Sooting AND Flattend/mushroomed primers??

[Sunray]

Flat primers are a sign of pressure. No mushrooms involved. Pierced is whole other thing.
Anyway, you need to work up the load for your rifle. Not pick one and hope.
24.8 grains of CFE 223 is below minimum for a jacketed lead core bullet. You're using data for a solid copper bullet.(24.7 to 27.4 Grs of CFE with a 55 Gr bullet is for a TSX)
According to Hodgdon, the start load for a 55 grain jacketed bullet and CFE223 is 26.0 up to a MAX of 27.8.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Yes

Classic sign of low pressure. Coupled with the sooty cases especially.

 

[Larryswn]

Sounds good fellas, thanks!

 

[redbullitt]

I have used 30 06 loadings with "too slow" of powders and gotten the primers to back out every shot. Pressure was clearly not an issue. Velocity was 2400ish I believe with a 150 or 165 bullet. Shot well enough and used up that powder, but always left raised primers. No issues otherwise.

Did not look anything like cratered or flattened or melted or pierced primers... just simply like they were not seated all the way. Kinda makes sense cause the load was not harsh enough to RESEAT them again after firing.

 

[Larryswn]

I have used 30 06 loadings with "too slow" of powders and gotten the primers to back out every shot. Pressure was clearly not an issue. Velocity was 2400ish I believe with a 150 or 165 bullet. Shot well enough and used up that powder, but always left raised primers. No issues otherwise.

Did not look anything like cratered or flattened or melted or pierced primers... just simply like they were not seated all the way. Kinda makes sense cause the load was not harsh enough to RESEAT them again after firing.

That seems to be the general consensus. Thanks, I learned something new. Funny, I read my reloading manual twice before I even bought anything. I'm starting to find out there's all kinds of things that aren't even mentioned in the book.

 

[Larryswn]

Make sure you not into the lands with your OAL. If so you can reach over pressure conditions at well below max, even at min.

The throat's too long, they wouldn't fit in the mag anyway. Not sure why it would be designed that way but I figured that out pretty quick. Thanks for the heads up

 

[Larryswn]

Update..............You guys were on the money! Just got back from trying out 50 rounds loaded to 27.4 grain (the max in the book) and I'll be damned, no soot at all and primers look like what I'm used to seeing in my factory stuff. I also noticed they were ejecting more aggressively as well. Also what I'm used to. Guess that's gonna be the ticket for this particular bullet. Thank you all very much. My primer concerns came from a video on youtube that was obviously misleading. Thanks for the help Gents

 

[Walkalong]

Excellent!

Not all U-Tube videos are correct in content, and not all U-Tube folks are good teachers, in other words, they don't always make things clear and concise, even when they are aces on the subject..

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Glad you got it all figured out.
There is a lot of experience on this board. We can usually put our heads together and come up with a solution.

God knows I relied heavily on the guys here when I started loading, and still do when I run into a problem.

 

[Bart B.]

Most bottleneck cases head spacing on their shoulder have their shoulder set back a thousandth inch or more from firing pin impact. While the primer is hard seated full into its pocket, it gets pushed out by rising pressure until it's against the bolt face. So, if there's not enough pressure to expand the case to chamber limits, the primer won't get pushed back in its pocket flush with the case head.

I've made tests with 308 Win and 30-06 ammo measuring case headspace and primer push-out past case head with incremental powder charge reductions. With both cartridges, primers started backing out when powder charges were about 10% below maximum. Further reduction of charge weight caused more primer backing out and more shoulder setback. Things get worse as case head clearance (space between bolt face and case when the primer detonates) gets bigger.

 

[Larryswn]

Most bottleneck cases head spacing on their shoulder have their shoulder set back a thousandth inch or more from firing pin impact. While the primer is hard seated full into its pocket, it gets pushed out by rising pressure until it's against the bolt face. So, if there's not enough pressure to expand the case to chamber limits, the primer won't get pushed back in its pocket flush with the case head.

I've made tests with 308 Win and 30-06 ammo measuring case headspace and primer push-out past case head with incremental powder charge reductions. With both cartridges, primers started backing out when powder charges were about 10% below maximum. Further reduction of charge weight caused more primer backing out and more shoulder setback. Things get worse as case head clearance (space between bolt face and case when the primer detonates) gets bigger.

 

[Larryswn]

Excellent!

Not all U-Tube videos are correct in content, and not all U-Tube folks are good teachers, in other words, they don't always make things clear and concise, even when they are aces on the subject..

Good point, I watch videos on something I am MUCH more familiar with and see the same thing, good explanation just missing the other end of the story.........