Hangfires & misfire with WC-846 in .223

[Kirk]

I tried WC-846 in a .223 AR with Sierra 50 gr bullets. The jug says it's like BL C-2 & gives a starting load for a .308 WCF with a 150 gr bullet of 40.5 gr, well below what most manuals list. The Lyman 49 manual lists 27.5 gr as max in the .223 with 50 gr bullets so I loaded 5 rounds each with 24; 25; 26 and 27 gr WC-846 & Wolf SR primers & 5 rounds each of 26 & 27 gr with CCI SR primers.

The 24 gr loads all went off in "flintlock" mode. click - bang and scattered bullets 20 " apart on the target @ 100 yds.

Four of the 25 gr loads went clickbang, marginally better ignition & smaller group. One round failed to fire. I later disassembled the round & found that the primer had fired but the full charge of powder had failed to ignite; a small amount of powder was fused to the primer.

The 26 gr loads all fired normally as did the 27 gr loads.

The loads with the CCI primers all fired normally. Groups were about 3" with iron sights.

Temperatures were in the low 50s so I don't think temerature was a factor. I'd experienced hangfires in a .30-06 with this same powder and thought the low loading density (large case volume only 2/3 filled) was the cause. In the 223, 24 gr fills about 90% of the case volume so I did not expect hangfires.

Attached are pictures of the primers from the round that fired normally (left) and the misfire (right).

Anyone else have hangfires with WC-846?

[joem]

reading your test results would lead me to believe the problem is the wolf primers. I use a lot of WC846 in .223 (55-62 gr) and .308 with 147 gr bullets and have not had the condition you describe. I have never used Wolf primers.

[slamfire]

Kirk: If the only difference between the two lots were the primers, then you have a primer problem.

Ball powders have always been harder to ignite than stick.

See what happens when you abandon IMR 4895? And you were doing so well with IMR 4895. :eusa_wall:

I recently had hangfires with AA2520 in the 35 Whelen I got from Moses. No such problem with IMR 4064, IMR 3031.

If you had a chronograph, I will bet that the velocities with Wolf primers would have been a lot lower than with CCI.

[Kirk]

Brian:

Yep, and I have about 20 oz of WC-846 plus a bunch of odds & ends .224" bullets left so I hope to run out of powder & bullets at the same time.

The hangfires with the .30-06 were all with CCI primers so I can't say the Wolfs were the problem.

[Litt'le Lee]

and most ball powders require MAGNUM PRIMERS