A question ...........

[JSH]

I wouldn't ask but have, don't recall ever seeing any one ask this before. You don't suppose I invented somthing here.
I was playing with the K31 today, 16.0 of 2400 and an RG4 cast from WW with FWFL. After firing about a half dozen of these I noticed that the neck had a shine to them. It is lead that is smeared back to the junction of the shoulder, some worse than others. They were sized to .310+.
The lock up was not affected nor accuracy that I could tell either. I had never had this happen before and thought I would ask. I am guessing that the bullet is oversized enough it is swaging the lead and blowing it back as a fouling? Oh, no pressure signs of any kind used CCI primers.

Jeff

[waksupi]

Jeff, you might try a bit more powder. I don't believe there is enough pressure, to effectively seal the case mouth.

[LAH]

I agree.

[JDL]

JSH,
I have the same problem in a .30-30 load of 6 grains of Unique and a 311241 PB boolit. Little flakes of lead on the neck, almost like a lead foil, but hasn't caused any problems I've noticed, so far. -JDL

[chuebner]

I wouldn't ask but have, don't recall ever seeing any one ask this before. You don't suppose I invented somthing here.
I was playing with the K31 today, 16.0 of 2400 and an RG4 cast from WW with FWFL. After firing about a half dozen of these I noticed that the neck had a shine to them. It is lead that is smeared back to the junction of the shoulder, some worse than others.

Jeff

Jeff,

I use the same load of 16gr of 2400 or 12gr. of Unique with the Lee 160 to 200gr bullets along with Lyman 169 to 205gr bullets, all sized to .309 in my K31. The case necks have a little soot on them but I have never seen what you are experiencing. Are you gas checking your bullets? 16gr of 2400 with a Lyman 311299 bullet chronos at 1485fps on my buddies Oehler. That seems kid of slow to produce leading or lead blowback. I guess I'm just as stumped as you.

Charlie

[JSH]

It's not soot, but more as the described above as tin foil. I had some low pressure signs like sooting before, but annealing took care of that. But that was on the 284 brass and this batch was some of Graf's brass. Maybe an annealing would solve that problem.
The RG4 is dropping at over 200 grains and yes they are checked. I have been conservative on loads with this so far. Using 308 data for the most part and on the low end.
Also whilst on this subject. I would like to try some WC820 in them, but the stuff is a lot finer than 2400,"angel dust" as one gent called it. I keep all of my CB ammo boolit up so as not to contaminate a load. I am worried the WC820 is so fine it may get down in the flash hole and pack in there and cause problems. Any of you fellows have thoughts on this. I may drive anywhere from 25-125 miles to a match and not on smooth super highway roads for the most of it.
If you all deem it safe want to share a load of "angel dust" with me. I am planning on switching to the Harris 155 and or the RCBS 165 Sil. bullet

[versifier]

Just calm down and up your charge a little bit. If you were shooting jacketed bullets, what you would see in this situation is soot on the neck and shoulder. Maybe there was a little bit of shaved lead blown back, but the problem was that there was not enough pressure to properly obturate the case and seal the chamber. No big deal, just something to be aware of. We all are careful to watch for the signs of too high pressure in our reloads - this is the other side of the coin, a sign of too low pressure. Not enough of a "squib load" to risk lodging a bullet/boolit in the bore, but still lower than desirable for proper loading with the powder used. I don't believe there is any danger, but the pressures and velocities may be too inconsistant for predictable performance, and likely accuracy will suffer.

[Wayne Smith]

If he's actually getting lead deposited on the neck of his cartridges what does this say to what's happening to the bullet.

Are we hypothesizing gas cutting of an undersized bullet? Just where is this molten or gaseous lead coming from? Yeah, I agree about the low pressure, but wonder about the source of lead deposits.