in brass should be reason to discard, without knowing the history of your brass should also be of a concern. Shooting was done in a Weatherby bolt action.
 
#6 ·
Sounds like they were **maybe factory** that were improperly stored.

A simple way of storing ammo and making it last a long time is to just get a couple of those surplus military ammo cans (the green steel cans with the rubber seal on the lid), and keep your ammo stored tightly in it. Best place is a dry closet in the house. A room with minimal air temp changes and the lowest humidity is best. You can but those cans for $10 or $15 in good condition.

Congratulations of that free brass and the bullets! I think you are better off now. You can reload them all the same (and it will be much better to have them ALL loaded and shooting exactly alike). Make sure they are all clean and dry before you start. Snap the LC primers, deprime and take out the crimp and you have GREAT cases. Two pounds of H335 powder, some new primers - and you are good to go!
 
#7 ·
I didn't read a thing about them being reloads, but I only read it twice!

A couple of years ago had some hang fires in one of my AR's. Since it had never happened to me before then, I didn't really recognize it for what it was, I just knew that something was wrong. The delay was only a fraction of a second but I stopped shooting that AR. When I shot the ammo in another AR, it shot perfectly fine. I swapped the bolt carrier groups between the two rifles and both of them shot perfectly. It had to be some sort of head space problem and swapping the bolts "fixed" it. It has never happened since.
Took my latest build to the range a couple days ago, it only had 30 rounds through it. Everything ran fine for about three shots, then CLICK. Ejected the round and looked at the primer, had a very slight firing pin indentation on it. Loaded it back in the mag and tried again. CLICK. Put it to the side. Next round...CLICK! Damnit...this is what I get for violating my usual break-in procedure. took a Qtip and cleaned up behind the locking ears in the chamber and sure enough pulled some crud out from behind, I guess there was just enough to keep the bolt from fully rotating. I ran 50 through after that just fine, will clean and finish breaking it in, only thing I could come up with was just a tight headspace combination until it wears itself in. At home I took the BCG out of another one that has over 1k rounds through it and swapped them out, loaded up the two that didn't go bang and fired both, no problem.
 
#10 · (Edited)
Finally got all the cases and bullets cleaned and ready. One problem remaining is that the bullets were pulled using an RCBS collet die. Now the case mouth is sized from the previous sizing and new bullets seat kind of loose in the neck. Tried running the cases through a FL sizing die to resize the neck and found that the expander plug now doesn't want to go into the case without collapsing the neck, if I remove the expander plug , the case will be sized to a now smaller ID (without the expander) that is needed to seat new bullets.
One option at this point is to seat the bullets to the needed depth, and apply a slight crimp to the case mouth...... Sound OK, or any other suggestions

Wood Hardwood Musical instrument accessory Shelving Kitchen utensil
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top