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Gunsmithing Flattened Primers

dixieland26c

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jan 20, 2009
9
0
70
A friend of mine bought a new CVA single shot rifle with interchangeable barrels. It came with both Black Powder and a centerfire barrel chambered in .270.

He was naturally eager to try it out, and spent around 30 rounds of factory loads in it (some Winchester and some Hornady) and was complaining that it didn't seem to be doing anything consistently.

I looked the spent casings over and all of them had extremely flattened primers, a few showed signs of gas leakage and one had blown completely out. I told him to send it back, but I began wondering what was causing what looks very much to me like overpressure.

Could a short lead cause high enough pressure for this result? Headspace came to mind because of the break open action, but I don't know if it would cause these signatures. Is it plausible to think that the bore could be undersize due to tooling wear?

I know CVA has some blemishes on their reputation from some exploding black powder barrels in the 90's, but depending on who you believe, that might have been their loading suggestion in the manual.

dl26c
 
Re: Flattened Primers

I HAVE HAD FLATTENED PRIMERS AND VERY DIFFICULT TO EXTRACT ROUNDS OUT OF MY BENCH RIFLE IN 6.6X284.hERES MY SOLUTIONS.i BACKED OFF 5GRS OF POWDER FOR THREE SHOTS.i PURPOSELY LEFT THE SEATING DEPTH ALONE AT THIS TIME.i STILL GOT FLATTENED PRIMERS BUT THE BOLT OPERATED SMOOTH AGAIN.nEXT i FIRED THREE,SAME SEATING DEPTH WITH 3GRS LESS POWDER AND THE BULLET NOE 0.15 OFF THE LANDS AS OPPOSED TO TOUCHING THE LANDS.nO MORE FLAT PRIMERS.2880FPS.gRANTED THE HOLY GRIAL IS 3,000FPS IN THAT ROUND WITH 142GR SMK.BUT IT WAS A TRADE OFF.
 
Re: Flattened Primers

hey you better turn off caps these guys will yell at you. i know i use to do it also
 
Re: Flattened Primers

Sorry about the caps.Everybody rest easy.Headspace isn't a problem as long as you know you have it and reload to reflect the problem.