[Ironworker]

I shoot a 44mag and 357 mag. I shoot heavy charges and lately I've been getting misfires. In that hammer dents the primer but doesn't fire or if I load it again some times it will fire. Could it be that the primer pocket has lengthened or distorted by the repeated max charges ?

 

[recoil junky]

Silly question, but did/do you clean the primer pockets?

Another thing might be that the primers are "bad". I've had problems with Winchester's large pistol primers doing the same thing.

RJ

 

[kdub]

Sounds more like a weakening hammer spring to me. Never heard of the primer pocket lengthening, but know for sure it will enlarge with repeated maximum loadings.

The stress of continual heavy reloads will be on the handgun frame more so than on the brass.

 

[Bill M]

So you have had the misfires with both your 357 and your 44 mag? Can you be more specific about the bullets and loads? What guns are you shooting the loads out of? Are the misfires new to the hot loads or did you have the problem before?

Also... if you go back to shooting lighter loads in both guns, do the misfires go away?

 

[Ironworker]

All the brass is old

Ruger GP100 357 Mag Colt Anaconda 44 mag When shooting cast bullet with entirely different brass in the 44 mag no misfires. The 357 I need to buy some new brass and test it out all my brass has been loaded dozen times easily all stout loads.