Help needed, i reloaded according to my manual. but doesn't seem right.

[The Cold Lake Kid]

My bad. I'll blame it on the bi-focals. LOL

 

[Andy]

There are a couple of things not yet mentioned:

- not all brass is the same. Between brands, the capacity can easily vary by 5%. What's compressed in one brand can be less than full in another; and
- the loading manual didn't say "compressed", but how do you know it is? Maybe it's just full or close to full. The "shake test" is not foolproof.

There are an enormous number of variables that determine the pressure of a round: the load; seating depth; powder lot; temperature; and the rifle itself to name just a few. The people who create load manuals know that and yet are confident that their loads will be safe.

 

[Ganderite]

i would suggest to work up the load and not randomly pick 26.4 as your starting load.
load 3 or 5 rounds starting at the low end and shoot some groups, get some trigger time and inspect each round after you shoot it starting with the obvious very light loads.
this will also help you learn what to look for in low pressure Vs high pressure signs in your rifle.

you may notice that the low pressure empty brass look more "dirty" since may not have full expansion to seal the gasses blowing around the brass for example.

^^^ Yes, because each rifle is different and working up might show a real accuracy improvement at a particlar load.