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  1. #11
    User
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
    Location
    Pretoria
    Age
    34
    Posts
    839

    Default Re: Sellier and Bellot Ammo Bad Experience

    I have also experienced a pierced primer before. In my case, the face of the firing pin was also slightly damaged and had to be re smoothed on a lathe.
    It was very hot loaded factory ammo from NGA...🙈
    The bolt was difficult to open.

  2. #12

    Default Re: Sellier and Bellot Ammo Bad Experience

    Geogun I think you need to take the rifle to a good gunsmith and have it checked out properly. Then you can eliminate potential issues with the rifle. Maybe start with checking headspace with go / no-go gauges, also check the gas vent in the action (dirty / obstructed?), check firing pin and spring. A protruding firing pin from a weakening spring may indeed be a culprit. From the photo it almost seems that the primer is protruding somewhat, which is interesting (this could mean that the case was difficult to extract and that the firing pin may have gotten stuck in the primer and that it was almost pulled out of the case when you attempted to extract the case or it could mean that there was some slight gap between the bolt face and the back of the case when the round was fired), the case head and the lettering does also not seem to show flattening (signs of high pressure), but the photo could be misleading. If you have eliminated all these issues with hardware then indeed the only alternative may be ammunition related. But this thread just shows how reliable ammo has actually become. It really makes the news if a cartridge fails. Interestingly, in the case of S&B, it seems that they were turning out 10 million cartridges a year in the year 1870 already https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellier_%26_Bellot. Go figure what small percentage of fail we are looking at...

  3. #13
    User
    Join Date
    Feb 2013
    Age
    41
    Posts
    35

    Default Re: Sellier and Bellot Ammo Bad Experience

    Quote Originally Posted by MTTSS View Post
    Geogun I think you need to take the rifle to a good gunsmith and have it checked out properly. Then you can eliminate potential issues with the rifle. Maybe start with checking headspace with go / no-go gauges, also check the gas vent in the action (dirty / obstructed?), check firing pin and spring. A protruding firing pin from a weakening spring may indeed be a culprit. From the photo it almost seems that the primer is protruding somewhat, which is interesting (this could mean that the case was difficult to extract and that the firing pin may have gotten stuck in the primer and that it was almost pulled out of the case when you attempted to extract the case or it could mean that there was some slight gap between the bolt face and the back of the case when the round was fired), the case head and the lettering does also not seem to show flattening (signs of high pressure), but the photo could be misleading. If you have eliminated all these issues with hardware then indeed the only alternative may be ammunition related. But this thread just shows how reliable ammo has actually become. It really makes the news if a cartridge fails. Interestingly, in the case of S&B, it seems that they were turning out 10 million cartridges a year in the year 1870 already https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellier_%26_Bellot. Go figure what small percentage of fail we are looking at...
    Here is an enlarged photo of the case

    Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

  4. #14

    Default Re: Sellier and Bellot Ammo Bad Experience

    Mmm. Looks like a very flat primer from here and those rings on the primer also look like engravings from pressure. The hole in the primer is also on the side of the indentation and not right in the middle in front.

    Would still say have all the hardware components checked out. Firing pin, spring, headspace, vent hole, measurement on the hole in the bolt through which the firing pin strikes, barrel for excessive copper fouling over the years. Then if all of that is in order there can be no other explanation than ammo related, maybe a weakness in primer material, unevenness of primer compound that were more concentrated on that specific area of the primer (shock?) or less powder being in that specific case (under charged).

  5. #15

    Default Re: Sellier and Bellot Ammo Bad Experience

    Quote Originally Posted by BGF View Post
    Hi you did not mention what make of gun.
    I had exactly the same thing with Howa 223. Googled it and found a guy down under with the same problem also Howas and S&B 223.
    All other ammo no problem for me. Still have 18 of the 20 I bought. Did it to the first two shots. Lucky we did not damage our bolt faces.

    Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
    I had the same problem with my Howa 223 the past weekend with handloads. After the first shot of that load I stopped because I suspected the load was to hot but the previous load which was 0.5 gr less shot fine. I pulled the remaining 4 bullets and backed off with 1gr. Yesterday I went out shooting again and decided to shoot the last round of PMP brownbox 55gr fmj i had left, again it punched a hole through the primer. I took everything apart and cleaned it all , went back to the range and put my handloads through it.... No problem.
    Now I'm not sure if its just coincidence that I loaded a hot round as well as getting one from pmp or if there was some dirt or obstruction in my barrel that caused pressure to spike. I looked through the barrel before firing the pmp round and it looked clear to the naked eye. Put 25 rounds down range after I cleaned it and all looks good. No flattened primers or punchers.

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