Reloading - Shooting Incident
- Thread starter Ganderite
- Start date
- Location
- WMU248 near Edmonton
my experience with this has been with the 577-450 Martini Henry
its a huge case, and loading with smokeless is an adventure. You need a fairly fast powder, in my case I use IMR4227, but then you have a lot of case I think the original black powder load was 90grains of rifles powder #2. So I fill the case by putting 2 sheets of TP over the powder and use a magnum primer. I've fired about 500 of these rounds over the years and have not had a failure yet.
its a huge case, and loading with smokeless is an adventure. You need a fairly fast powder, in my case I use IMR4227, but then you have a lot of case I think the original black powder load was 90grains of rifles powder #2. So I fill the case by putting 2 sheets of TP over the powder and use a magnum primer. I've fired about 500 of these rounds over the years and have not had a failure yet.
Armored Metal
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- The People's Republik of Kébekistan
Thank you for sharing. Your posts are always educational and a pleasure to read.
Winchester-1897
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Newmarket,Ontario
marked for interest...……..
Cameron SS
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Ground Zero
Define ringed.
I fired over 3k wadded loads in various 30 cal/ .50bmg/ 14.5x114mm/ 20mm barrels with no observable issues.
If by ringed chamber you mean a chamber that over time shows excessive wear in the form of a ringed groove in the chamber around the case web area, I can imagine something like that if you are packing the powder very tight, and generating high case pressure in a small area of the case body. That would be hard to do by accident. Just a guess though. Never actually seen anything like it.
I use cotton balls to wad and 1/4 drift punch to push the cotton into the case until it contacts the powder. You aren't packing it tight, just pushing it in with enough friction to hold the powder in place when its tipped sideways.
In my life I've twice had the same experience with the partially burnt powder and the bullet stuck in the rifles throat. In both cases they were stout loads in the .45-70 using large charges of H-4198 and 405gr bullets. There would have been some air space, but not very much. They both happened in winter. After it happened the second time, I switched to magnum primers with this powder and have not had it happen since.
Chris.
Chris.
There was a very experienced schuetzen competitor named Charlie Dell who spent a lot of time and money to determine the reasons for chamber ringing. In the end he built a rife with a brass chamber insert as part of his research. He was able to ring the brass chamber 100% of the time by doing one of two things. First was a hard wad pressed down onto the powder to keep it tight against the primer. The second way was to fire the rifle vertically so that the powder was perfectly level in the case, and against the primer. Of course steel is different than brass, but ultimately he found the cause and the cure. You can read about it and many other interesting things in his ( very hard to find ) book called "The Modern Schuetzen Rifle".
Schuetzen competitors often use cases that were designed for black powder, but with small charges of fast burning powder. This makes some of them want to use wads. Those that have learned from Charlie Dell's experiments, if they use wads at all, will place them slightly above the powder charge ( maybe 0.1" ) to allow the powder to slump a bit in the case.
Chris.
358Rooster
CGN Regular
- Location
- Central Saskatchewan
So, what about ammunition that was loaded with cordite? Of the few that I have disassembled (303 Brit), I remember thinking that there was a lot of air space in the case. Now, I'm sure that was considered a full load and the burn characteristics of cordite must have accounted for all that space, but what would happen if a cartridge was missing even a stick or two?
Makes me wonder now how much trouble this old ammunition had back in the day. Or was it not so much of an issue, just due to the construction and placement / orientation of cordite within the case...?
Rooster
Makes me wonder now how much trouble this old ammunition had back in the day. Or was it not so much of an issue, just due to the construction and placement / orientation of cordite within the case...?
Rooster
There are very few people in this section that don't feel the same way even after reloading for years
Thanks Ganderite
I agree. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Ganderite's contribution to this forum, and reloaders in Canada as a whole is immeasurable and appreciated beyond comprehension.
This made me laugh out loud. My wife was like wtf is so funny???
