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7/7/2016 12:23:57 PM EDT
Not sure where to post this question but it involved my reload so I'll try it here. I was shooting some .223 reloads out of my Mini 14 this week. My brother has never fired the mini so he wanted to check it out. On his first shot, the round did not ignite. I cleared the gun and looked at the round and it appeared to be a light primer strike. I put the round back in to see if it would fire again and it fired fine but did not cycle the action. I have thought about this a lot and can't figure out what exactly was the problem. I thought it would be odd that it had a hard primer and low powder in the same cartridge. I assume that it isn't a gun issue due to the fact that we shot over 250rds of my reloads that day without a single problem. All advice is welcome.
7/7/2016 12:33:10 PM EDT
[#1]
Nine times out of Nine, when a handload does not fire on the first attempt, then fires on the second or third,

The Primer was not seated fully.

As for not cycling the action, duno, you did not give the details of your load.
7/7/2016 12:37:50 PM EDT
[#2]
The load I was using was Midsouth 55gr FMJ bullet with 26.5gr of CFE223 powder, using WSR primer. COL - 2.225.
7/7/2016 1:08:05 PM EDT
[#3]
I've had that happen with factory ammo.  1 out of over 250 seems like an isolated incident.  Maybe a bad primer that didn't ignite the powder well.  

1 is a fluke

2 is a coincidence

3 is a pattern.
7/7/2016 1:10:12 PM EDT
[#4]
Primer could have been contaminated at some point.  Or if you make a gazillions of something one may be bad.  I finishing up some Fiocchi small rifle primers that visually seem to have inconsistent stuff in them.  Some have a lot of green, others just a little.   If it was a bad primer it may not have fully ignited the charge, or caused a retarded burn.
Just thoughts.
7/7/2016 1:13:40 PM EDT
[#5]
Thanks for all the input guys. I have been relading for a year now and this is the first issue I have had so it worried me. Just gonna treat it as a fluke.
7/7/2016 3:01:25 PM EDT
[#6]
What you experienced OP, was a primer not fully seated.



First blow fully seats primer, next blow fires round.




When primers are seated properly they should be .002 to .003 below flush.




Primer seating is a "feel" thing.




When you feel the primer contact the bottom of the primer pocket you stop applying force to your primer seater.




Something to work on.
7/7/2016 7:43:52 PM EDT
[#7]
I'm going to go in another direction although I don't disagree with the others.

Maybe it was something with the rifle, at least the non-cycling part and the first round when fired helped to clear it.

Guns often get sticky or gummy when stored. I make it a point to always have some kind of lubricant in my range box. I learned that lesson the hard way with dried out 10-22s that won't cycle etc etc.

Motor
7/7/2016 8:04:22 PM EDT
[#8]
Just to clarify, it was the first round my brother shot, not the first round that day. I shot about 50rds right before he shot it.
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