Re: ejector mark Gurus I have a question
QuickLoad will provide a good estimate of how many inches down the bore the bullet it when peak pressure hits.
My informed instincts regarding inertia and the mass involved tell me that the brass might not actually "flow" into the less-supported areas (or flatten the headstamp) until some small time after peak pressure. No idea how much, but I'd bet a donut it's measureable.
My own experience is that short-headspaced ammo which breaks cases about 1/2-inch forward of the head will leave very impressive "flow" marks even with loads well below max. My theory is that when the case breaks, it either accelerates that .015 or whatever slop there is to hammer the brass in, or the lack of a braking-effect "grip" from the the rest of the 80% of the case wall increases the thrust of the casehead against the bolt. Maybe some ratio of both, even.
Those same below-max loads in short cases give alarming flattening effects on the primers, but in cases *not* over-sized for the chamber, they keep nice round corners on the primers.
With the possible exception of Federal brass, my opinion is that *any* casehead marks or prints are a sign that pressures are somewhere north of 60K PSI. I abandon all loads that do such.
YMMV