Poochy Primers

Looks like the burn rate is similar to 4831, much slower than varget. For 150gr bullet (I assume that what you have), hodgedon starts at 60gr and 2850fps. I think it is a bit too slow for 30-06. Your sticking out primers are most likely caused by the low pressure.

Back from the range... :) and delighted.

I was shooting 180 grain bullets.
It looks like I had a couple things going on but as for this post on the primers. They are still pooched at the max load for this powder and bullet at 2847 fps average. This powder does what it advertised. But the primers were not from too low of pressure. I will be updating a separate post about the powder on my findings. This powder was designed to run at high pressures for sure!
 
Sounds like you got better result near max. It is actually quite expected when using slow powder (I still think it is a bit too slow for 30-06, even with 180gr bullet). It doesn't burn consistently at low pressure.

Things in handloading are inter-related. It may not be easy to discuss one thing at a time. It is actually more confusing.

Primer is still protruding above flush, right? Brass still sooty? I would check head clearance with tape. You mentioned you located the sizing die setting for zero head clearance, and then went back in a few thousandths. How many thousandths and how did you set that?

-TL

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243Winxb wins! It was the bolt face!

the center of the bolt face is .0125 deepr than the edge of the face!

Thank you! :D
It doesn't sound kosher. 0.013" is quite a bit. So the brass head is not supported by the bolt face? How come the factory round doesn't have high primer? Does the brass head become convex?

-TL

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It doesn't sound kosher. 0.013" is quite a bit. So the brass head is not supported by the bolt face? How come the factory round doesn't have high primer? Does the brass head become convex?

I'm not sure why it's concave. I measured it repeatedly it is .013 difference from the center of the face to the edge. This gun is 30 years old but I am at odds to why as I never shot it that much really. Couple boxes a year until I got serious in my 30's and probably shot 3 boxes a year. Then last year I put around 400 through it. Another 80 over the last week.

Soft metal?
 
Now that I have searched for it I am finding that this is a common thing and they come from the factory with some concavity at least sometimes.
 
A 30 year old gun may benefit from a new firing pin spring.

Check firing pin protrusion. Its different between firearms. About .055" more or less.



If there is no gas leakage around the prime, i would not worry about it.
 
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A 30 year old gun may benefit from a new firing pin spring.

Check firing pin protrusion. Its different between firearms. About .055" more or less.

A guess, as i didnt see make & model of rifle.

If there is no gas leakage around the prime, i would not worry about it.

There isn't. And thank you! I can get a new one for $26. My lefty costs less for some reason. This is a Savage 110CL series J 30-06.
 
The primers seem to stick out about the same no matter what load I'm firing and appear on some factory Federal ammo that was high velocity as well. The factory ammo primers protrude about .003-.005". Is this enough to be worried about?

If the primer protrudes the case head did not seat against the face of the bolt.

And then the smith checked the length of the chamber and declared it 'tight'? And I wonder why he could not measure the length of the chamber in thousandths, he could have said the chamber was to- gage length, or no go-gage length or field reject length. And then there is minimum length, minimum length would be a tight chamber.

And then there are short chambers, I measure them all in thousandths.

F. Guffey
 
A 30 year old gun may benefit from a new firing pin spring.

The firing pin spring would have nothing to do with a protruding primer, it would have something to do with a hole in the primer. The primer conforms to the firing pin, when the spring does not have the ability to hold pressure, pressure inside the primer pushes the firing pin back. With little support from the spring a hole appears in the primer causing the hot high pressure metal cutting gas to cut the bolt face.

F. Guffey
 
That will be interesting to hear about. One way to cross-check the bolt face is to decap a fired case and draw it gently over a piece of sandpaper that is sitting on something flat, like a bit of scrap plate glass, to see if it marks the brass high in the center or all on one side. A full pressure load usually forms the head to its surface, insofar as far as it can.

Note that a standard headspace gauge would perch close to the perimeter of the bolt face, so a concave bolt face could, in effect, have excessive headspace at the center but not at the perimeter so the reading could still be good.

Changing the firing pin spring may have no bearing on your main symptom, but both Bart B. and Hummer 70, both of whom have been U.S. Palma team shooters (and Hummer 70 is a twice past U.S. Palma champion), recommend changing mainsprings every half dozen years or so to eliminate weakening from taking a set. This improves ignition consistency and makes lock time shorter and barrel time more consistent. In turn, the latter factor makes it easier for the gun to keep a sweet spot load performing consistently. So if you have the bolt apart anyway, it's a cheap thing to do easily. Also, there is some evidence that cryo-treated springs don't take as much of a set as an untreated spring, if you want to try that route.
 
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