I fire over pressure rounds in my 6.5CM AR.... Should I be worried?

m1ajunkie

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Feb 22, 2010
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So I had a reloading fail earlier today that resulted in me firing 3 very over pressure rounds through my 6.5CM AR. Evidently I actually loaded 41.5 grs of Varget in my cases instead of my normal 41.5 grs of H4350 which lead to the issues. Velocity was in the high 2800 fps range with a 22" barrel.... I was expecting velocities in the range of 2700.

Primers blew out of the brass and the case head shows every pressure sign possible. Should I be concerned about possible damage to my rifle?

Taking it apart everything looks normal in regards to the bolt head, bolt lugs and chamber lugs. Surprisingly enough the 3 rounds I fired actually grouped beautifully.....
 
Check your firing pin too for damage if the primers blew. Make sure none of primer is suck in bcg. Check your gas rings.

Your lucky FYI

I pulled the bolt apart and inspected it closely. I don't see any damage and only had 1 primer fall out of the lower.

I'm thankful nothing worse happened. Could have gone very wrong.
 
A quick guess with quickload shows you were likely in the 75,000 psi range. We all see the work being done on high pressure rounds (.277 Fury) that spec out at 80,000 psi. I would think the rifle could actually handle it. Just don't load it with pistol powder next time...
 
A quick guess with quickload shows you were likely in the 75,000 psi range. We all see the work being done on high pressure rounds (.277 Fury) that spec out at 80,000 psi. I would think the rifle could actually handle it. Just don't load it with pistol powder next time...
Interesting, hopefully those PSI numbers are in the ball part of what I actually experienced. Going back out to the range tomorrow (with rounds loaded correctly) to make sure everything is in fact good to go.

Very lucky given what could have happened.

Thanks