Am I reading these pressure signs correctly?

[Thecrazedorganist]

Hi all. I am very new to reloading and think I am seeing some telltale signs of excessive pressure with a load, but I want to run it by you guys to be sure.

The load pictured here is a 100gr hard cast DEWC over 1.9 grains of Bullseye, seated flush with the case mouth, .32 Smith and Wesson Long Starline Brass, Federal Small Pistol primers. It was shot out of a .32 H&R Magnum Rough Rider by Heritage Manufacturing.
The cases were more difficult than usual to eject, the primers don't look quite right to me, and all are slightly bulged as you can see in the 2nd picture. Each case's charge was measured by hand and checked on my RCBS 5-0-5. Thanks for your help.

 

[Eb1]

What does the case head and rim look like?

 

[moxie]

I don't see any signs of overpressure. The bolt face seems a bit irregular and is leaving those marks on the primer. Do you usually see these marks? Might compare to factory ammo. Also, the firing pin is not centered perfectly, but that's no big deal. The firing pin strikes seem good and solid with no flowing. Press on.

 

[Sunray]

1.8 of Bullseye is max for a 98 grain HBWC. You'd use the same data for a 100 grain bullet. The 2 grains won't matter. Mind you, .1 over max isn't going to give you excessive pressures. You're still over max though. The ring around the dent is likely coming from the hammer.

 

[R.W.Dale]

If factory loaded revolver rounds for other cartridges generating 4x the pressure of 32s&w don't show "pressure signs" what makes you think even a 2x overpressure load for your round will?

This is the fallacy of reading brass.

 

[Thecrazedorganist]

Thanks for the quick replies, everyone! I'm off to work so further photos will have to wait. I'll definitely back off to the published load of 1.8gr. That extra little margin of error can't hurt! Krochus, I wondered that exact same thing myself, but I'm wondering exactly what I can watch for.

 

[Walkalong]

Those primers look flatter than my primers do in .32 S&W Long, and although primers are not a good way to judge pressure, I would back off a hair, despite being shot in a .32 Mag.

 

[ljnowell]

Those primers look flatter than my primers do in .32 S&W Long, and although primers are not a good way to judge pressure, I would back off a hair, despite being shot in a .32 Mag.

Thats kind of what I was thinking too, walkalong, glad you said it too.