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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
Did I hurt my Barrel
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<blockquote data-quote="Hired Gun" data-source="post: 84364" data-attributes="member: 1290"><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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? </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hired Gun, post: 84364, member: 1290"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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