Cause of unburnt powder in a case

[nords]

G'day,

Can anyone tell me what the cause of unburnt powder in a fired case could be?

A mate and I are both pretty new to reloading and learning. After prepping a bunch of our cases before tumbling we found a little powder seems to have not burned.

Not sure who's load it was from. Need to check next time our before we mix the brass for tumbling.

For info ahead of time though, what is usually the case of this?

Thanks.

[Vati]

Unburnt powder is a sign of low-pressure if I remember right.

[yoshie]

Basically the bullet has left the barrel before the powder has finished burning. Either the powder is too fast or too slow for the load. These are many factors that effect how the powder burns in the case and down the barrel such as bore diameter. That's why we do load development and not just pick a load out of a book or off the net.

[Chronos]

Might be an idea to post your load here for scrutiny. Others may be able to see your problem straight away.

I've had this happen with 9mm pistol loads but not rifle

It is possible to mis read a line in your reloading manual and say load 40gr of 2209 by mistake when you read the load for 2208 for example.

Chronos

[nords]

Thanks guys.

I will get his load data and post back with both of them to see if anyone can highlight an obvious problem.

[nords]

Forgot to say... Hopefully going out again on the weekend.

So with a bit of luck will be able to sort and find out who had the problem sooner rather than later too...

Will post back after the weekend.

Thanks.

[yoshie]

You can also get unburnt powder by using the wrong primer. Large rifle instead of large magnum rifle etc.

[nords]

Thanks Yoshie.

I can definitely say we're using the right primers.

Large rifle primers for .243 and .308. I primed the cases myself so I know these were used.

[yoshie]

A mate of mine ran out of magmum primers and all the local gun store had were LR, he had heaps of dramas with his 7mmRM until he got some magnuns. Also rifle primers in 44mag in a rifle can curse problems too.