Reloads causing soot on brass/bolt

[milo-2]

Gas coming back at your face is never a good plan. The nickel plating may be the only think keeping your cases from collapsing some from the gas in your chamber.
If I needed to do this with what you have, I'd look into a forster bump bushing die, It does not FL size the case, just bumps, do a minimal bump, and a partial neck size never reducing a certain portion of the neck to keep it as large as possible.
It only takes a few rds gassing your chamber especially shoulder area to get a buildup in the chamber, you need to constantly clean it. The worse it gets, the less chance it will ever seal off.

 

[Highvoltage]

After listening to everyone and talking with my smith today I think the issue is the hardness of the nickel plated brass not expanding enough to create the seal. I'm going to look at either a much softer brass and bumping the charge up. Thanks for everyone's advice and best wishes!

 

[milo-2]

After listening to everyone and talking with my smith today I think the issue is the hardness of the nickel plated brass not expanding enough to create the seal. I'm going to look at either a much softer brass and bumping the charge up. Thanks for everyone's advice and best wishes!

I'm glad you researched this, when one pulls the trigger, crap needs to go out the barrel.

 

[aushunter1]

After listening to everyone and talking with my smith today I think the issue is the hardness of the nickel plated brass not expanding enough to create the seal. I'm going to look at either a much softer brass and bumping the charge up. Thanks for everyone's advice and best wishes!

Keep in mind some other things can also cause this like over sizing brass creating to much headspace & if you were having trouble closing your bolt on a loaded round the there is something else going on there as well!!

I have in limited quantities resized nickel plated brass & used it with no issue, in both .22-250 & .270win.

When you say reduced load for h4895, what is the load & the projectile weight your using & does it still fall into the safe minimum charge weight??

Also if you want a load that's a bit easier on the shoulder then consider a lower weight projectile, I have a 90gr Sierra HP load for my 270 that shoots like a pussycat compared to 130gr's!

 

[LVJ76]

Make sure your load meets the minimum load recommendations.

I've used nickel plated brass with no issues, neck sizing might also help.

 

[Highvoltage]

90 speer gold dot, Hodgdon rep recommended to start at 35, I started at 38 to make sure it was good. Both 39.6 and 40.4 shot 0.75 moa and both showed the traces of soot near the case head.

 

[RD57]

Reduced loads from H4895 can do that sooting issue because the pressure isn't enough to expand the brass to completely seal the chamber. I found Accurate 5744 powder the best powder for reduced loads. Extremely consistent pressure, very low extreme spreads and standard deviations.

A couple of my loads from my M70 270 Win Featherweight. Very close to 6.8 SPC velocity and energy with Sierra 110 grain spitzer or Nosler 110 Accubonds.
33.5 grains A5744, Win brass, Fed 210M primer, 3.221 OAL = 2765 fps, 5 shots, ES 11 fps, SD 6 fps, 0.33"@100 yards
31 grains A5744, Win brass, Fed 210M primer, 3.221 OAL, = 2677 fps, 5 shots, ES 1.8 fps, SD 1.3 fps, 0.5"@100 yards
The Sierra bullets hold together very well at those velocities and mushroom like a big game bullet.
No sooting on the brass at all. A5744 burns hot, so don't rush conduct rapid fire because you'll heat the barrel up fast.

Contact Accurate Powder for more load data, they are very willing to help with other cartridges and bullet weights.

 

[jrock]

Not sure why the cases wouldn't fit. You may want to get your measuring tools out see whats going on. I've had soot down most of the case body when working up low pressure loads. Its due to not enough pressure to seal the case the chamber. My encounters with it is shooting slow powders in small cases designed for faster burning powders.

 

[new2mud]

You aren't by chance shooting with a suppressor are you? They tend to increase carbon back to the chamber, but most notably in semi-autos.

 

[MNbogboy]

The FTF cartridges with the small dents in primers seem to indicate too short from base to shoulder. That might explain failure to fire and bolt closing easier than others. The loose fit on some and not others could be caused from state of anneal, amount of lube used in sizing, actual sizing technique or a combination of all three. Annealing nickel plated brass works fine. Switching to new brass will also help.
Checking the throat with a bore scope/camera will show any carbon build up or imperfection causing sealing problems. These carbon buildups will even cause regular pressure loads to "leak".
Trimming brass to minimum length will also add to the problem as well as improper outside neck turning. Thick, "hard" necks also don't seal well at low pressure.
Any or all of the above can be cause of poor neck seal. Add those to a light charge and sooting/leakage results along with exaggerated ES/SD.

A few things to look at.

 

[RD57]

Ramshot Customer Service <[email protected]>	Mon, Nov 4, 2019, 3:19 PM
to me

David,
Here is the requested load data that will work for you.

270 Winchester
Barrel: 24" ¦ Twist: 1-10" ¦ Primer: WIN WLR ¦ Bullet Diameter: 0.277"
Case: WIN ¦ Max Case Length: 2.540" ¦ Trim Length: 2.530"

Reduced loads:
Powder: Accurate – 5744®.
Bullet weight: 130 grains.
Low load: 20.7 grains (ca 1750 Fps)
Midrange load: 27.9 grains (ca 2125 Fps)
Maximum load: 35.0 grains (ca 2450 Fps)

 

[ajkellerusmc]

Sounds like to me your loads are so mild there not sealing the neck of the brass in your chamber and letting gases by.

reduced loads have made some of mine sooty.

 

[freddiej]

it sounds like your loads are under the 28,000 PSI threshold to seal the neck of your rounds. especially the 270 and some other thicker necked cases. I have this on my 270 when I was showing a few friend's kids how to shoot with my 270Win. and my 17 Rem with minimum charges.
I know that most everyone knows that this happens on the 30-30 with most every load since the 30-30 is a super low pressure cartridge. the pressures rarely get over 28,000 PSI.

 

[WC Shooter]

Sounds like you need to anneal your brass to soften it, than full length resized. Go to "YOUTUBE.COM" to see how. Good luck, reduced loads can be tricky.