Thread: Beware the Hangfire !!

Originally Posted by fernleaf

Hangfires are nasty things.

I experienced more than a couple when I was shooting a lot of .303 MkVII Ball through Lee Enfields - fortunately following the 30 second Rule no doubt saved my pretty face.

Certainly told you what .303 Ball to stay away from - anything made by Pakistani Ordnance Factory (poorly stored during Service led to primer decay), anything made by Radway Green prior to 1950 (just poor quality), and some Aussie WW2 years/makers.

Had a nearly full bandolier of Radway Green 1942 mk viii, no tarnishing etc but virtually every round was a clickbang. It's a Cordite/ primer issue. Cordite is hard to light and really needs magnum primers, so if the primer has deteriorated then...

OTOH Greek HXP, though heavily tarnished, they rarely fail to go off as advertised. But maybe not fair to compare a wartime product with a nice post-war Winchester factory up in some pleasant sunny Greek mountain.