Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Rifles that like to be pushed hard question.

Very true that each rifle is an individual. Some like max loads in order to shoot small groups, some don’t.

The business of staying at and not exceeding max pressures is fraught with uncertainty unless a pressure barrel is used. Pressure signs are quite unreliable, such as primer flattening, case head expansion (the late Bob Hagel’s favorite) and sticky bolt lift, are shots in the dark. Some are swamp gas (such as case head expansion), while others simply indicate excessive pressure (excessively flattened primers or sticky bolt lift). On the primer indication, I have many times encountered a load that was too hot (indicated by hard bolt lift and higher than book velocity) but whose fired primers gave no indication of too much pressure.

The closest without a pressure barrel is a chronograph and load data. Pressure and velocity run together, so a listed max (velocity) will roughly equate to max pressure. Not perfect, but as close as we get. The indicators simply don’t work very well.