Thread: "Air space" in 303 British and 308 Winchester caseloads...Dangerous?

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

BA....Boom definate pause between them....really made a fella flinch something aweful.

Greetings Micky,
I find your description of the Ba...Boom sound quite interesting. Setting aside any discussions about SEE and it's acronyms it sounds to me that you may have had a delayed ignition. I have seen this described as a pressure spike in a series of identical loads. This seems to happen in well worn barrels with slow powder. The theory is that the cap goes bang and the powder takes a wee while to get going. In the mean time the projectile has entered the worn throat and slows down just as the pressure rises causing a pressure spike. About 20 years ago loads for the .243 Win and 7mm Rem Mag and some others were reduced after the introduction of electronic pressure testing equipment. The new equipment showed pressure spikes that the old copper crusher test equipment could not detect. Both these cartridges are noted barrel burners sometimes blamed on their short necks. Thought you might be interested.
Regards Grandpamac.

Cannot remember without reading back but wasn't it a reasonable load of ball powder?