1. The dangerous animals had not been hunted extensively and would have been easier to approach in those bygone days. Read WDM Bell's stories of him shooting at close quarters in Karamojo.
2. The biggest problem for the early ivory hunters was that of obtaining salted horses that would not die in the hunting areas. Most of their hunting with black powder guns was done from horseback. See the following :-
https://sportingclassicsdaily.com/william-cornwallis-harris/

"The primers were indented at times, and sometimes pushed flat, and blew out three or four times."

"The webs of the blown cases were far out of specs."

"The primers fall out completely and have much play in the primer pockets. The web and rim of the case is so enlarged that it does not fit the shoe of the reloading press."

"I have regularly found a small ring on the primers from this batch of cases. It looks like a little wall around the dent made by the firing pin."


The above are all signs of high pressure loads. Enlarged webs can theoretically be caused by excessive headspace. Cratering can also be caused by an overlarge firing pin hole in the bolt.

Enlarged primer pockets can only happen with more pressure than the brass can handle. Couple that with the expanded web, sticky bolt lift, primer cratering and blown primers, then overpressure or soft brass are the only explantions.

So, you may have excessive headspace. That can easily be solved by setting up your sizing die correctly. I do not believe your blown primers are as a result of excessive headspace. I believe that you also have a problem elsewhere with regards to loading.

How do you measure the charge weight; powder measure or scale?
Where did you get the bullets from? Are they all the same brand, model and weight?

The only other way that you can get excessively expanded webs and primer pockets is if the web itself was annealed. Which is difficult as you used these cases before and you didn't anneal the brass..

In your shoes I'd scrap the whole batch and start from new. I'd also check each bullet from this batch for weight and shape. And weigh every charge.

One might add that they (unknowingly) compensated for their weapons with better hunting technique.

One of the ultimate fails is wearing camo clothes on a bakkie shoot. It does not help at all.

The animals can hear the vehicle miles away - I am always wandering why they stick around so long.

If anyone needs a firearm motivation (S13, S15, S16) then please feel free to send a private mail or Email to Krazong@gmail.com 

I am a dedicated sport shooter as well as a Cat B collector and have helped a lot of people in obtaining new firearms via proper motivations.

......................but it symbolises everything that's wrong with the later day hunter. Corporate hunts are the worst, basically living target shoots.
I look at my Engineering, lawyer friends so called hunts, they hotel room centered shoots, the term "hunt can not be used, it is grammatically incorrect. 

Not very different to a couple of fat okes 'hunting' off the back of a bakkie.

Quote from: JamesNotBond on May 04, 2024, 03:35 PM

QuoteNo. Most if then were once fired when I received them. They have not been fired more than five times. Thrice is probably correct. 

You speak of these cases as received 1 x shot, are they second hand cases? If so, can we then agree that these cases could then be almost any number of times shot?

I know/knew the original owners of the cases. They bought factory ammo and did not reload. Thus I received (most probably) once fired PMP brass from them. I did not count the amount of times I reloaded them. Given the amount of shots fired, I did not reload them more than three times.

Dit lyk nie soos n bejaarde nie, maar eerder soos n gemaklike. 

Daar is dalk n paar ander tegnologiese uitvindings in sy arsenaal, soos bv battery-gedrewe verwarmers in sy sokkies.

En soos 'n mens n "fish finder" op n skiboot kry, wag ek vir die dag dat iemand 'n "buck finder" vir die bos ontwikkel.

Waar strek die fyn grens tussen gemak en tegnologie?

modern by David Frank Allen, on Flickr