Headspacing and pressure?

[Snootch]

On my stock remington 700 .243, I replaced the bolt and barrel and now my headspacing is slightly larger then before. Will this increase or decrease the pressure in my reloads? I know I am going to have to re-work my data, I'm just trying to figure out where I might start.. Also will my headspacing affect my bullet seating depth?

Thanks,

 

[Bill Johnson]

Decrease and possibly.

Decreased pressure because you have effectively increased the volume of the chamber.

The distance from the shoulder of the chamber to the lands is unchanged so I doubt you will have to fiddle with it, but that's not accounting for how you set up your loading dies.

If you set up your dies to bump the shoulder back a couple thousanths from fired condition, you will have to reset your sizing die to not resize as much. Then you have to reset your seating die so your not crimping the case and the seating plug to maintain the same bullet-to-ogive distance.

If your sizing die is set up to fullly resize to SAAMI specs, just keep doing what you're doing and you'll be fine. You might see a slight decrease in case life but headspace would have to have changed quite a bit for that to happen.

Did you check headspace with a gage, I hope? Do you know how much headspace changed?

 

[Snootch]

I had all the work done by a custom rifle builder in my area. I noticed that rounds from my buddies rifle now fit where they didn't before and my gun smith said the headspacing was a little more open then before.

I usually only resize the neck with my fired brass but I did a full resize with my my buddies brass which fit a little tight before and now it seems to fit right. I didn't shoot any of his stuff just used it for reference. I was thinking that the bullet depth wouldn't change, I just thought I would ask.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Bill Johnson]

There's only .010 difference between a minimum and maximum chamber. You're fine.

 

[BountyHunter]

There's only .010 difference between a minimum and maximum chamber. You're fine.

That is IF everything is set to specs now OR was before. Have seen it both ways to be off.

Probably need to confirm data for reload and drops. Might be OK and might be off, that is why you check.

 

[MagnumManiac]

The simple answer is, no, the pressure will not change SIGNIFICANTLY enough to be of concern, even seating bullets at different depths from the rifling changes pressures very little until you are running full pressures and then jam a bullet, and, even then it is rare to have excessive pressure high enough to damage anything other than a primer pocket.
I would check your actual fired cases measurement from base to shoulder and adjust your dies accordingly to bump the shoulder .002".

Cheers.
gun)

 

[Snootch]

Thanks guys for the info. I reloaded a couple lighter loads and worked my way back up to what I had and I seen no signs of pressure..