Adventures in headspace

[searcher]

You will find variations like that in new, same-brand brass from different machines/lots. Consider; I had a new barrel in .17 Hornet set up to absolute minimum headspace on factory Hornady ammo as I had a bunch of it to shoot up to get brass to reload. I get slightest "crush" on leaded factory ammo and almost an inability to close the bolt on factory Hornady unleaded from a different batch. I made the mistake of mixing up some of these and I ran into huge differences between the two when they were sized. They just don't act the same. The Hornet brass is too small to fit on my annealing machine so I just plan on keeping the lots separated and will cross the annealing bridge when I get there.

 

[Hohn]

how are you lubing the cases ? it seems to me like the more even the lube is on the case the more consistent the bump is.. could be some of your difference..

Cases are lubed with Hornady spray, allowed to dry, the distributed via gloved fingers like I was applying sizing wax. Very similar (if not identical) feel on the press while sizing. Die is a Forster FL.

 

[Hohn]

Just one firing will not ussually fill the brass out to the chamber uniformly so this can show up in resizing.

I can see that. However, these were some pretty warm loads, so I'd expect it to come very close. 23.8gr of 8208 with a 80 ELD at 2.423" (*do not duplicate this load in your rifle*)

 

[KY_Windage]

I can see that. However, these were some pretty warm loads, so I'd expect it to come very close. 23.8gr of 8208 with a 80 ELD at 2.423" (*do not duplicate this load in your rifle*)

23.8 gr of 8208 with an 80 gr bullet when Hodgdon says the max load is 21.0 gr? Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty warm load!