In preparation for a third season hunt I’ve been working up a load for my 280ai and the last two trips to the range have me fully confused. So I need some help understanding what went wrong. A little side note I’m still fairly new to rolling my own. I have had good success with .243, .30-30 and 6.5-300wby but never push it to the max as I’m not trying damage anything or myself.
So here’s the story. I went to find a node and find pressure working up this load from 55 grains to Barnes max at 58 grains. Temp was around 86. Working up I was noticing some much higher than book velocities (56.5 averaged 2844) but no pressure signs until 58 grains and boom blown primer. Didn’t see any ejector marks leading up to it so wasn’t being weary. This was with virgin brass.
Second outing I decided to play around at the 56.5 range as it grouped the best and had the best sd/es. So I loaded up 5 at 56.5 and 5 at 56.5 with a crimp from a lee factory crimp die to see how it would affect the load. This go around d was with 1x fired brass and FL sized. I forgot my adapter for my chronograph so no velocity data unfortunately.
First shot with the crimp and blown primer. Normally I would have stopped there and not moved on but I thought it must have been an error on my part during the charging process. So I moved to the non crimped rounds two where shiny ejector marks and one with nothing. Went back to the crimped rounds, 2 ejector, one nothing and they grouped really well. Weather was 60-70 degrees with a strong cool wind.
I can’t imagine I over charged all 10 cases. Anyone have any ideas to what could have gone wrong and what steps I should take next?
Below are the components used.
Bullet 168gn Barnes LRX
Powder 7828ssc
Brass Nosler virgin and once fire brass
Primers CCI BR2
Redding FL die
Forester micrometer seating die
RCBS balance scale with a cheap digital scale for cross reference.
Rifle
Custom built on a Ruger M77 action
Bartlein barrel 1-8 twist at 22”
Any advice is appreciated!
So here’s the story. I went to find a node and find pressure working up this load from 55 grains to Barnes max at 58 grains. Temp was around 86. Working up I was noticing some much higher than book velocities (56.5 averaged 2844) but no pressure signs until 58 grains and boom blown primer. Didn’t see any ejector marks leading up to it so wasn’t being weary. This was with virgin brass.
Second outing I decided to play around at the 56.5 range as it grouped the best and had the best sd/es. So I loaded up 5 at 56.5 and 5 at 56.5 with a crimp from a lee factory crimp die to see how it would affect the load. This go around d was with 1x fired brass and FL sized. I forgot my adapter for my chronograph so no velocity data unfortunately.
First shot with the crimp and blown primer. Normally I would have stopped there and not moved on but I thought it must have been an error on my part during the charging process. So I moved to the non crimped rounds two where shiny ejector marks and one with nothing. Went back to the crimped rounds, 2 ejector, one nothing and they grouped really well. Weather was 60-70 degrees with a strong cool wind.
I can’t imagine I over charged all 10 cases. Anyone have any ideas to what could have gone wrong and what steps I should take next?
Below are the components used.
Bullet 168gn Barnes LRX
Powder 7828ssc
Brass Nosler virgin and once fire brass
Primers CCI BR2
Redding FL die
Forester micrometer seating die
RCBS balance scale with a cheap digital scale for cross reference.
Rifle
Custom built on a Ruger M77 action
Bartlein barrel 1-8 twist at 22”
Any advice is appreciated!