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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Rifles, Bullets, Barrels & Ballistics
Starting a custom light(ish) weight .338 Norma build!!
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<blockquote data-quote="codyadams" data-source="post: 1615157" data-attributes="member: 87243"><p>So I got a chance to shoot the Retumbo, H1000, and Reloder 26 loads, and found some interesting data, and would like to share it and see what everyone thinks. I'm finding that reading pressure in this particular rifle is a lot harder than most other rifles I have worked with, likely because I'm not usually loading for guns built on a custom action that masks pressure signs better than a typical production rifle action. Also, I have found that this action seems to give a false positive for an ejector mark, I believe the edges around the ejector hole may be somewhat sharp, as even on a load going in the upper 2500's with ramshot magnum, there was an ejector mark, and that just shouldn't be. So I am not terribly concerned solely by the presence of the ejector circle, I will take other signs into account. I will also add, that simply when opening and closing the bolt on a loaded case, it leaves a faint shiney spot where the ejector plunger slid along the case head. Not as much as a smear from an over pressure round, but a visible shiney line. </p><p></p><p>So I put together pictures with the case heads of the 6 highest charges (left out the first/lowest round so that the case heads would fit better in a picture) labeled with charge, powder, and velocity next to the case head. Following that, I will add a picture of the group.</p><p></p><p>First off, Reloder 26:</p><p></p><p>[ATTACH=full]130226[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130227[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>This started off odd, as the first round impacted 6" high and 1.25" right. I adjusted that on my scope to center the group up, and it impacted 5" low and 1" left.....strange.....so I adjusted up 5" and back right 1" and fired the group you see. The black dots are where the first two rounds would have impacted had they been fired on the same adjustment as the group. So what does everyone think of the pressure of these rounds? None had any increase in bolt lift, all could be opened and extracted with just my index finger. Remember, it seems to make the ejector circle on all rounds reguardless of pressure, I will try to lightly polish the edges when I can, that may fix it</p><p></p><p>And here we have H1000:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]130228[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130229[/ATTACH] </p><p>Obviously, accuracy with H1000 was pretty outstanding. For a 6 grain spread to all go into a sub 1" group is jist awesome to me, and every progressing round moved downward comsistently, they did not bounce around. I think my best accuracy may come from H1000. So on these ones, what pressure signs are you seeing? Again, never had any bolt lift increase and used my index finger to open all of them.</p><p></p><p>Next, Retumbo. And I will warn you, I was very surprised. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]130230[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130231[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>So this just didn't make sense to me. On my first round, I thought that I had loaded too high of a set, and would never get to the 93 grain load, based on my first round going mid 2700's. But as the loads increased, I kept looking harder and harder trying to find a certain sign of being well over pressure, but was unable to find any. There is some primer cratering, but no smear from the ejector, primers were getting flat but not more than the other loads, there is faint marks from the extractor, but again, there was on some of the other ones, pressure was increasing smoothly and consistently, no spikes or flat spots, accuracy seemed excellent, and strangest to me, bolt lift NEVER CHANGED OR INCREASED. Again, light lift and extraction with only my index finger. I stopped for a solid 15 minutes at 91 grains and spent a good amount of time inspecting the last couple cases and recalling bolt lift before I pressed on. I just don't see how it is possible for this cartridge to send a 300 at 2950 fps without being extremly over pressure and causing obvious pressure signs like heavy ejector smear, heavy bolt lift, velocity dips, or something more than what I was seeing. Anybody else have any thoughts? Obviously accuracy was pretty decent with this powder too, though not quite like the H1000 set of loads.</p><p></p><p>And since I wanted these in here too, the 6 highest Ramshot charges. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]130232[/ATTACH]</p><p>These didn't really even show any primer cratering until the top load of 94 grains. I may play with this some more, but I like the stability of H1000 and Retumbo, though I have read RSM isn't terrible, somewhere around .7 fps per degree. </p><p></p><p>So what does everyone think of this? I am seeing what I thought was just mild pressure signs, but they didn't increase much all the way up to 2950 with Retumbo, and they should have. I want the brass to last, but if the loads from 2750 all the way up to 2900 show the same minor signs, where is safe? Thoughts?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="codyadams, post: 1615157, member: 87243"] So I got a chance to shoot the Retumbo, H1000, and Reloder 26 loads, and found some interesting data, and would like to share it and see what everyone thinks. I'm finding that reading pressure in this particular rifle is a lot harder than most other rifles I have worked with, likely because I'm not usually loading for guns built on a custom action that masks pressure signs better than a typical production rifle action. Also, I have found that this action seems to give a false positive for an ejector mark, I believe the edges around the ejector hole may be somewhat sharp, as even on a load going in the upper 2500's with ramshot magnum, there was an ejector mark, and that just shouldn't be. So I am not terribly concerned solely by the presence of the ejector circle, I will take other signs into account. I will also add, that simply when opening and closing the bolt on a loaded case, it leaves a faint shiney spot where the ejector plunger slid along the case head. Not as much as a smear from an over pressure round, but a visible shiney line. So I put together pictures with the case heads of the 6 highest charges (left out the first/lowest round so that the case heads would fit better in a picture) labeled with charge, powder, and velocity next to the case head. Following that, I will add a picture of the group. First off, Reloder 26: [ATTACH=full]130226[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130227[/ATTACH] This started off odd, as the first round impacted 6" high and 1.25" right. I adjusted that on my scope to center the group up, and it impacted 5" low and 1" left.....strange.....so I adjusted up 5" and back right 1" and fired the group you see. The black dots are where the first two rounds would have impacted had they been fired on the same adjustment as the group. So what does everyone think of the pressure of these rounds? None had any increase in bolt lift, all could be opened and extracted with just my index finger. Remember, it seems to make the ejector circle on all rounds reguardless of pressure, I will try to lightly polish the edges when I can, that may fix it And here we have H1000: [ATTACH=full]130228[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130229[/ATTACH] Obviously, accuracy with H1000 was pretty outstanding. For a 6 grain spread to all go into a sub 1" group is jist awesome to me, and every progressing round moved downward comsistently, they did not bounce around. I think my best accuracy may come from H1000. So on these ones, what pressure signs are you seeing? Again, never had any bolt lift increase and used my index finger to open all of them. Next, Retumbo. And I will warn you, I was very surprised. [ATTACH=full]130230[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]130231[/ATTACH] So this just didn't make sense to me. On my first round, I thought that I had loaded too high of a set, and would never get to the 93 grain load, based on my first round going mid 2700's. But as the loads increased, I kept looking harder and harder trying to find a certain sign of being well over pressure, but was unable to find any. There is some primer cratering, but no smear from the ejector, primers were getting flat but not more than the other loads, there is faint marks from the extractor, but again, there was on some of the other ones, pressure was increasing smoothly and consistently, no spikes or flat spots, accuracy seemed excellent, and strangest to me, bolt lift NEVER CHANGED OR INCREASED. Again, light lift and extraction with only my index finger. I stopped for a solid 15 minutes at 91 grains and spent a good amount of time inspecting the last couple cases and recalling bolt lift before I pressed on. I just don't see how it is possible for this cartridge to send a 300 at 2950 fps without being extremly over pressure and causing obvious pressure signs like heavy ejector smear, heavy bolt lift, velocity dips, or something more than what I was seeing. Anybody else have any thoughts? Obviously accuracy was pretty decent with this powder too, though not quite like the H1000 set of loads. And since I wanted these in here too, the 6 highest Ramshot charges. [ATTACH=full]130232[/ATTACH] These didn't really even show any primer cratering until the top load of 94 grains. I may play with this some more, but I like the stability of H1000 and Retumbo, though I have read RSM isn't terrible, somewhere around .7 fps per degree. So what does everyone think of this? I am seeing what I thought was just mild pressure signs, but they didn't increase much all the way up to 2950 with Retumbo, and they should have. I want the brass to last, but if the loads from 2750 all the way up to 2900 show the same minor signs, where is safe? Thoughts? [/QUOTE]
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Starting a custom light(ish) weight .338 Norma build!!
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