So, you're working your way up your loads. On your next set of loads heading up the powder ladder, you notice a sign of high pressure, i.e. flattened primer, sticky bolt, whatever. You noticed this sign on the very first round with the new powder weight.

What do you do with your other loads with this same powder charge?

Do you:
A) go ahead and shoot another shot to confirm the pressure indication?
B) stop right where you're at and call it good?

Thanks,

I stop right there and fire no more rounds at that load. If any are still loaded at that weight, I pull all the bullets and dump the powder back into the original tin.
I then reduce the load by 5%, and call that the maximum for THAT rifle. I then load a single case 10 times, and full length size each time, and fire it and take note of: 1) How tight the primer pocket is. 2) Case head expansion, if there is any. 3) how consistent the velocity is from shot to shot. 4) One 10 shot group, or 4, 5 shot groups, and the average group size of those.

It is not conducive to continue shooting over pressure loads in your rifle, even if it is only 2 or 3 rounds.
416RigbyHunter.

Back off. Time for the bullet puller, you've had your warning.

A man has got to know his limitations.

I had to pound the brass out of my Turkish Mauser.

Yup! Enough is enough. Seeing is believing. Do the right thing. Back the powder charge down and start playing with seating length to fine tune accuracy.

Hey graybird, It has been a good while since that has happend to me. The very first thing I'd check is the CHE and PRE, if they are OK then I'm misreading the other Pressure Indicator, or it is not what it appears to be.

If CHE and/or PRE are too high, I Quarantine those initial Test Loads in a Zip Lock Bag and go look at the Load Books - again. Then I try to figure out why any Starting Load I'd begin with had a chance of exhibiting High Pressure Indicators.

Next I'd try and determine if it would be OK to load some with "less of that Powder", or if it appears that would create the potential for a Secondary Explosion Effect. If it is OK to go with less Powder, I do that and work back up toward those Initial Test Loads.

But, as usual, since I check CHE and PRE on ALL new Test Loads, that tells me more about the Pressure than anything else I could look at or measure.

Best of luck to you.

quote:

What do you do with your other loads with this same powder charge?

I disassemble the rounds, and reduce powder charge 5% for subsequent loadings.......
416 Rigbyhunter has it right.

quote:

Originally posted by El Deguello:

quote:

What do you do with your other loads with this same powder charge?

I disassemble the rounds, and reduce powder charge 5% for subsequent loadings.......
416 Rigbyhunter has it right.

Don

My favorite reaction is, "I reloaded to 15 years until I got a pierced primer. Now I only shoot factory ammo."

reduce 5% and stay there, pull the bullets and reload at lower charge.

correct answer is "i don't shoot max loads"
pull, back off, if 2-3% doesn't deliver "enough" velocity, change powders, and if that doesn't do it, get a bigger case.

you reload so you can live to reload again . don't screw it up

There is no hunting shot or game that can tell the difference between that last 100 fps in medium or light wt bullets, certainly up to .35 caliber and probably all the way up to the real heavies. I would suggest that the shooter can NOT hold the difference in a hunting situation. Bottom line: like Jeff said, if you want more velocity than a given round is easily capable of delivering, then get a bigger case. If you're getting pressure signs, BACK OFF RIGHT THEN. Loads are not identical, even if all the components seem to be the same, there is often SUBSTANTIAL differences in pressures between supposedly identical loads. Why stress your gun and maybe your face/hand for insignificant real world gains in velocity?

I've never had pressure signs from a max. load that was published in any factory manual. Not even close.

The only time I've had pressure signs was in .223 Ackley while trying to get 4,000 fps out of a light bullet. (I got there with flat primers. No, I'm not going to list the load.)

Thanks guys.

I'm new to this reloading thing and was just curious.

Personally, I haven't shot a load that is at book max. Thus far, I've stopped at 0.5 grains from book max. Still just a little cautious you might say.

I like my gun and body in the form it is currently in!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Wm.S.Ladd:

I've never had pressure signs from a max. load that was published in any factory manual. Not even close.

I have! You have to be a bit careful especially with custom gun or a gun you have had re-barreled. I had a Remington 7mm Magnum that I put a new Hart barrel on in 8mm Magnum. The reamer used cut a pretty tight chamber. Max in the book was MAX in my rifle. I always had to back it off a couple of grains. I just had AHR build a .450 Dakota for me. It also has a tight chamber and Wayne told me this. Again, with this rifle you have to start low and work up. I think that most factory guns from Remington, Winchester, etc have fairly "loose" chamber dimensions and the newer manuals are fairly conservative so most guys start at max and work up but you have to be careful. You never know when you are going to have that odd gun where max is indeed max!

Dave

quote:

Originally posted by Wm.S.Ladd:
I've never had pressure signs from a max. load that was published in any factory manual. Not even close.

I am not certain what that says...
that you are amazingly lucky, and always had great results

that you don't have a very wide range of experience in loading a bunch of calibers, as, in some cases, book max load is saami max pressure (frequently its an average-105, but you get my meaning)

or that you don't know how to interprete what your cases and gun are telling you.

or you only reload very forgiving on max pressure rounds, like the 7x57 and 257... in other words, you are loaded over BOOK pressure, but those rounds aren't 60K+psi to start with


I want to be an old reloader, NOT a bold one.

and a wildcatter to boot

Every gun needs a work up for accuracy. When you get to high pressure signs you have far surpassed accuracy and are only looking for velocity.
I admit I needed a little more powder then max in some rifles for the accuracy point but in another gun of the same caliber you will not get even close to that load. Rifle dimensions will dictate the load and where pressure is too much. I never loaded to the point where pressure was too much for the gun.
The revolver acts different and flat primer signs mean little. Extraction will normally get stiff. Even this is hard to depend on after I seen guys load up to 8 gr more 296 without a sticky case. Best to never exceed book max and work up to it.
With slow powders, never load under a starting load either.
The old timers had a system for hunting rifles. Once accuracy was found they loaded some with more powder and some with less. The POI had to stay the same or they adjusted things. Then the rifle shot the same in hot or cold weather.

quote:

Originally posted by Wm.S.Ladd:
I've never had pressure signs from a max. load that was published in any factory manual. Not even close. ...

Hey Wm.S., Any chance you are using the older or original Ruger M77 rifles? They are the ones with the Sliding Tang Safety and excellent, fully adjustable, Trigger Design which Ruger designed out so they could use "Non-Adjustable" Triggers.

The last time I had any problems with a load I did the simple test. Get my scale check weights out and test my balance(none of that digital crap for me). I found my balance to be off by 2.3 grains. I verified the weight of my check weights by using the digital scientific scale in the chemistry lab of a local university. They were close enough that it didn't matter..........within the 5th decimal place to the right.

Andy