Im confused

[roo]

Quick back story. I have been reloading for about 8 months now. The first rifle I ever reloaded for is a 7.35x51 Carcano cavalry carbine. Due to some bolt issues I did not get a chance to fire my first reloads for several months. When I finally got all bolt problems taken care of I am off the range. Everything fired but all cases had high primers, sooty necks and case bodies and what seemed like a good portion of IMR 4064 spread out in the bore... I would do a quick swab of the bore after every shot. I assumed, at that time, I got a little heavy on the resizing lube and managed to get some in the case neck's, contaminating the powder. That would explain the soot, high primer's and unburned powder. Problem solved.

SO I thought.

I am a wax man now so when I went to the range today with the carbine I am confused as to why I have some IMR 4064 in the bore. Nothing like the first time around but still its there. Only 2 case's had slightly high primers and a handful of sooty case's. I had increased the powder by .2 from the first reloads and am assuming another .2 will solve the case expansion for good. The unburned powder is what is getting me.

I only use CCI LR primers and IMR 4064 is the only rifle powder I can get so every rifle I load for use those components. The primers for both times this happened came from the same box of 1000 but the powder was from 2 different runs. I don't think it is the reloading components. That and I have never seen this on anything else I load for. This is the only carbine I own so I have nothing else to compare to but, is it possible that because the barrel is so short, not all the powder is being consumed? I don't really believe that either but I am at a loss.

Any ideas or is this normal, don't worry about it.

Tanx
Roo

 

[Kart29]

I normally get high primers when shooting light loads. All rounds push the primer out of the pocket but good stout loads will subsequently stretch the brass back to the bolt face, thereby pushing the primer back into the pocket. Light loads don't stretch the brass as much and thereby leave the primers protruding a bit.

If anything, I would be concerned more about possible headspace issues in the rifle than anything to do with your reloads.

I don't know how much powder you are seeing in the bore but it is normal for me to see several flakes of unburned powder or ash in the barrel whether shooting factory cartridges - reloads, light loads, full power loads, any type of powder. I don't think I would worry about it unless there was some measurable amount of it.

Oh, also, light loads can lead to sooty necks. If the neck doesn't expand enough to completely seal you will get some soot on the neck. I wouldn't worry too much about that either. If these are light loads and you plan on working up closer to max charges you may see these conditions disappear.

 

[Broom_jm]

Sounds an awful lot like low-pressure loads, to me. Sooty cases and high primers are common indicators.

I seriously doubt sizing lube and contaminated powder was ever the problem. An increase of .2 of a grain of IMR4064, in a 7.35x51, is next to nothing. You might have that much variance in capacity, from case to case.

 

[Falkin88]

Like the others have said it sounds like a light load issue.

 

[BogWalker]

Perhaps you could post your load data?