Hoot wrote:I don't know the decision history as I was not around at the time. Hornady and Bushmaster
tweaked Tim's design just enough to make it inconvenient to make your own ammunition from spent .284 brass. Bless their hearts.
In practice, there is a slightly thicker wall in the .284 which reduces the case capacity a little. That results in higher pressure all else being equal when translating Hornady brass loads to Winchester. Drop back a grain and retest. If you use a hot small rifle primer like the Rem 7 1/2 (personal favorite), WSR, or GM205M, I doubt you'll see much performance change with a large rifle primer, given the fast powders (by rifle standards) we are using.Use the "search this forum" feature about 2 years back for a thorough discussion on the difference between the two brass.
Hoot
Dogsniper,
Hoot has it right here. Hand loading has a skill set, that requires the loader to always start at the lower pressures levels and work up, even if you are given a proven safe load. That's our job and safety is Our responsibility.
As you have noted, and where Hoot has expanded on, there will be some minor differences when using the Win 284 case and you must be ready for them, expect them, and react to those differences, in a safety conscious manor.
As too the decision to use a small rifle primer size.
There were two things that stuck out, Heads-Over-Heels.
First, the Match Guys have pretty well proven, for the most part, that small rifle primers, are the Primers to use, in most rifle cartridges, if accuracy is an important goal. Noticed, I said .."pretty well proven", this thesis, doesn't hold true for every Cartridge, bullet, load, and yes Primer, combination. However, one merely needs to shoot, our chosen poison, and the wisdom of that decision, comes immediately to the fore-front, and in Spades, I might add. I've told this story before, and this looks like a good place to repeat it..
.."In the early days, there was a camera crew from the Outdoors Channel and a Talking-Head, that recorded a Zero Inch, 100yd group, with the 450 Bushmaster/Hornady ammunition. All on Camera, as in verified and indeed they took the paper in and got the Zero Inch Group verified, using real Target Measuring Tools (I guessed it to be a three shot group, but from two individuals, one of which was actually there, as a witness, the other, who had only seen the program, both telling me it was a Five-Shot-Group). This being hard to believe, even for the Program Team, none the less, they finally declared the 450 Bushmaster, The-Most-Accurate-Rifle, in the world, and fellow reader, they did this, all on Camera"!!..
Second, the small rifle primer decision, was as a favor to us. The Small Rifle Primer Pocket, "
Greatly" increases, the strength of the Web area, Allot. Need I say more, about Safety Margins??
..t