I very much enjoy real HandLoading. In many ways I look at it as a Science. Now I am not talking about sitting down and loading 500-1000 45 ACP or other bulk loading….. that is Reloading, not HandLoading……… And yes, I do that too, and a Lot of it…. Sometimes after doing the Science it turns into a Loading job too………
No matter whether it is HandLoading Rifle or handgun, or just bulk loading, you whether you realize it or not, are dealing with PRESSURES. I seriously doubt that anyone that reads this has an Oehler Unit laying around that you take your ammo and test it before loading. You would have to be pretty damn serious about your ammo if you did. Still, you are relying on information gathered from somewhere, either your own test work, that can be done without such equipment, and or other sources such as a simple "reloading" or hand loading manual.
Pressure can be a total Mystery to us if we don't understand a little more about it and how some things work.
It took many years of doing pressures before I learned, there really is no help out there, what you will learn is from the books, manuals, and sources that may not be as reliable as you would like. Much of it you will have to learn on your own.
I started working with pressures back in 2003 I believe using a little known unit called Pressure Trace 1 from RSI. Using strain gages on regular rifles. Back in those days it was my belief that using a regular normal rifle for such things was actually better than having a special Pressure Trace gun done, with special barrels. Today I realize that I was correct in that, at least for our purposes. Regular rifles are not built to the same "TIGHT" specs a test barrel is. No two barrels are the same, you see that every day on the range, one shoot better, one faster, and what have you. Same with pressures. Perhaps if you were Hornady, or one of the larger manufacturers of bullets and components, a pressure gun makes sense, easy change out of barrels and so forth, but pressure barrels will only give you a start point, you are not using a pressure barrel out in the field, you are using real rifles and handguns.
Strain gages are extremely sensitive, they pick up everything, and you have to go through a really big learning curve to understand what you are actually seeing. I have a good example of this. The fellow that owns RSI is Jim Ristow. It was a major pain in the ass going through the learning curve, with very little help. Ristow really did not know as much as he thought he knew about pressures and his own unit. In the beginning I was running several rifles, 358 STA, 458 Lott, 458 Winchester, and several others in the early years. On many rifles I would get a incredible secondary peak, Primary or first peak would be normal, anything from say 60000 PSI or so, Secondary would go to 100000 PSI or more???? What in the world? Crazy. I did not know, did not like it, so one day I spent about 6 hours on the phone with Ristow about this. He went on and on about this or that, today I know now, he did not know anymore than I did about it.
Of course there was no such thing as having a secondary peak out there at 100000 PSI or more, in the end it was just electrical is all. The 358 STA was the worst at giving a large secondary, I decided to change the gage and redo it, and low and behold, the peak went away! Today, anytime I start getting that secondary peak, larger than primary, its nothing but a wire, or a gage or something such as that, nothing more.
Now, with that being said, sometimes there are actual secondary peaks, small ones that bump up as the bullet exits. This occurs with CERTAIN BULLETS most of the time. For instance, Hornady DGS and Swift A Frames have small secondary bumps at the end of the curve in most calibers. While other bullets in the same caliber do not. Strain gages are very very sensitive, and if you have the right software that you can see the curve and what it does, then you can learn a hell of a lot.
Here below you will see my friend Sam Rose, he is at the bench with a double rifle hooked up to a PT 1 Unit
I really had no idea in those early years just how damn good Pressure Trace 1 is, or WAS I might say. There is no more Pressure Trace 1 units available. Ristow is a decent software fellow, but hardware he is not. Some older fellow actually built Pressure Trace 1. Then he DIED! And everything about Pressure Trace 1 he took to the grave with him! Ristow had NOTHING after that, with the exception of spare parts and what few units were on the shelves! THE END. I had fired literally 1000s upon top of 1000s of rounds through Pressure Trace 1, and had sent it back several times to have small connection parts replaced, as they would loosen up, and start causing issues with reading the pressures, loose wires, connections, and so forth.
I did all the B&M work with PT 1. Starting from ZERO basically. There was nothing to go by, no known powders, pressures, and I also had to learn exactly how RUM and WSM brass worked to even study the brass. Using PT 1, and comparing brass measurements, and by listening to what the rifle said to you, how it reacted with bolt lift, I really started to believe more strongly in PT 1 and what it was telling me. Between PT 1, and the other indicators, I found everything was matching up very very close.
No matter whether it is HandLoading Rifle or handgun, or just bulk loading, you whether you realize it or not, are dealing with PRESSURES. I seriously doubt that anyone that reads this has an Oehler Unit laying around that you take your ammo and test it before loading. You would have to be pretty damn serious about your ammo if you did. Still, you are relying on information gathered from somewhere, either your own test work, that can be done without such equipment, and or other sources such as a simple "reloading" or hand loading manual.
Pressure can be a total Mystery to us if we don't understand a little more about it and how some things work.
It took many years of doing pressures before I learned, there really is no help out there, what you will learn is from the books, manuals, and sources that may not be as reliable as you would like. Much of it you will have to learn on your own.
I started working with pressures back in 2003 I believe using a little known unit called Pressure Trace 1 from RSI. Using strain gages on regular rifles. Back in those days it was my belief that using a regular normal rifle for such things was actually better than having a special Pressure Trace gun done, with special barrels. Today I realize that I was correct in that, at least for our purposes. Regular rifles are not built to the same "TIGHT" specs a test barrel is. No two barrels are the same, you see that every day on the range, one shoot better, one faster, and what have you. Same with pressures. Perhaps if you were Hornady, or one of the larger manufacturers of bullets and components, a pressure gun makes sense, easy change out of barrels and so forth, but pressure barrels will only give you a start point, you are not using a pressure barrel out in the field, you are using real rifles and handguns.
Strain gages are extremely sensitive, they pick up everything, and you have to go through a really big learning curve to understand what you are actually seeing. I have a good example of this. The fellow that owns RSI is Jim Ristow. It was a major pain in the ass going through the learning curve, with very little help. Ristow really did not know as much as he thought he knew about pressures and his own unit. In the beginning I was running several rifles, 358 STA, 458 Lott, 458 Winchester, and several others in the early years. On many rifles I would get a incredible secondary peak, Primary or first peak would be normal, anything from say 60000 PSI or so, Secondary would go to 100000 PSI or more???? What in the world? Crazy. I did not know, did not like it, so one day I spent about 6 hours on the phone with Ristow about this. He went on and on about this or that, today I know now, he did not know anymore than I did about it.
Of course there was no such thing as having a secondary peak out there at 100000 PSI or more, in the end it was just electrical is all. The 358 STA was the worst at giving a large secondary, I decided to change the gage and redo it, and low and behold, the peak went away! Today, anytime I start getting that secondary peak, larger than primary, its nothing but a wire, or a gage or something such as that, nothing more.
Now, with that being said, sometimes there are actual secondary peaks, small ones that bump up as the bullet exits. This occurs with CERTAIN BULLETS most of the time. For instance, Hornady DGS and Swift A Frames have small secondary bumps at the end of the curve in most calibers. While other bullets in the same caliber do not. Strain gages are very very sensitive, and if you have the right software that you can see the curve and what it does, then you can learn a hell of a lot.
Here below you will see my friend Sam Rose, he is at the bench with a double rifle hooked up to a PT 1 Unit
I really had no idea in those early years just how damn good Pressure Trace 1 is, or WAS I might say. There is no more Pressure Trace 1 units available. Ristow is a decent software fellow, but hardware he is not. Some older fellow actually built Pressure Trace 1. Then he DIED! And everything about Pressure Trace 1 he took to the grave with him! Ristow had NOTHING after that, with the exception of spare parts and what few units were on the shelves! THE END. I had fired literally 1000s upon top of 1000s of rounds through Pressure Trace 1, and had sent it back several times to have small connection parts replaced, as they would loosen up, and start causing issues with reading the pressures, loose wires, connections, and so forth.
I did all the B&M work with PT 1. Starting from ZERO basically. There was nothing to go by, no known powders, pressures, and I also had to learn exactly how RUM and WSM brass worked to even study the brass. Using PT 1, and comparing brass measurements, and by listening to what the rifle said to you, how it reacted with bolt lift, I really started to believe more strongly in PT 1 and what it was telling me. Between PT 1, and the other indicators, I found everything was matching up very very close.