Reloads causing soot on brass/bolt

[greenejc]

Hopefully someone can help me here. I'm reloading 270 Winchester reduced recoil loads with h4895. Ive noticed some loads are tight when closing the bolt, some are not. Last range session I had 2 not fire but had light firing pin marks. Today's session all loads fired but I noticed soot on the case all the way to the head and the bolt was sooty. Is this normal for h4895. Btw it's a tikka t3. Any advice is greatly appreciated. These loads all shoot sub moa 100

Your loads are too light. They don't have enough pressure to expand the case in the chamber properly. Increase your powder charge. You need to be really careful with light charges.

 

[oldpilot]

First off, do factory and reloads do the same?? Second does the soot/black stuff occur just around the neck or does it go down the neck unevenly? If the the latter my diagnosis is a defective chamber. I have experienced this with a number of makes, mostly bolt actions. A close friend brought me his custom rifle, which I scoped and then made a chamber mould. In each case it was a defective neck to shoulder. I also had another friend bring me his new 270 that was almost impossible to cycle after the first round. Mold sheared off mold metal as tapped out. All were replaced without hassle except for the custom gun.

 

[ajkellerusmc]

I have had sooty problems on a factory chamber with light loads of staball 6.5 behind a 123gr MK in the 6.5CM. the soot was uneven and some cases showed a lot and some almost none at all ( ie softer or harder brass in the case). Never had any soot issues in this rifle with any other homeloads or factory ammo.

 

[Highvoltage]

This rifle shoots all factory ammo perfectly fine, it's just the reduced recoil loads with the nickel brass that's the issue. The soot is very light and extended to just before the case head. I believe I have the issue remedied but won't get back to the range for awhile to verify. Once again thanks