Just wondering what your experience has been with the PT so far, what you've been testing with it, and any other things you can all share concerning them?

I recieved mine the other day and will be trying it out soon.

Lots of guys got them so far but, I haven't heard too much at all from anyone since they all recieved them.

I can honestly, and without a doubt say, you won't find any better, more knowledgable customer support from anyone! Jim and Burt BOTH provide what anyone would simple call unbelieveable support!! My hat's off to you guys, and wish both the best.

What you've done by making an affordable pressure testing and diagnostic tool available to the average Joe Blow reloader will undoubtedly advance reloading and ballistics knowledge for all in years to follow.

BTW, the RSI Shooting Lab program is absolutely TOP SHELF, the BEST I've seen and will replace Oehler's Ballistic Explorer immediatly.

A program to use on a Palm device that has transferable data between it and the RSI Shooting Lab and its reloading records is all that's needed now.

Any way to run the PT from a Palm device and hook them all together would be yet another giant advancement.

Love mine.

Just make sure that you use a little tape or something so that the strain gauge connector has some strain relief. Otherwise, the recoil will unplug the connector, and you'll get a pressure reading of 32 kazillion PSI.

Haven't had much time with mine, as I have been working on my 223 AI built on a Savage action. The gauge is impossible to mount on a Savage without machining the barrel near the nut area. Not going to do that with this great barrel from Pac-Nor. I am getting my 220 Swift rebarreled (700 Rem action) and will be using it on that. Tried it on the toasted Swift barrel, and it worked fine. Use a bit of that Costco stretch wrap over the wire (hold it against the barrel) and it will perform the strain relief function needed. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

I don't know if this is any help or not, but CIP in Europe does sort of a SAAMI thing, but they take their measurements at the mouth of the case instead of in the center of the case body. Their max numbers are different from SAAMI.

I don't know how far out on a limb this is, but it might be OK to mount the gauge at the mouth of the cartridge, and use the CIP numbers. I'll send them to you if you like.

Once I get some data with this big barrel of mine (1.35" dia.) in 30/338 Lapua Improved I'll mount a gage on the reciever near the base of the cartridge above the web to see how close the readings are. The reciever is 1.35" also. I'm putting a barrel block on this rig and it will be in the way for a gage then. Might be something worth while to some to try, short cartridges in the Savages in particular.

Hope to hear from more of you all on these too.

Denton, how do you think the gage on the reciever will compare, any ideas, been done already?

Once I see how close the Oehler 43 and the PT are reading, I can get simultanious readings from the reciever and the barrel gages to see exactly.

Brent, it's just a guess, but I don't think you are going to directly get interpretable results from something mounted on the receiver, or near the web. I just don't know, but that's my guess. You may be able to take simultaneous measurements from the standard position, and an experimental position, and get a reliable conversion formula. So you are plowing new ground! Keep us informed.

I got mine, and I am in the market for a laptop computer. I would almost consider buying an inverter and running this desktop off my truck's battery. It's just a little bit more than I feel like carrying to the range.

H. C.

Had a bunch of stuff typed down to post, hit the wrong key and POOF... came back and the screen's all blank now. Second time in two days that's happened. Oh well, computers...

Denton,
I'll give the reciever gage a try, should be able to learn something from it at any rate, at least for this rifle. At the point where the gage will be mounted, the Lapua case has .033" thick walls, just ahead of the web and the pressure ring, so it will be interesting. The gage however, will be mounted near the front edge of the reciever so this may indicate a higher reading than if back away from it a ways. The case being .033" thick instead of .023" where the other gage will be should need a higher offset pressure to initially expand the case to the chamber walls, using the same offset you'd think the reading would be lower, so the two may balance out somewhat. The two seperate pieces of steel threaded together might indicate a higher pressure one would think, but then again, the expansion may not be fully realized and it may expand in the threads enough that it may not give a full reading on the outside of the reciever, probably more likely this is true. At any rate, it will be hard to attribute what ever happens to a certain thing, and by what amount each is responsible, as there are too many variables in the equasion on this one. Nor would this be representative of any other rifle either, although it might prove to be close with a hell of alot more testing of different rifles. I should be able to determine if the readings are consistant, linier, etc, etc.

Henry,
I see alot of the new desktop PC's have an integrated monitor, no tower. The new Gateway PC I saw on TigerDirect.com was that way. My wife is going to get one and upgrade her 2 yr old Gateway Pent. 866 dinosaur, giant monitor, huge tower thingy. I'd throw that new style PC in the front seat for sure, but the laptop is sweet, and I'll never go back to a desktop, ever! WHY??? Throwing the old dino in the front seat with my inverter, hahaha! What a true pain in the ass that would definitely be. I financed my new Gateway last year and love it, never a single problem with it either. I got the Solo 9550, which is way faster than the wifes desktop and has more RAM, memory and goodies by far. Both units were about the same price, but she got hers a year and a half earlier than mine. Price comes down and tech goes up fast.

I'm pretty happy with mine so far. I've just started playing with it despite having it virtually all summer (I was out of town). So far everything looks good, and functions properly. I did find out that there is a tight spot in my barrel somewhere close to the muzzle. I'll have to chronograph the loads to see approximately where it is.

I'm getting a secondary pressure spike that rises to anywhere between 20 and 30K psi. The load does shoot pretty nice though. When I get a chance to get out and do some more shooting I'll post a few plots. Right now, the range is loaded with people who want to sight their rifles in with no more than 1 shot, just so they "know where it's hittin". Hunting season starts on the 10th.

Turok

Well, I'm only about two weeks late to add something to this thread.

When you see those secondary pressure spikes, go with a faster powder or a heavier bullet.

We have one example (although it's almost unreadable) where a guy went with a heavier bullet. He got rid of the secondary spike and ended up with the same muzzle velocity as the lighter bullet. His load was also more accurate, but there are a lot of factors that could play into that due to the bullet weight change.

I've had good luck with going to a faster powder. The secondary spike goes away and I get a more accurate load.