Reloads smoking?!?!

JimKirk said:

While bullet length should be taken into consideration ... the more important factor is Bearing Surface(BS) of the bullet .... A short bullet can have a greater BS than a longer bullet and have greater impact on pressure than the difference of seating depth ...

So there is no cookie cutter approach to pressures relying just on bullet length ....

Click to expand...

The deeper the bullet sits within the case the less usable volume there is and the greater the pressure will be.

Personally, I don't agree that the bearing surface will have a greater effect, I'd be more concerned about the usable volume. Quickload estimates that the max pressure would differ by about 2 to 3 thousand PSI between the Hornady and Speer bullets.

Regardless, the point is that the Hornady bullets will produce more pressure than the Speer bullets using the same powder charge weight and COAL.

Last year while prepping for my trip to South Dakota for prairie dog hunting. I started loading up some test rounds for a RRA AR that I had borrowed from a friend to take along with me. I was going to use the 50 grain v max and some CFE 223 as I had bought 8 pounds for a decent price. Also using CCI 41 primers. I had bought a couple thousand mixed pieces of brass and had a few once fired from my own collection . Started with the commercial stuff to work up loads. I settled on 27.8 grains, within what hodgdon recommends on their website. I loaded a few hundred up in the military brass and went off to the range. First one out of the box blew the primer and had extractor marks on the casing. So I inspected the gun and loaded one more. Got the same result. Went home and pulled the rest. All within .1 grains . Only thing that changed was the brass. Backed off 1.5 grains for LC 10 brass and it ran great.

Busted primers can give very little indication other than a little smoke, I found that out. Check primers carefully to rule this out first. But with 24" of barrel or less I agree that more pressure should burn cleaner.

Personally, I don't agree that the bearing surface will have a greater effect

Click to expand...

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree ...

Regardless, the point is that the Hornady bullets will produce more pressure than the Speer bullets using the same powder charge weight and COAL.

Click to expand...

Have you actually pressure tested using pressure testing equipment two same weight bullets one having more bearing surface than the other ?