Bullet deformation while seating

[Lunchbox27]

I ordered up some Alpha brass (6.5 CM) just for shits and grins. I have been running Hornady for years without issue, but was looking for something a little more consistent and possibly longer case life. I'm very impressed with the quality of this brass and in no way do I think it is the culprit here. After prepping it last night for it's first loading, I began to throw charges and seat bullets.

So... My load prior to this was 42.4 grains of RL16 in a Hornady case topped with the 140 ELD-M. I did some initial testing just to see what case capacity would look like and there was no way my old charge would fit in this case (it was to the neck) but I already knew that Alpha brass was thicker, so no big deal as I planned to reduce and start over anyways.

I reduced my load by 7% and decide to start at an even 39.0 grains. All was going well until I noticed the 39.6 grain charge was leaving the bullet deformed. Not a ring, but an indentation around the ogive (or close to it) that easily was felt by touch. I can hear a slight crunch while seating, but there is still a decent amount of loose powder in the case. I feel like my old load was more compressed than this and didn't leave the bullets with this.

-Neck tension is 3 thou. Brass is 0.288, loaded round is 0.291
-Brass was chamfered and deburred
-Redding comp seating die w/ standard stem (same die I've always used)

I've seen others running charges over 40 grains with the ELD-M with no complaints of the bullet getting crushed.

The two options I've come up with are...

1. Switch to the VLD stem that Redding offers. It's possible that the current stem isn't working with the ELD-M. However a compressed load has to give some where so it's possible that won't even resolve the issue or it might show itself again as the charge increases.

2. Drop the charge down even further so the load isn't compressed. Say, start at 38.0? but at this point how much velocity am I giving up?

Thoughts?

 

[Lynn Jr]

When switching to different b brass you see this alot.
Case volume determines the powder charge so your load will need to worked up again.
If you weight sort your brass you can often times see the difference before you start reloading and make adjustment.

300 Weatherby brass will weigh 212-220 grains while RWS brass will start at 296 grains.
Drop your charge weight and look for the same velocity with the new brass and you should be fine

 

[Lunchbox27]

Sounds good. I thought I went low enough with 7%, but I'll drop lower and work back up. Thanks for the response.

 

[Unknown]

As brass gets thicker, the room inside the cartridge case is reduced, so in essence, anyone reloading the same volume of powder into a thicker case will be burning the powder in a smaller space, hence greater pressure.

A member of the USA Palma team was telling me that he weighs all his brass, and bullets, even if they are from the same manufacturer as there are subtle differences in weight. He mates up the heavy bullets with the lighter cases, and lighter bullets with heavier cases in his attempt to balance things out. Even if all his bullets are 150 grain 30 caliber, he still weighs them and finds variations of .1 grains or more that he feels is worth sorting.

He is way more picky about reloading than I am, as he even measures bearing surface on bullets coming from the same lot as he believes that more bearing surface causes more friction, hence more pressure... I'm content with buying the best bullets and brass I can, trickling each charge, and going with that.