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New (to me) Reloading Issue
Ambrose
Member Posts: 3,208 ✭✭✭✭
After 64 years of hand loading I thought nothing could be new. Obviously wrong!
In March, I'd put up a box of 6.5 Creedmore with 1 fired Fed. cases, CCI200 primer, AA4350 powder, & 129 gr. Hornady bullets. After shooting them a couple weeks ago, I sized them yesterday. 2 of the 20 cases, the decapping pin pushed out the anvil and the face of the primer leaving the "ring" in the pocket.
Comments
Maybe a burr in some of the p/p's? Sounds like it's time to get the p/p reamer out.
Those can be an absolute booger to remove, too.
ive had that happen. after thinking a couple of days on how to fix this i finally realized the best course of action was to just throw those cases away.
Seen many times with certain lots of Mil brass. One lot of 308 was so common, I trashed the whole lot. Never seen with uncrimped commercial stuff.
Salvaged the cases. As has been said, toss 'em would have been the economical thing. But in these times you can't just get more. I carefully & slowly ran a 13/64" (.203) drill until it just touched the flash hole. Then reamed the rest out with my pp uniformer.
I did check case weight and found no difference. The only difference is that I used a much lighter touch on the rest of the cases when I noticed the "ring" in the pocket.
BTW: As long as we are on the subject, I've found two loads that work pretty well in the Creedmore: This particular rifle (Ruger American w/box magazine--not rotary) 140 gr. Hornady spire; 42 gr. Reloader 17. Eight 5-shot groups average .97" @ 2707 fps.
I've shot forty 5-shot groups from five other rifles with a load of 140 gr. Sierra BT; 42.5 gr. H4350. The average 1.20" @ 2714.
When you consider that the original load that made the .30/06 "fame & fortune" was a 150 gr. bullet @ 2700, the Creedmore is not that far behind.
Decades ago, some gun scribe wrote a piece about "magic" velocities. He opined that in the .30-cal the two "perfectest" bullet speeds were 2400 and 2800 fps. Cartridges that churned up 2400 fps had bullets designed to expand but penetrate at that speed, and the same went for rounds that could achieve 2800. Try boosting either one to higher speeds only resulted in over-expansion or even bullet failure with the added problem of less penetration.
That was with bullet designs of the day, it must be granted. Cup and core with big exposed lead noses - often rounded.
But it is hard to argue with many decades of success and trainloads of dead deer. In either the .308 or .30-06, a 150 or 165-gr softpoint at 2800 fps is still a freezer filler. Up the bullet weight to 180 or even those ancient 220s somebody once called Blue Whistlers because of the acreage of lead on their noses and launch 'em at 2400 and you get the same result: DRT. Elmer Keith would nod approval.