first off im shooting a savage model 10 in .308, I loaded up some 110 grain hornady V-max's with H 4198. Im using hornady's 9th edition manual, I started at their recommended starting point of 33.0 grains then went to 34.9 and had to stop at 36.9 due to a blown out primer. the previous loading of 34.9 showed no signs of excessive pressure. the bolt was sticky when I tried to extract the case too. what I don't understand is, im no where near their advertised max load of 42.8. I seated the bullets to 2.745 which is .005 longer than their COAL. im using once fired federal brass . any help would be greatly appreciated. I understand every gun is different but it seems im still safely under their max load. any ideas on whats happening here?
- Thread starter destroyer_85_golf
- Start date
I ran into similar problems with Ramshot TAC in 308. Didn't blow out primers, but I had pressure signs way too early so I obviously stopped. I tried different primers, deeper seating depths, no improvement. All I could come up with was, at the ambient temperature (flippin' hot here in AZ) that propellant simply won't work in my action.
If you're upping your test loads 1.5 grains at a time, that's way too much. Half grain max increase in powder on large cartridges. If you're jamming your bullets into the lands, that will also cause a pressure increase. Some lots of Federal brass are soft, and may show pressure signs much sooner than other manufacturers. Loading manuals are just general guidelines. You have to determine what is safe in your rifles. I would recommend trying another type of Brass ( win/rem/lapua/) Varget powder, and some 155/168/175 grain boolitz. There's a LOT of data for these in the reloading depot. As always, start low, work up gradually, and find out what is safe in YOUR rifle.
the bullets aren't jammed into the lands, its a 110 grain v-max and hard to seat out that far. I have heard of federal brass being soft and am hoping that its not the case with the lot that I have. I have ran full powered varget loads with 168 hpbt's out of this brass and have seen no ill effects on the case or primers. I was just trying to work through some bullet powder combos I have accumulated over the last year. I guess its time to move on to benchmark with this bullet. as for moving up a half a grain at a time I honestly thought it was fine to move up by what the book says and then fine tune from one of their published velocities. I will have to take this into consideration. thanks for all the help.
"... it seems im still safely under their max load. any ideas on whats happening here? "
Yeah. As you note, you're not using the same rifle they used, nor exactly the components they used; that's exactly why ALL loading manuals say to stat low and slowly work up to book max unless pressure signs occur earlier.' The books can only tell us their results, not ours. If it were safe to "slowly" work willy-nilly up to max there would be no reason to start low, would there?
Yeah. As you note, you're not using the same rifle they used, nor exactly the components they used; that's exactly why ALL loading manuals say to stat low and slowly work up to book max unless pressure signs occur earlier.' The books can only tell us their results, not ours. If it were safe to "slowly" work willy-nilly up to max there would be no reason to start low, would there?
