Pressure signs

[TheNewGuy]

Howdy. So I loaded up some rounds of .45 with 185 Hornady Xtp bullets, new Starline +P brass, and 5.9gr of Bullseye with CCi300 primers.

There were some differences in my books as to the recommended loads listed for using Bullseye and 185gr jacketed. For instance, Lyman 49th says "3.5 starting-6.0max" with an OAL of 1.175" and Lee 2nd Ed says, "6.4starting-6.7max" with an OAL of 1.275".

The 3.5gr load listed for Lyman seemed kind of low to me. I have already loaded a fair amount of 230gr lead loads under 4.0grs of Bullseye and often times I can glimpse the bullet in flight on its way to the 15yd target. I don't yet have a chronograph, but I'm guessing that if I can see the bullet in flight, it's moving fairly slow, for a bullet.

So, seeing how the Lee load gave me a cc # for my powder disk that threw it at 5.9grs and figuring that if I used the Lee OAL of 1.275" I probably wouldn't blow anything up, I loaded up a few.

Went to the range loaded first one in the Glock and "Bang". Seemed pretty stout, but not excessively so. I picked the shell off the floor and looked, primer wasn't flat, no weird bulges or anything that looked out of the ordinary to me. 20 more and no problems, decent group too. All of them a little over 3" @ 15yds, about the best I can do out of a 3.5" barrel anyways.

Went to load them up in the Colt, and they were a hair to long for the magazine, forcing me to fall back on trying to put a dent in the big box of lead I brought, Damn it...

I segregated the new shells from the mixed box of "bang... bang... bangbangbangbangbangbang" as my GF calls it, went home, took them out and used my fancy calipers to measure around the shell to see if the unsupported part of the chamber allowed the shell to expand slightly more in that area than on the sides. No difference, diameter was uniform all the way around.

I did notice something funny with the primer though. In the direct light from a side angle, there was a slightly raised impression of a rectangle around the slotted mark of the firing pin. It wasn't in sharp contrast, if you were looking at the base head-on it wasn't noticeable at all, but when you angled it and the light hit just right, there was an unmistakable impression of the hole the firing pin comes out of. Every spent primer had this mark.

So, is this a legitimate pressure sign? I mean, I realize that what is happening is happening as a result of high(er?) pressure, but is it along the lines of, "Hey Dummy, what the hell is wrong with you?" or more along the lines of just needing to switch to a primer with a slightly harder cup, or is this just normal and I'm giving more attention to it than I need to because of the discrepancy in the data I've read?

Here's a picture (hopefully). The light is hitting just right to make it as noticeable as possible. This is the one out of 21 that has it the most pronounced, and I still had to try five different angles to get it to show up in a picture.

Thanks.

[Markbb]

Primer looks O.K. to me.....I've been loading the Hornady with 6.6grn of bullseye and CCI primer..wanted the round to be alittle faster..and to ensure expansion...

[Doby45]

That is a standard "Glock" thing. The Glock firing pin resides in arectangular shaped hole and therefore places a slight rectangular impression on the primer. Nothing to be concerned with.

[80viking]

New Guy, unless you are really over loading your cartridges you'll never see signs of high pressure on the cases or the primers with standard handgun loads, only with magnum handgun loads can you use the ''classic pressure signs'', trust your reloading manuals for the standard handgun loads