Issue with forming AI brass

NEMTHunter said:

You need to finish ream the barrel you got from Shilon. Thats the way they do it. you buy a ready to go on barrel it still needs to be finished reamed. Thats what they told me with the barrel I bought. Thats how it is with all the pre chambered barrels they sell. For center fire that is.

So yes you will need to finish ream it then set to the proper head spacing.

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This is supposed to be a savage prefit ready to headspace.

Creedmoor shooter said:

This is supposed to be a savage prefit ready to headspace.

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Ok i get you. My bad. I missed that part.

My dad just called me and the local smith said he didn't think it was reamed out enough. So shilen told him to send it back to them so they can look at it

Creedmoor shooter said:

My dad just called me and the local smith said he didn't think it was reamed out enough. So shilen told him to send it back to them so they can look at it

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It is common for Shilen to short chamber the barrel for smiths to finish reaming and they may have gotten the instructions wrong.

Sounds like you have it going your way.

Good luck

J E CUSTOM

NEMTHunter said:

You need to finish ream the barrel you got from Shilon. Thats the way they do it. you buy a ready to go on barrel it still needs to be finished reamed. Thats what they told me with the barrel I bought. Thats how it is with all the pre chambered barrels they sell. For center fire that is.

So yes you will need to finish ream it then set to the proper head spacing.

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I missed the fact that the barrel was not fitted to the action by Shilen . I agree it could be short chambered .

Well good news. Shilen did indeed mess up the chamber. They fixed it and sent it back. We shot a couple and they formed great

Glad to hear it turned out good for you. Enjoy the new barrel.

It was obvious something was messed up but it was confused as to who fitted what barrel to the action ? Anyway it is good to hear it's fixed up now.
Shilen should not let work like the get out of the shop but the measure of a good business is how they fix their mistakes and this seems a good result .

Bullet bumper said:

It was obvious something was messed up but it was confused as to who fitted what barrel to the action ? Anyway it is good to hear it's fixed up now.
Shilen should not let work like the get out of the shop but the measure of a good business is how they fix their mistakes and this seems a good result .

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To clear up confusion, my dad ordered a shilen select in a 22-250 AI in a savage pre-fit to go on his savage model 12 action. We installed the barrel ourselves since I have the tools to do it. Then when he tried to fire form brass something was clearly wrong. That's when we took the barrel in question to the local smith and we all concurred that the chamber was incorrect. It was sent back to shilen and they corrected the issue. They didn't run their AI reamer in far enough. Anyways they got it fixed and turned it around within 2 days of receiving it so we were happy about that. Now it fire forms fine and shoots great

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Creedmoor shooter said:

So my we got my dad's shilen select match barrel on tonight in 22-250AI. He tried fire forming his brass and something is definitely not right. I'll attach a pic of the brass coming out. These are very warm loads and even with the bullet jammed. What's the thoughts on this brass? Is our headspace too tight? This is off a savage action.

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You're NOT supposed to shoot "warm" loads when forming brass. You want to shoot starting loads for the parent case that is being AI'd, with the bullet jammed, so that it seats properly on the bolt face while the case expands during initial ignition.

Warm loads with jammed bullets creates massive pressure spikes that can cause case ruptures, split necks, improper forming, incorrectly formed brass, chamber damage, action damage, bolt damage, etc...

I would never have done that. My dad built the fire forming rounds and I told him he was crazy. Playing with fire right there. So he backed down to a safe load for a 22-250 and it's forming just fine now that shilen got the chamber fixed. He actually just shot it the other day with some formed brass. 45.5 grains of rl-26 With a 75 eld-m produced a .166 moa group

MudRunner2005 said:

You're NOT supposed to shoot "warm" loads when forming brass. You want to shoot starting loads for the parent case that is being AI'd, with the bullet jammed, so that it seats properly on the bolt face while the case expands during initial ignition.

Warm loads with jammed bullets creates massive pressure spikes that can cause case ruptures, split necks, improper forming, incorrectly formed brass, chamber damage, action damage, bolt damage, etc...

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If the chamber was formed right, there is no need to jam the bullets. Proper ai chambers have a crush fit on the parent case. But if the chamber isnt formed right they need to be seated out.

And I agree, when forming for my .260 AI I used starting loads for a standard .260. There is literally no need at all to load them hot, the pressure is not necessary and it just over works your brass. You can fireform using the COW method, you don't need 65,000 psi to get brass formed. I actually split necks when I started with a max .260 load forming to .260 AI.

codyadams said:

If the chamber was formed right, there is no need to jam the bullets. Proper ai chambers have a crush fit on the parent case. But if the chamber isnt formed right they need to be seated out.

And I agree, when forming for my .260 AI I used starting loads for a standard .260. There is literally no need at all to load them hot, the pressure is not necessary and it just over works your brass. You can fireform using the COW method, you don't need 65,000 psi to get brass formed. I actually split necks when I started with a max .260 load forming to .260 AI.

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This is true, and mine were all spec'd properly and cut by a competent smith, but I still jam just to ensure the brass is positively seated for proper forming to the chamber during the initial forming. Everyone has their method, there are more than one right way to form brass, but there are LOTS of wrong ways.