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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
My First Real Reloading Mistake
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<blockquote data-quote="pburton" data-source="post: 1939403" data-attributes="member: 48978"><p>I have only been reloading my own rounds for about two years. I did not have anyone local to teach me, so I used what I learned here as well as many Youtube videos to start off. Over the last two years, I thought that I had a pretty good handle on the basics and have been getting some very consistent loads developed for several different rifles. About a month or so ago I purchased Quickload to use as a reference. This was about the same time that my 6.5-06 was finished. I have several reloading manuals and use them frequently, but I could not find any load data in them for this cartridge. So I used the Quickload program to figure out max pressure. This was my first mistake. I loaded up several rounds in .5 grain increments up to what the quickload max was. The first rounds that I shot, I did not use my chronograph, just looking for pressure signs. I settled on a powder charge and loaded several rounds with the bullet .020 off the lands. This time I ran them across my chronograph. To my surprise, the first round went 3100fps. I thought that there must be something wrong with my chronograph, because there was no way I was getting that velocity from a 23" barrel with a 143eldx. No stiff bolt lift, no extractor or ejector marks, but slightly flattened primers. So I shot a second round with almost identical velocity. Still no significant pressure signs. Third shot, same velocity. All three rounds went into the same whole at 100 yards. But, this time I blew a primer, the bolt was very stiff, it shoved my ejector back into the bolt face and left a primer mark on the bolt face. Obviously I stopped and did not shoot any more. This was very unnerving. I brought the remaining rounds home and pulled the bullets and dumped the powder. This is when I found the load data in the Nosler manual. I was running these rounds at 5 grains above the book reported max. I decided at this point to start over using the Nosler data with some freshly fire formed brass. What gets me is that I was not really seeing pressure signs up to this point. So, am I just missing the pressure signs because I don't know what I am looking for? To be honest, now I am a little nervous and second guessing my reloading abilities. I know that I should have double checked the load data prior to running it and should have used my chronograph the first time when I was looking for pressure. What else should I have done?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pburton, post: 1939403, member: 48978"] I have only been reloading my own rounds for about two years. I did not have anyone local to teach me, so I used what I learned here as well as many Youtube videos to start off. Over the last two years, I thought that I had a pretty good handle on the basics and have been getting some very consistent loads developed for several different rifles. About a month or so ago I purchased Quickload to use as a reference. This was about the same time that my 6.5-06 was finished. I have several reloading manuals and use them frequently, but I could not find any load data in them for this cartridge. So I used the Quickload program to figure out max pressure. This was my first mistake. I loaded up several rounds in .5 grain increments up to what the quickload max was. The first rounds that I shot, I did not use my chronograph, just looking for pressure signs. I settled on a powder charge and loaded several rounds with the bullet .020 off the lands. This time I ran them across my chronograph. To my surprise, the first round went 3100fps. I thought that there must be something wrong with my chronograph, because there was no way I was getting that velocity from a 23" barrel with a 143eldx. No stiff bolt lift, no extractor or ejector marks, but slightly flattened primers. So I shot a second round with almost identical velocity. Still no significant pressure signs. Third shot, same velocity. All three rounds went into the same whole at 100 yards. But, this time I blew a primer, the bolt was very stiff, it shoved my ejector back into the bolt face and left a primer mark on the bolt face. Obviously I stopped and did not shoot any more. This was very unnerving. I brought the remaining rounds home and pulled the bullets and dumped the powder. This is when I found the load data in the Nosler manual. I was running these rounds at 5 grains above the book reported max. I decided at this point to start over using the Nosler data with some freshly fire formed brass. What gets me is that I was not really seeing pressure signs up to this point. So, am I just missing the pressure signs because I don't know what I am looking for? To be honest, now I am a little nervous and second guessing my reloading abilities. I know that I should have double checked the load data prior to running it and should have used my chronograph the first time when I was looking for pressure. What else should I have done? [/QUOTE]
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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
My First Real Reloading Mistake
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