Did I hurt my Barrel

[Iron Worker]

Shooting a Cooper Classic in 22-250AI Been experimenting with a wide range of loads.Out of 200rnds had some pressure signs (Bright shinny ejector marks) however a couple times I blew a primer.Could this have damaged my barrel. I clean it every 10 to 20 rnds.Accuracy is not equivelent of the factory suplied target. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[jb1000br]

NO, but you may have scarred your bolt face and opened up you firing pin hole a bit.

dont worry yet /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

JB

 

[Fiftydriver]

Iron Worker,

Cooper range tests their rifles at 50 yards on a machine rest not fired off a shoulder. Keep that in mind, it can be a bit deceiving to a cooper buyer.

They are great rifles but that little bug hole on the paper is not what they will average off a human shoulder.

Its to bad they do not shoot paper at 100 yards but then there would not be simply one hole. They would make very tight groups but not one holers.

I also wish they would test off a human shoulder instead of a machine rest but again, test target would look different.

In my opinion a sub 1/2" group fired off a shoulder at 100 yards is more impressive then a bug hole fired from a machine at 50 yards. I am sure you are doing very well, what are your group sizes?

As JB mentioned there are a couple things that may have happened with your rifle but generally nothing major. Unless your blowing primers all the time which I am sure you are not.

Be sure to keep a high quality moly based grease on those bolt lugs. That will save them on those tight bolt lifts that may occur. Apply this everytime you clean your rifle 20 shots or so.

Good Shooting!!

Kirby Allen(50)

 

[LB]

IW, what loads are blowing primers? LB

 

[Iron Worker]

Kinda Strange its happened in Nosler brass only.(Nosler Brass holds 2grs less table salt than Remington 1 gr less than W-W)This happened twice.43.0 H-380 behind Hornady 52gr A-MAX.Same load in Rem brass shot good.Then 46.0grs of W-W 760 behind same bullet.MV of that load was 4,100. Most consistant load so far has been 39.5grs of IMR 4320.(3,900) Shot ok groups with it on range. Went into field for first Varmint hunt Blew up several SF Bay area squirrels.Sitting on 5 gallon bucket shooting off sticks any squirrels I missed I deserved to miss.Squirrels didn't like that load.I'll do the moly grease that you suggested Kirby thanks.Your Allen mags are awesome.

 

[2muchgun]

Your barrel should be fine. I wonder abpout that Nosler brass. Is it thicker? Ever put a mic on it? Does it weigh the same? Not saying it is the cause, but wondering about the case capacity thing---2MG

 

[LB]

You need to get a program and stick with it. You have too many components, brass and propellants. Settle on a powder and case(?) probably 760(?), or 414, & back off 1½-2 grains from where you blew the primer. You aren't using mag primers, are you? I suggest switching to 55 gr. VMax, the 22-250AI deserves a heavier bullet. Also, yes you could be "hurting" your barrel if you continue to fire X number of primer piercing loads. Do you see excessively flattened or cratered primers, or a black ring around the primers? Excessive pressure, you could get premature throat errosion, and degraded accuracy. Excessive pressure in that case will show up as loose primer pockets, when you seat a new primer. Where are you at, with bullet seating? I don't think you are quite ready for field work, at this point.

Good luck, LB

 

[Brien]

i have one with a 28" hart and my buddy has a heavy and a light one with lilja barrels.. all work very well with RL-15 and 52gr benchrest bullets... running between 4000 and 4100 fps...
good luck
Brien

 

[Hired Gun]

No way you are hurting your barrel. I accidentally got some pistol primers in my priming tool. I did up 50 regular 22-250 loads like that. I traveled an hour and a half to the killing fields and guess what. Almost every one of those primers pierced. I was getting a little puff of smoke out of the action on every shot. It was war. About 35 shots later my Ruger ceased to fire. It got so much crud up in the firing pin hole I had to disassemble the bolt and clean it it to get it back in action. I finished up the 50 rounds and no damage was noted to my boltface. My load varies depending on the weather from as much as 42 grains of H-380 down to 39 grains in Remington brass with CCI-250 primers behing 50 grain Hornady SPSX bullets. (Ball and magnum powders give me better extreme spread numbers when I use magnum primers. Usually less than 10 fps) Digger squirrels really hate that load. I had a bunch of Norma brass for my 22-250 and it wouldn't run with my Remington brass so it got jacked on the ground.

 

[LB]

No way, eh? And, that is your idea of a comforting testimonial? The fact that you didn't damage your bolt face was not for lack of trying.

Also, mixing up components is a very big deal, where I come from. I can't ever remember using the wrong bullet, powder or primer, and it's hard for me to understand how it could happen, unless you were drunk?

Good hunting. LB

 

[Hired Gun]

In 29+ years of reloading I kind of let my guard down once. I had put a whole box of primers in my Lee priming tool and I never touch primers with skin. So once they go into the priming tool they stay there until they are used up. Might be part of the reason in 29 years I have never had a dud. When I load I usually always load 100 of whatever it is and then I don't need to load for that rig again for awhile. We had moved since the last time I had loaded and the priming tool still had 50 primers left in it. I only buy CCI magnum primers. Large rifle, small and large pistol. I suspected they were pistol primers but since they were magnums for sure I really didn't think too much about it. That is until a month later I went to use that box of shells. No drinking is involved and the only alcohol in my house is rubbing alcohol to degrease and sterilize things. The primer propellant in the pistol primers is slightly orange tinted where the rifles are yellow. I thought that maybe they had reacted with the plastic or something and had changed color. They are very close. I quit experimenting with that 22-250 load after I tried the then new Varget. In 15 years I have tried about everything in that gun and always come back to that super safe same old load that works so well. I too believe in sticking to the same thing unless their is some major bennifit to change. Plastic tipped bullets and so called Extreme powders were a couple of gimmicks that had me experimenting for awhile. If I hadn't been in a war or so far from home I would have pulled or just dumped them. I hate the brass I'm using on the gun so none of them were coming home one way or the other.

I stand by what I said. Simply blowing a primer will never hurt a barrel. A huge overpressure might bulge a barrel or chamber but primers let go long before that happens. The other reason I went ahead on it is because on a previous trip a buddy who used to always used 42 grain of H-380 in his 22-250 had an even worse problem that didn't result in any damage. I'm thinking the overpressure he was having was due to a change in powder lots. He was using the correct primers but they were blowing out big time. Lots of smoke and the primers would fall out on ejection. Those 50 grain SPSX's were leaving gray smoke trails out about 75 yards and squirrels were just walking away from him. Again it was war and we were far from home. He just donned the safety glasses and went ahead on it. No damage was done. That gun was still a .2 gun years later when he sold it. It was a Ruger Varminter like mine. I call that a comforting testimonial as the guy asking only blew 1 couple primers didn't he?

I did damage one bolt face but it was only a very slight gas cut. It almost polished out. That one was due to a defective Shootin Chrony. The rifle is my Ruger stainless 25-06AI. I couldn't even get near my old speed before the AI conversion. I was doing a ladder test with 5 shoots each in .3 increments looking for the sweet spot. When I test like that I shoot at 10 different targets 1 shot on each target in succession until they each have a 5 shot group on them. I had already shot that same load and up past it by over 1 full grain 2 times around already. It wasn't really showing any pressure until out of the blue it had a sticky bolt lift and the primers had gas leaked. They didn't fall out but the primers pockets were too loose to run again. Since I had already had been way past that load I thought it was a freak and continued to test. When I got around to that same load, it popped again. Even though it was grouping some mean groups, testing was over. I later set my chronograph up behind another and discovered it was reading about 500 to 600 fps slow. That means I had 100 grain Partitions coming out of that 24" barrel at over 3900. A new Pact Chrono was ordered the next day. Now it's shooting a for real 3525 in the cold and 3550 in the heat. Very comfortable as the brass has yet to loosen a primer pocket or show any marks of any kind. Again that barrel is fine. Now if he would have said it blew so hard it bent the floorplate or damaged the stock I would have recommened he have it checked out by a smith. His barrel is certainly still perfect.

I'm not perfect and I'm not afraid to share my stories and admit it when I'm wrong. I bet if you thought about it real hard you might have had a mishap once. If not you must not be much of an experimentor. That must be pretty boring living with the starting loads in the books.