Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer - Please Help

John - would you be so kind as to go down to the "Reloading Software" forum and check in on the "CUP to PSI" thread? Thanks.

I did.

Sounds like the same old stuff that's been argued ever since electronic pressure measurement became the standard for the industry.

The original post is interesting, because somebody's asking about how to correlate CUP and PSI so they can feed it into a computer program (QuickLoad) that provides pressure-simulations that often don't turn out to be all that accurate, for various reasons.

My reaction overall is that obviously (as Denton points out) there is indeed a pretty high level of correlation between CUP and PSI. But my other reaction is who cares, if the correlation merely gets fed into a computer program that introduces another level of variation?

I used QL quite a bit for a few years, but eventually drifted away. Even the directions say actual pressure-testing is preferable--or at least they did when I was still fooling with it.

So what kind of "help" are you asking for?

John, sorry, I still can't find your post in that thread. I am concerned about the "If the rifle doesn't blow up, you're good to go" statement.

I didn't post on the thread, I posted here.

I read something like, "If the rifle doesn't blow up, you're good to go" all the time on the Internet. This obviously isn't always true. In fact, one of the local long-range shooters had a .338 Lapua blow up a couple-three years ago, after he'd been pushing handloads hard for a while. He bragged that it was just one of those "special" barrels, which would take more powder than others. It blew up while he was at the local 1000-yard range with several other people. Luckily no one was hurt.

I found out about it because I know the barrel maker. He called one day, asking if I knew the guy, since he lives in my little town, and I said yes. Turned out the barrelmaker (who's based in the Southwest) had been getting a bunch of requests for his special barrels from my part of Montana. And all of a sudden they ceased!

Did he get banned from the range?
I certainly think he should have been!!

I saw that and just shook my head in total wonderment. It seems that even on here people feel the need to ignore published data and post loads that are 2-3 grains over for bullet and caliber. Seems there is nothing wrong with it.
So I posed the question of how many had the pleasure/displeasure however you look at it of having a handgun blow up in their hand. Not 1 would admit to it except me.
What I got was that’s BS. Problem is when I asked one poster How he thought Ruger got a blown up Blackhawk cylinder with 4 live rounds in it apart to repair it, Crickets.
Told another poster that Ruger stated that there was 22.5 grains of ball powder in the load so no warranty, again Crickets.
So I guess best practices are dead and overloads are the norm. Sad isn’t it.

I think there have always been hotrodders, and they haven't gone away. Modern metallurgy protects most of them. Heard of a fellow in my hometown, now deceased from natural causes, who often loaded till the bolt opened hard, then backed off a grain or two. Have been told a rubber mallet was always in his shooting bag so he could get the bolt open when he hit his "pressure sign." I don't know what his primers looked like.

I’m such a reloading noob. I just buy a rifle hat delivers the speed I want within published data. Amazing Rick lets me post here.

Talus, we need newbies to keep the reloading industry alive and well for all of us. I hope you enjoy it!
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The stupid never stops. Not long ago, a well-known brass scrounger at our range blew up an AR with his handloads in
pick-up cases. I occasionally pick up a case or two from obvious factory ammo for use in setting up my trimmer or seaters, but never for loading; you just don't know where it's been or what's been done to it. I'm as cheap as the next guy, but I'm not crazy.

While it may be true that you don't KNOW where range brass has been, when I watch the guy next to me open two new boxes of Hornady factory 7 Rem Mag and take every one of them just to get on paper at 100 yards, then drop all 40 in the brass bucket, those cases go home with me! I weight sort them with other same brand cases, then partial size them just enough for a slight resistance on bolt closure, and use the money I saved for other components. I scrounge big time, but I limit the scrounging to stuff I can see is once fired factory brass.
Never had a problem.
And, I'll say it for you..."yet."

Practicing Risk Management in Business and Pleasure,
Rex

One thing to keep in mind hot rodding loads,as erosion starts building in the throat,the pressure is going to increase too.What was once shootable one day may not be so once that happens.

Yep, as erosion begins pressures rise--probably due to the rougher throat.

It only starts to drop as erosion lengthens the throat considerably.

.02 for what it's worth? If one is frustrated by published load data they should consider inventing their own wildcat for which no data exists. Be a pioneer! Be bold! Make sure your insurance bills are paid. All of them.

The really silly part is that in many cases, pun inteneded, that extra three or four or five grains of powder only yields an extra forty or fifty fps, because the pressures are already up there, but the pressure really wakes up.

Getting my Oehler forty years ago was certainly an eye-opener.

Ted