Thread: Quickload ?

Greetings Frogfeatures,
I thought a few more notes might be of use to you. First congratulations on backing of to 23.5 grains rather than some of the hotter loads mentioned, hopefully it keeps you out of trouble. Winchester 92 and clone rifles fail in two ways, either at the breech or stretching the receiver possibly to the point of failure. There are two factors at work here. First is the chamber pressure usually expressed in pounds force per square inch and second the bolt thrust, the force transferred to the bolt from the case head. This is expressed in pounds force. US practice is to ignore force in the unit name but it is the correct unit. Chamber pressures for cartridges for the 92 run form 13,000 psi in the 44 WCF aka 44-40 to 40,000 psi for the .218 Bee. The Bee, 25-20 and .32-20 have a much smaller case diameter so there is more steel around the chamber to resist the pressure. Winchester also may have used stronger steel in rifles for this cartridge. With the 44 and 38 WCF there is less steel so pressures must be held lower. Bolt thrust is determined by both chamber pressure and case head diameter. The 44 WCF has a much larger diameter than the .218 Bee (also larger than the .44 Mag) so bolt thrust is higher at the same pressure or the same at lower pressure. The point of this ramble is to show that there are many factors in rifle strength and we go beyond published data at our own risk and peril.
Regards and take care Grandpamac.