Thread: Federal brass primer pockets??

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings Again,
I think I may have spotted the problem. Your barrel is 6 inches shorter than the test barrels so 25 to 30 fps loss per inch works out to 150 to 180 fps. Add this to your 2,850 feet per second yo are getting and we have 3,000 to 3,030 fps velocity in a 24 inch barrel. I couldn't find any data for 145 grain projectiles but a quick look for 140 grain projectiles showed no velocity above a little over 2,900 fps. The .270 Win (I am assuming it is not a WSM) is loaded pretty hot and you are hotter than that by a fair bit. Perhaps your chronograph is telling you something that you are not hearing.
Rick Jamison tested brass hardness in a recent issue of Handloader. He found that the Federal brass was about middle of the pack for hardness in both cartridges he tested. This does not mean you don't have a dud batch but there is the velocity.
A couple of other things occurred to me regarding the stretching. First are you full length sizing your new brass before the first load. If so please stop. If the case mouths are a little out of round all that is needed is is to run the expander button in and out of the neck to true it up. If the cases go in the chamber they don't need sizing which just increases the slop and stretching. Last do you full length your fired cases with the die hard down on the shell holder. If so you may wish to back the die of enough so there is the slightest resistance to chambering. This reduces case stretching and reduces the chance of head separations.
A friend had really good velocity from his 6.5 - 06 with no pressure signs. That is until he tried to reload his once fired cases. Not one would hold a primer. His velocity was approaching some .264 Rem Mag Loads. His velocity was above 3,000 fps with the 140 grain projectile. Sound familiar?
Regards Grandpamac.

Apologies for this armed hijack, I have a question related to the above: When laddering up to see what velocity a new powder ( superformance) will do, should I only use previously fired and neck sized cases or will using new un-fired Norma cases for load development when getting 'up there' to pressure loads be ok - accepting that they will stretch and need a trim ??