JetMech
posted this
24 September 2009
beltfed wrote: There should be no problem with ringing if the wad is against the base of the bullet and there is some air space between the wad and the powder column, which, of course will level itself against the wad when the rifle is loaded and horizontal.
Anyways, it is indeed important to accuracy with BP to have 100% or greater(compresssed) loading density.
beltfed/arnie
You might be right, and then you might not. Airspace between the powder and the wad caused 48 case splits on my first attempt at BP shooting, I believe. I had followed the conventional wisdom and loaded 50 rounds of 45-70 for my Browning BPCR. Loads were Winchester case , primers were Federal 215M, powder Goex 2X drop-tubed, charge weight around 58gns, if I remember correctly. This was measured and calculated to give me around .020 compression when I seated a .030 wad under a Lyman 525gn Postell. Off to the range I went. 30 miles, mostly highway until the last 2 miles, which were washboard gravel. 50 rounds went down range, each case carefully inspected (I thought). Groups were ho-hum at best, but then I was more concerned with bench technique, blow-tube, etc. When I got home and cleaned everything, 48 cases were split, circumferentially, 10-50%, right where the base of the bullet or wad were seated. Not quite sure what was going on, I loaded 50 new cases, 10 each the starting load and upping the charge 2gn for each successive 10 rounds. All rounds, after loading, were inspected and shaken a little to see if I could here if there was any air space. Everything seemed fine. Next week, off to the range I went. When I got there, I checked every round again and low and behold, the 58 gn rounds now had airspace. Assuming the rough travel had caused the powder to break up slighly and settle, I took them home and, using a collet puller, pulled the bullets. Shaking the round, I could still here powder rattling around under the wad. The rifle was fine, no chamber ringing and after upping the powder charge, I have not had any problem. Go figure. The only conclusion I could come up with was airspace between the charge and wad. The only other way a problem could be caused would be the magnum primer starting the bullet forward until it contacted the rifling, before the main charge was fully ignited, but the location of the splits indicated the bullet had not moved when the case split.