Peterson blemish brass

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tomapleleafss

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Anyone have any experience with Peterson blemished brass, particularly 6.5 Creedmoor? Bought some (almost half the regular price) and was told it was blem due to water staining. I cannot get any consistency with muzzle velocity. Usually do the Scatterlee load development but do two rounds of each powder charge. Tried 3 different powders, 2, different primers, and 0x vs 1x fired brass. Never had any problems with Hornady brass. Thought I might have had something but after a 20 round but got an ES of 40 and SD of 13.
 
Hey, can you provide a little more info on your process and loading setup? Also, some information about what you mean by inconsistent velocities would be helpful? Are we talking 10fps or 100fps?

I did a cursory search about the Satterlee method and don’t see anything that would necessarily give you inconsistent velocities. That being said, the video I watched called for one or two shot strings. For my money, that’s a pretty thin sample. I tend to do three shot strings at a minimum. There isn’t a perfect number of shots per string, but the more shots in a string allows for greater certainty with regard to averages. The cost is, of course, firing more shots that aren’t useful loads. Personally, I’d rather shoot longer strings because I like to see more data, I love reloading, and I want to rule out outliers.

The inconsistency you’re experiencing may come from a host of sources, but probably not from your water stained brass. I suspect that the most likely culprits are from measuring error in your powder charge and chronograph which manifest as inconsistencies in muzzle velocity.

What are you using to measure powder and muzzle velocity?

tomapleleafss said:
Anyone have any experience with Peterson blemished brass, particularly 6.5 Creedmoor? Bought some (almost half the regular price) and was told it was blem due to water staining. I cannot get any consistency with muzzle velocity. Usually do the Scatterlee load development but do two rounds of each powder charge. Tried 3 different powders, 2, different primers, and 0x vs 1x fired brass. Never had any problems with Hornady brass. Thought I might have had something but after a 20 round but got an ES of 40 and SD of 13.
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tomapleleafss said:
Anyone have any experience with Peterson blemished brass, particularly 6.5 Creedmoor? Bought some (almost half the regular price) and was told it was blem due to water staining. I cannot get any consistency with muzzle velocity. Usually do the Scatterlee load development but do two rounds of each powder charge. Tried 3 different powders, 2, different primers, and 0x vs 1x fired brass. Never had any problems with Hornady brass. Thought I might have had something but after a 20 round but got an ES of 40 and SD of 13.
Click to expand...

Did you have accuracy in this rifle before the Peterson brass with a different brand OR ? RJ
 
I think I have a pretty solid system of reloading. Always had very little problems getting to 10 ES and 5 SD standard. Only have ever used Hornady brass. The only difference with the Peterson is I never turned the outside necks.

I usually start to reload with a couple of powders, 0.2 gr difference, load 0.020” from jam, 2 rounds each and I find where I get consistent velocity across 2 to 3 sets of rounds, i take the middle of that. I’ll then adjust seating depth by 0.003” lower (3 rounds each) and shoot till I get at least 2, preferably 3 groups in a row where I am hovering around 0.5moa.

Right now, I have a hard time getting two rounds with the same load to be close to themselves (sometimes a difference of 30 FPS). I had 6 rounds with 41.2 gr of H4350 in 1x fired that looked good (right around 2815) but then shot 20 and it turned to crap. I use Redding Big Boss 2, Redding Type S dies (0.290”), Redding balance beam scale (Gempro died and waiting for a replacement), and I use a Labradar to measure velocities. I have never sorted my brass by weight or volume. My hunting round using Hornady brass and ELDX has an ES of 7.

The other thing is I have not changed bullets (SMK, 142 gr). My thinking is these bullets have always shot excellent even with different loads in my rifle (PVA John Hancock). I also have lots so I really don’t want to explore others if I don’t have to. Maybe that is it. I do have a few ELDM that I am going to try. But even doing load development with other rifles muzzle velocity difference were never like this (even using different bullets). Eric Cortina says velocity differences are a result of brass, powder, or primers, not bullets (bullets affect group size).
 
Check for neck clearance wrt to your chamber - bullet should fall easily into fired cases... if not, then thin necks to create necessary clearance.
Work up the load tuning as the case volume is different in Peterson vs Hrn
I like CCI 200 primers for H4350
bullet is fine... powder is fine.
I would start at 39.6gr and work up towards 41.8gr in 0.2gr increments and see if you can locate the node.

Brass I am using has shot just fine... 22 Creedmoor. Feedback from others so far has been positive.

Jerry
 
If you think the brass is the culprit, now that its fireform to your chamber, clean, size and trim each case identically. Now, since the outside dimensions are the same, the only difference should be internal dimensions. You can check internal volume by water weight, or simply weigh each piece of brass - difference in weight should provide a glimpse into varying internal capacity.
 
Thanks Jerry, I’ll look at that when I get home. I think I have one package of CCI 200 to boot. I have tried both 210m and BR-2.

I thought about checking volumes but I only have the balance beam scale right now. If Jerry’s suggestions don’t pan out I’ll try to borrow one and check a few.
 
tomapleleafss said:
Thanks Jerry, I’ll look at that when I get home. I think I have one package of CCI 200 to boot. I have tried both 210m and BR-2.

I thought about checking volumes but I only have the balance beam scale right now. If Jerry’s suggestions don’t pan out I’ll try to borrow one and check a few.
Click to expand...

Easiest/fastest way to check volume is to fill a fired case with a very fine powder like a Win 760 or even salt. Tap the case to ensure it is well compacted, dump into the next case. As long as the powder column is within 1/16" or 2mm of the case neck height, call them the same.

I would be very surprised if case volume varied. Check neck clearance as that is more often the hiccup.

Once the cases are fireformed, loads tend to be more consistent as well.

Good luck.

Jerry
 
I was able to check the necks and the clearance seemed fine. There seems a very slight rub but the bullets do fall under their own weight. I also checked my 5x Hornady and it seemed to be the same. I do have some CCI 200s that I am going to try next, as well as your salt trick. I may also trim 10 or so 1x fired pieces and see what I get.
 
Checked case volume with the salt (thanks for the tip on that Jerry) and it seems pretty close. Interesting I took some 1X fired brass and compared the volume with the 0X fired brass. You can definitly see the difference. Then took the volume of 1X Peterson brass and dumped it into a 5X Hornady and you could very easily tell the Hornady has a larger case voume than the Peterson.

Didn't have time to reload tonight. Hopefully get to it tomorrow. Supposed to be getting cold in a few days, need to get it done before that.
 
I think I may have found my issue. MY Gempro recently died and while waiting for a replacement I picked up a Redding No 2 scale (should never fail). With my last round of loads I spent some re-weighing loads and found some discrepancies. Not huge but probably enough to throw a round off by 10 to 15 fps. I rejigged my approach and procedure, and now was getting exact same results when I re-weighed them. I got way better results on the chrono. Still a bit of tweaking to do, but I think I will have something soon enough.

I never mentioned it but probably should have, the Gempro died while the Peterson brass was being shipped. I started off with new brass and a new scale to boot.
 
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