Thread: Federal brass primer pockets??

I have Federal brass in 7mm Rem mag and 223 Rem thats been loaded over 15 times with no primer pocket loosening. Sure it could be a crap batch of brass you have but highly unlikely. Pressure is pressure is pressure. You are overloading, to stretch primer pockets you are well over max. Listen to the other posters here. Saying your not running a hot load wont change things. This is a reocurring theme on this forumn. We have all suffered from the velocity race and ended up destroying brass. All reloading books say approach max loads with caution not go to max and she'll be right.

Its a federal thing. When I had my 260 it came with several boxes of federal premium factory ammunition. Once I had used up some of that I began reloading, had to buy new brass because the primer pockets all felt extremely loose even when only once fired with the factory load

I use to reload federal .270 brass, and while I wouldn't say the primer pockets were loose, it was certainly very easy to seat primers into. My loads were almost always about a grain under book max. So could be a federal thing. However, 2850 fps from a 18" sounds pretty quick to me and probably high pressure.

So we may be looking at high(ish) pressure combined with loose(ish) federal 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 ??

just loaded up some 6.5 06 cases on the weekend the loads were doing 3100fps the primer pockets in these cases were fine but not federal brass

Hey grandpamac, awesome advice and certainly respected but Rambo here is not a new reloader and would have reloaded in the many many thousands of rounds before. For 100 + rifles. He’s runs a tight set up.

Only comment I'll make is velocity isn't everything.

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Only comment I'll make is velocity isn't everything.

If that were true we would all be driving Morris Minors

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

If that were true we would all be driving Morris Minors

Exactly

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

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 ??

Greetings Moa Hunter,
I think the important thing is to have cases that are all the same, not a mixture of new and fired brass. If you are neck sizing then once fired neck sized brass would be preferable when, as you suggest, you are getting to your top loads as these will be closest in capacity to what you are likely to be using in the field. One thing I suggest, and don't see mentioned often, is a robust search through the available manufacturers load data to get an understanding of what should be possible. With respect to Superformance Hodgdon states that the powder does not work with all cartridges but where it does it works very well. They offer load data for a number of cartridges on their web site but by no means all. Something to consider. Perhaps the cartridges they don't offer data for are not well suited for the powder.
Regards Grandpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings Moa Hunter,
I think the important thing is to have cases that are all the same, not a mixture of new and fired brass. If you are neck sizing then once fired neck sized brass would be preferable when, as you suggest, you are getting to your top loads as these will be closest in capacity to what you are likely to be using in the field. One thing I suggest, and don't see mentioned often, is a robust search through the available manufacturers load data to get an understanding of what should be possible. With respect to Superformance Hodgdon states that the powder does not work with all cartridges but where it does it works very well. They offer load data for a number of cartridges on their web site but by no means all. Something to consider. Perhaps the cartridges they don't offer data for are not well suited for the powder.
Regards Grandpamac.

Is the manufacturers data actual data or modeled ?? I understand what you mean though, a bit of study combined with a chrony should give an idea of what can be expected safely. Re the Superformance, apparently the powder sold to the public is the same burn rate that is used to load 3006 Factory SF loads and hence why it works well with other 06 derived cases.
And with regard to the OP, I am wondering if seating depth or primer choice is affecting chamber pressure and causing or at least contributing to the primer pocket issue ??

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

Only comment I'll make is velocity isn't everything.

Personally I find accuracy a tad more useful in my rifles over max speed

Originally Posted by northdude

Personally I find accuracy a tad more useful in my rifles over max speed

Im looking for both

Originally Posted by northdude

Personally I find accuracy a tad more useful in my rifles over max speed

Your only saying that while getting your blood pressure sorted

I wasn't looking for high blood pressure if I hadn't randomly got a check I'd still be none the wiser