Oldbloke wrote:Apollo is correct, it seems to happen with slow burning powders when you have a reduced charge with a lot of air space.
I'm not saying it hasn't happened but there has to be more it than that.
Apollo wrote:Not that it's on topic but the SEE is not really proven under test conditions but it is a real risk of happening just like you say, like dust in a silo.
That's the sticking point for me
Light charges may be part of the issue, but they can't be the only factor. If they were, you would be able to be reproduced it over and over.
For example... ADI data for 150gr .308 is 44gr - 47gr with 2208.
If a light charge was the sole cause then you could load charges at 43, 42, 41, 40, 39 etc. all the way down to zero, fire them all and find the point where SEE occurs.
Say it's 20gr... If you load up a pile of 20gr cartridges and the powder charge was the only problem, you should be able to get SEE to occur repeatedly.
If it was that easy, I'm sure all the powder manufacturers would have cracked it ages ago and could/would tell us exactly where the problem lies. I'm sure they'd be extremely keen to test and prove it if they could.
Again, not saying it doesn't happen, but I think people are too quick to blame things on SEE. Even more so when there is a picture of the aftermath of an explosion on a forum or something, and tonnes of people jump in saying it's SEE when they actually know nothing about what happened are are just looking at a picture of a ruptured rifle.
Not having a go at anyone here with that last comment, just an observation from elsewhere.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject. I'm certainly
not advocating going below manufacturer load data or saying it's safe to do so or anything to that effect... I just think there is something more to it than blaming a light powder charge. You never know what people did/didn't do to their rifles/cartridges before these things happened.