Any help is appreciated- thought that i was working up my loads for my freedom arms 454 methodically with a chrono and caution but i have been kind of confused by results i obtained this last weekend-- i have worked up to a fairly hot load that was very accurate- 1680fps ,335gr cast performance WLNGC bullets over 30.0gr 296 lit with cci 450 primers---the deviation was 5.00, i can consistantly shoot 2 inch groups with this load and felt it would be my choice for elk and deer this season. the only signs of pressure that i noticed was that i required the ejector rod todrop the cases from the cylinder-- not much -just a push.
well, i had a wild hair and decided to go to 31 gr to see if that was pushing things along and perhaps shrink the 2 inches down (altho thats probably me! im sure this pistol shoots much better than i.)i got a vertical string about 4 inches long on center at 1740 fps, sd of 6.78, but i was floored when i ejected the empties i merely tipped the muzzle up and they slid out on their own- bright and shiny- every one i fired! how is this possible? could the crimp do this? i crimp as a separate operation when i load, and use a pretty substancial crimp- just useing the rcbs seating die with the seater plug removed- the lower velocity loads had a deeper crimp--- can anyone shed light on this for me? when i saw the group and the sd i was planning on staying where i was but the fact that the pressure seemed to be lower has me wondering what to do.
well, i had a wild hair and decided to go to 31 gr to see if that was pushing things along and perhaps shrink the 2 inches down (altho thats probably me! im sure this pistol shoots much better than i.)i got a vertical string about 4 inches long on center at 1740 fps, sd of 6.78, but i was floored when i ejected the empties i merely tipped the muzzle up and they slid out on their own- bright and shiny- every one i fired! how is this possible? could the crimp do this? i crimp as a separate operation when i load, and use a pretty substancial crimp- just useing the rcbs seating die with the seater plug removed- the lower velocity loads had a deeper crimp--- can anyone shed light on this for me? when i saw the group and the sd i was planning on staying where i was but the fact that the pressure seemed to be lower has me wondering what to do.