.308 highpressure help!!

[carolinabarn]

I recently purchased a DPMS SASS .308. I am having trouble developing a load for the rifle. I have been shooting 44g varget in fed cases with 168g hornady a-max. They have shot pretty good out to 1000 yards. That is until yesterday. All the sudden I am geting major pressure signs. Very distorted heads and poped out primers. same powder same temp. Today I pulled 7 of them appart to check the charges. I thought I was going to break the puller. It took forever to get the bullet out. Are fed brass harder? Should I tos the fed brass. Its once fired GMM?

[GSoD]

Were they trimmed up? Maybe jamming in the lands and boosting pressure on those particular loads?

44grains of varget should be ok and sounds like it has shot fine for you up to this point.

Weird.

[JOSE A. MARINE]

44 grains of Varget is half a grain over the maximum for the 168 bullets...

especially for a semi auto...

maybe a different lot of primers?

Joe

[USMC 338]

My dpms lr 260 shows sign with factory ammo but not max load reloads.

[EddieHarren]

Sounds like maybe too much neck tension. This can be a result of cases being too long or, your expander ball is too small. Your bullet seater may also be applying too much crimp.

[carolinabarn]

I checked the length of the case. The DPMS has a very short chamber. So I have to load short to keep from contacting the lands. I know the neck wall thickness is thicker than my win brass. When I measure the ID of the neck it measures the same. It seems like the thicker wall is harder even though the neck tension measures the same. The hodgin website states the max charge for a 168G to be 46G, I know the capacity of the thicker case is less, thats why i droped back to 44. I am not crimping the neck at all

[Derek M.]

anneal your case necks.