Originally Posted by Sevens

“Reading primers” is one of the most abused and misunderstood techniques in all of handloading. Most conclusions that folks make with them are random or false.

I believe that the title of this thread appears to be absolutely false. I don’t think you’ve seen anything that suggests high pressure, let alone excessive pressure.

To be clear, read a primer like this if you wish to gain anything whatsoever from the (almost useless) technique of reading primers:

The only primer reading that has value is if you start low, use absolutely the same components (same primers, same primer lot, same powder, same powder lot, same bullets of exactly same construction, weight and sized diameter, same exact gun with testing in the same conditions and here’s the kicker and it’s a big one… same exact brass of the same or similar construction.

If you do all that and you start LOW and work your way higher, then you can hope to notice some trend in the appearance of the primer by comparing the lightest loads to the heavy ones.

If you want better items to look for to notice high/excessive pressure in a revolver, look first to ease of extraction/ejection. Next, look for a chrono data where a heavier powder charge begins to show a LOSS of velocity.

Primer look? If it isn’t pierced, leaking or blown out and the pocket deformed, you really aren’t likely to make an accurate conclusion based on what you see or what you think you see.