Greetings, fellow Grendelers (Grendeliers?)...
This is my first post to the forum, and I hope to pick some your more experienced brains in regards to brass showing pressure signs.
I recently built a Grendel upper using a 16" Satern stainless barrel with matched bolt for a mid-length gas system, a Palmetto upper receiver, and a nickel boron coated bolt carrier. It ws finished off with a Viking 13" free-float handguard and a Stoner helical brake.
I bought a couple of boxes of the Hornady Match ammo with the 123 gn A-Maxes for function testing and to zero the scope. It shoots really well, especially being that the first range trip was on a day less than ideal for sighting in a rifle, with a brisk quartering wind over my right shoulder. It put all of the shots into less than 2" at 100 yards, with most of them being in an area less than 1" in diameter. Before taking the rifle to the range I made sure to thoroughly clean out the barrel and chamber.
But all of the brass is showing what I would consider to be signs of high pressure -- flat primer faces (but not flowing into the firing pin recess), an impression of the bolt face on the head of the case, including the ejector recess.
I then reloaded the empties with three different loads of W748, because it was a suitable powder that I had on hand -- 25.5, 26.5, and 27.5 gns. All of these loads showed similar pressure signs, but according to my sources, these loads are well below the max load for this powder, bullet and primer combination of 29.3 gns.
I guess my question is, am I overly concerned? I've been reloading for over 30 years, and admittedly, most of it is for fairly sedate cartridges, like .308, .30-06 and .45-70. I guess the highest-performing cartridge in my stable other than the Grendel would be the .223. I have 50 brand-new Hornady cases sitting on the bench ready to be filled, but I want to be sure of what I'm doing before I load them up.
Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom.
Tom Herbert
Attached is a pic of one of the case heads.
Grendel.jpg
This is my first post to the forum, and I hope to pick some your more experienced brains in regards to brass showing pressure signs.
I recently built a Grendel upper using a 16" Satern stainless barrel with matched bolt for a mid-length gas system, a Palmetto upper receiver, and a nickel boron coated bolt carrier. It ws finished off with a Viking 13" free-float handguard and a Stoner helical brake.
I bought a couple of boxes of the Hornady Match ammo with the 123 gn A-Maxes for function testing and to zero the scope. It shoots really well, especially being that the first range trip was on a day less than ideal for sighting in a rifle, with a brisk quartering wind over my right shoulder. It put all of the shots into less than 2" at 100 yards, with most of them being in an area less than 1" in diameter. Before taking the rifle to the range I made sure to thoroughly clean out the barrel and chamber.
But all of the brass is showing what I would consider to be signs of high pressure -- flat primer faces (but not flowing into the firing pin recess), an impression of the bolt face on the head of the case, including the ejector recess.
I then reloaded the empties with three different loads of W748, because it was a suitable powder that I had on hand -- 25.5, 26.5, and 27.5 gns. All of these loads showed similar pressure signs, but according to my sources, these loads are well below the max load for this powder, bullet and primer combination of 29.3 gns.
I guess my question is, am I overly concerned? I've been reloading for over 30 years, and admittedly, most of it is for fairly sedate cartridges, like .308, .30-06 and .45-70. I guess the highest-performing cartridge in my stable other than the Grendel would be the .223. I have 50 brand-new Hornady cases sitting on the bench ready to be filled, but I want to be sure of what I'm doing before I load them up.
Thanks in advance for any words of wisdom.
Tom Herbert
Attached is a pic of one of the case heads.
Grendel.jpg
Comment