.22 case blackening?

[NukeBOMB88]

Hey guys,

I was just firing my .22 after a few weeks of storage and I noticed that the cases all have black residue on one side as if they have been burnt.

I have only ever seen this happen on a few cheaper brands of ammunition but never on the Remington bucket o bullets that I have been using for the last year.

Is this going to be a problem? Do I need to get a new .22?

Cheers,
Nuke

[Bills Shed]

This blackening is usually due to a lack of obturation, sealing of the gasses by the brass case expanding to the chamber walls.

Is this a new ammo can? Is it standard velocity or high velocity? Was the chamber clean? There may have been a bit of crud on one side of the chamber causing poor obturation.

If the brass is a bit harder and the pressures low the blackening will occur. Happens on CF cases as well when pressures are low.

If you have some other high velocity laying around give them a go.

Bill

[NukeBOMB88]

The cases were standard velocity hollow points and I was firing with a clean chamber after a month of no use. I have never seen this blackening with this bucket of bullets and I've been shooting them for the past year.

Thanks,
Nuke

[on_one_wheel]

I'd be trying a pack of fresh HV.rounds that are totally different like Winchester Power Point, just to see if its your ammo... I've had .22 ammo go bad and loose its power. I recon in my case it was ignition issues caused by prolonged storage in a hot vehicle.

I have heard bad reports about Remington bucket o bullets, try a Google search on them and see what you get.

[Bills Shed]

All I can think of then is a temp change. Cold means lower pressures.

I Shoot sub sonics and always have a little blackening of the case, especially when shooting longs.

It does seem strange to just start now.

Anyone else have any ideas?

Bill

[NukeBOMB88]

I will go to the local gun store and buy some different brand bullets and see if they have the same case blackening after Easter. I guess I can only hope that it's just a brand specific problem and not a malfunction with the gun.

Thanks,
Nuke

[AusC]

As explained, low-pressure is a common cause for case blackening.

If you've been shooting them for a year with no problem then I wouldn't expect a problem with the rifle. Try a box of supersonics for the extra pressure and see what you get.

Temp change like Bill said could be an issue. It's dropped pretty sharply in VIC this last week...

[Norton]

When you started encountering the problem after not using the rifle for a month, did you notice on the first shot it was happening? Or some time in?

Possible that it was shooting fine out of storage with a clean chamber, during your warm up shots a bit of debris found it's way in... Then you noticed the problem?

I'd give it a clean back to new before trying to supersonics too.

[Yelp]

How far down one side? 2mm? 3mm? Top to tail?

[Herdsman]

In the year that it was working well, how many actual shots would that have been? (roughly)?

Hundreds? Thousands? More?

[NukeBOMB88]

Three quarters of one side of each case was being blackened right from the first shot on a clean chamber. I have not encountered this blackening on the first 500-600 shots from this bucket of bullets. I shot two feral cats last night and both of those cases were blackened. I will buy some supersonics and see if the blackening is still present .

Nuke