Today was a long, busy day testing. Since I wanted to see how many firings I could get out of one case, I was forced to pack up my reloading stuff and haul it up on the mountain. Its amazing how much stuff you need to make sure you have everything covered! I started by using a case that already had one full charge through it, full length sized it and trimmed to 1.950'. I chose 56 grains of RL26 behind a 147 ELDM with a F210 primer at a coal of 2.775". This is a fairly stiff PRS load at around 3030 fps. When I get to my private test site, I drop my F150 reloading bench down and c clamp my heavy duty bullet press to the tailgate. My plan was to load the same case as many times as necessary with this load until it was no longer able to hold a primer. I brought along a lb ea of RL26 and Retumbo as well as a couple of strips of F210's for my RCBS strip loader and plenty of 147 ELDM's. I fired the first round, measured everything including web expansion and case length stretching and full length sized , bumping the shoulder .002". I payed close attention to the amount of pressure, by feel, with my hand priming tool. The pocket loosened a little over the first 3 shots, and then seemed to settle in to a constant, still firm pressure. I chronographed the first 10-12 shots and found the average to be 3030, although later on as the sun hit me full force, I had loads that reached 3060'. The web stayed right at a fuzz under .552" after every shot and I had to trim the case after 11 firings. So far, no change whatsoever in any thing else, so I continue loading and shooting. When I got to 20 firings, I could detect no difference in primer pocket tension or any other problems whatsoever! The case loaded and extracted exactly as when I started. I decided that I would run out of bullets before I wore the case out and there seemed like no good reason to continue. AMAZING! Since I couldn't destroy the case with this load, I decided to really apply the pressure! I loaded up a separate case, that had fired 2 previous full power loads, with 58.5 grains. Yup, 2.5 grains over the last load. I torched this one off and rolled up 3168 on the magneto speed! Very little bolt lift increase and easy extraction with no witness marks on the case head. I measured the web expecting a jump in expansion only to find maybe a tenth increase. Ok, we'll try this one more time. I loaded another case up with 59.5 grains and light up the magspeed at 3215! close to a 50' increase just as usual with this powder. This time I finally feel some resistance on the bolt lift, but not that bad! The case head finally had a little extractor mark and the web jumped to about .5527" expansion. I took these 2 cases and punched the primers out, fully expecting to not have enough tension to hold the new primer, at least with the 3215 fps load. Amazingly, both primer pockets not only held the primer, they were SNUG!! I decided that this was plenty far enough to find out that these cases are TOUGH! In fact I can truthfully say that they are the toughest cases I have ever used. I don't recommend that anyone take this as a go ahead to run this kind of velocity. PLEASE DONT! I merely point this out to prove how extremely tough this brass is. Had the 3030' load showed more pressure than it did, I would never have jumped that much in the first place! Below are some pics that I hope will demonstrate the entire process and results.
There is good news and bad news here folks. The good news is that these cases are very consistent and will be give MANY, MANY, quality loads! The bad news is, these cases are so tough that I may not sell very many!
Something that comes up occasionally is the price per piece. These cases are custom and are not a shelf item so there is a pay to play factor. Down the road, I would expect the price to come down with more pieces being produced. Having said that, it doesn't take a computer to figure out that buying brands that cost $0.75 to $1.00 ea that wear out in 3-5 firings at much less pressure than this, vs $2.50 for cases that will run higher pressure/more velocity, and last XXXX times longer, is a bargain! Also, the consistency in these cases is VERY impressive, so accuracy is no doubt going to be as well. Now to get the tooling in to thin the necks down for a production run! I can promise that you guys who have ordered this brass will be very impressed!
Just remembered that my good friend Ray, this forum, did some high tech testing of this brass with a machine that measures in microns! I won't bore you with all the measurements, but suffice it to say that the tolerances are outstanding which shows up in every area of testing!
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