GrayBeard,
let me ask you, as a handloader and shooter, i am sure that you have gotten one or more of these pressure signs with your brass at one time or another.
so, what have/ did you do, keep loading with the receipt you were using ? or back off the powder charge, or some of aspect of the receipt ? or something all together ?
the reason i ask is, short of actual test equipment, these signs ( or at least problem indicators ) is all we have, and if you choose to ignore them, what do we have ?
glenn
I do not make use of any such pressure signs in working up loads. I do agree with the comment that some things which happen are clear indicators things are going wrong but they are not necessarily an indication your powder charge is too high so back off it which is in effect what most are saying when using such indicators.
I once broke my own cardinal rule of never using reloads from another person and fired a .22 Hornet in my Browning LW cuz I knew the guy well and knew he had been using those loads in his own Hornet of another brand. That little case quite litterally came apart. I later found that Browning uses .223" not .224" barrels in their Hornets. Likely the load was safe in his gun but not in mine.
I'm also one of the few around here who have actually had a gun come from together to apart while I held it in my hands. Yup I exploded a TC Contender and survived it. Trust me it's NOT an experience you want to repeat.
I had a 7-30 Waters TC barrel once that flattened primers like crazy even with loads known to be well below safe pressure limits. Had I used primer condition as a loading decision maker I'd never have been able to work up a load for that barrel.
I had a pierced primer in a Wolfe factory load in a Remington 700 Varmint rifle. Part of it brought blood to my cheek and a piece lodged in the primer hole freezing up the action. I took it to a smith to be checked out and figure if I'd damaged it or what.
So yeah I've seen a lot of these so called indicators of pressure and no I do not use them in working up what I feel are safe loads in my guns. I use the book data. I have perhaps 50 or more loading manuals. I'll generally take out four to six when I begin working up a new load for a gun. I'll see what each says is max and minimum and will generally toss out the one or ones that vary too much from what the others say are safe.
I load up some and shoot them across my Oehler 33 Chrono for a velocity and uniformity check. I am searching for an accurate load not a max velocity load. If I need more velocity (which I never really feel I do) then I'll get a larger case to work with. I always STOP when I reach the velocity the books say is a safe max on average taking into consideration barrel length differences or when I reach the max powder charge the books agree I shouldn't exceed. If I reach that velocity they say is max fine and if I don't that too is fine. I'm looking for an accurate load not a max load.
Along the way to that accurate load over the years I've experience all sorts of supposed pressure indicators that told me I was at the max load for that powder/bullet/primer/case/gun. Long ago I used to worry about it and look for explanations. But really I've seen times when I went ahead and used the next higher load or two in the sequence in spite of it and not seen the pressure indicators with those higher loads that I did with the lower ones.
I just do not think they are reliable and can be depended on to keep you out of trouble. If you do then by all means feel free to keep on keeping on. I really don't give a rat's ass if you wish to blow up your guns or yourself if that's what makes you happy go for it. But I've had one blow up in my hands already so I just don't wanna be around you when it happens to you. Do whatever makes you happy I'm just trying to help prevent some others of you from having that experience I did of the gun coming apart in your hands when it goes off like I had happen once. It was not a fun experience and if it happens to you then you'll understand my caution and why I say that keeping on adding powder until you see those pressure signs is a recipe for disaster.
