Is 6.5 Grendel SAAMI 52,000 PSI spec out of date?

[JASmith]

I can't help but wonder if this original spec still really applies to current AR's with current metallurgy and practices. I know early on people where having issues breaking bolts, and early on is when the SAAMI spec pressure was set. But today, I can't recall the last time I've seen a thread complaining about a broken bolt. And I see plenty of threads of people likely going above SAAMI pressure - at times, WAY above SAAMI pressure. Yet they seem to keep chugging along just fine and not breaking bolts. I personally have a couple pet loads that are giving me velocities that make me suspect I'm probably crowding it - and may indeed be a bit beyond. Yet seem to be having no issues.

I've tried using the internal ballistic calculator to estimate internal pressures and it says most loads (including published ones) are going WAY above SAAMI pressure, yet seem to be doing just fine. Separate topic I suppose, as I personally don't think Gordons (or Quickload) are very accurate for 6.5 Grendel; but even so, if they are saying I'm running well into high 60,000 PSI+, is it unreasonable to think that maybe I'm above 52,000 at least?

Kind of curious if this is something that should be revisited, as I'm beginning to suspect that 52,000 psi spec is a bit out of date and overly conservative.

Thoughts?

If the ballistics calculator disagrees with the published pressure by more than 1,000-2,000 psi in the Grendel, then the calculator is very likely to be wrong.

See http://shootersnotes.com/velocities-and-...-pressure/ for a discussion of the SAAMI Pressure Standard.

Determining whether the error cause is bad powder coefficients or user error is an exercise for the student.