Understanding Pressure

[orkan]

http://www.primalrights.com/application/files/7314/6879/4219/fLOJQjJ.jpg (http://www.primalrights.com/articles/understanding-pressure)

Primal Rights, Inc - Understanding Pressure (http://www.primalrights.com/articles/understanding-pressure)

Reading pressure is a required skill that all shooters must have.
Whether you are shooting factory ammunition or your own handloads, you absolutely must be able to detect and interpret pressure signs on your fired brass. Rifles can encounter pressure problems for a wide number of reasons. Excessive fouling, extremely hot environmental conditions, uniformity problems with components, lubrication finding its way into your chamber, or even a surprise rain storm can all lead to a condition which will produce unsafe pressures. When these pressure spikes occur, severe damage to your firearm may result. This can lead to serious injury or even be fatal. As a responsible shooter you must understand the conditions that can cause unsafe pressure. If you understand some of the most common causes, then you will be better equipped to avoid them before they become dangerous to you or others around you. In this article we will discuss the causes of pressure, as well as how to read that pressure on our fired brass. We will go into detail on what those pressure signs look like with some high resolution photo's that spare no bandwidth!

Just finished up an article that should help people gain a better understanding of the pressure at play in their firearms.

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to your comments!

[P2000]

Great, informative article, and very helpful pictures.

One question:
Regarding the 6.5 CM examples, Hodgdon publishes 40gr as max for H4350, and Nosler publishes 41gr. In the article you start at 41gr and say it is a relatively mild load in most rifles. I'm curious about the discrepancy. Is going over max published common?

[orkan]

Yes it is quite common to find loads above "book" max. The factory hornady load is right around 42.5gr.

[snowdog650]

That is outstanding. Thank you, Greg.

[Marlin 795]

Not gonna lie, white text on a black background made me exit immediately, and I normally will sit and read just about anything on these forums.

[P2000]

Not gonna lie, white text on a black background made me exit immediately, and I normally will sit and read just about anything on these forums.
This bothers my eyes too, to the point of migraine. My trick is to highlite the text.

[Straight Shooter]

That was a lot of superb info, thank you!
Would you address the question I & others were wondering about in another thread on the issue of why we don't see rifle ammo with aluminum cases, like the Blazer AL pistol ammo? Always wondered why there is none.

[orkan]

That was a lot of superb info, thank you!
Would you address the question I & others were wondering about in another thread on the issue of why we don't see rifle ammo with aluminum cases, like the Blazer AL pistol ammo? Always wondered why there is none. I have very limited experience in metallurgy, and what experience I have is basically only concerning rifle brass. ;) I would speculate that given my experiences with aluminum cased ammo, it is much harder to gain the "hard, yet soft" properties of brass when working with aluminum.

[JW5219]

That is outstanding. Thank you, Greg.

+1 Outstanding! Thanks for posting that.............

[dobe]

http://www.primalrights.com/application/files/7314/6879/4219/fLOJQjJ.jpg (http://www.primalrights.com/articles/understanding-pressure)

Primal Rights, Inc - Understanding Pressure (http://www.primalrights.com/articles/understanding-pressure)

Reading pressure is a required skill that all shooters must have.
Whether you are shooting factory ammunition or your own handloads, you absolutely must be able to detect and interpret pressure signs on your fired brass. Rifles can encounter pressure problems for a wide number of reasons. Excessive fouling, extremely hot environmental conditions, uniformity problems with components, lubrication finding its way into your chamber, or even a surprise rain storm can all lead to a condition which will produce unsafe pressures. When these pressure spikes occur, severe damage to your firearm may result. This can lead to serious injury or even be fatal. As a responsible shooter you must understand the conditions that can cause unsafe pressure. If you understand some of the most common causes, then you will be better equipped to avoid them before they become dangerous to you or others around you. In this article we will discuss the causes of pressure, as well as how to read that pressure on our fired brass. We will go into detail on what those pressure signs look like with some high resolution photo's that spare no bandwidth!

Just finished up an article that should help people gain a better understanding of the pressure at play in their firearms.

Let me know if you have any questions and I look forward to your comments!

Great read.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[wilson1911]

Great, informative article, and very helpful pictures.

One question:
Regarding the 6.5 CM examples, Hodgdon publishes 40gr as max for H4350, and Nosler publishes 41gr. In the article you start at 41gr and say it is a relatively mild load in most rifles. I'm curious about the discrepancy. Is going over max published common?

Most of us run right at 41-42 grains of H4350(42.1gr for mine). Manuals are only guide lines. Some of the savages and rugers will not hold that much without pressure signs. The mid node usually runs about ~2750 fps. The RPR will run slower, but once you step up to a LRI barrel speed picks back up since most order a 26" barrel.

Hornady currently uses non canister grade powder for their match ammo.

Reloading is more about finding a node for accuracy, than throwing more powder to it. Rarely does an article cover every aspect of pressure, this one does it very well.

[markm]

I wonder how the NAS3 Shock casings in this thread https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?186287-NAS3-Shell-Shock-Casings-Finally-Available! play into this topic.

Specifically in regards to bolt thrust.

[Bimmer]

Not gonna lie, white text on a black background made me exit immediately...

Me, too.

This is unreadable to me.

How about fixing it?