Run with it or retune?

[Kroberts]

I'm wanting some opinions about what I should do about a load for my rifle now that it's fully broke in and the original load has shifted a bit. The rifle is a savage 10 with a 32" 7mm, 8 twist, 5 groove from Pac-nor chambered in 284win. The load I found that shot well when the barrel is new was 180g SMK pushed with 55.5 gr of H4831, federal lr primer, and necked up and turned 6.5-284 lapua brass at an average velocity of about 2840 with an es of about 10 for a 20 round string with groups in the 3/8" range at 100 yards. After about 500 rounds through the barrel the average velocity is up to about 2900fps. I dropped the charge to 55.2 gr of H4831 and fired 3 shota through the magneto speed to confirm the velocity which averaged 2890 with an 8 fps es and grouped about the same 3/8" at 100 yards. Then I proceeded to fire volley at 1707 yards. We didn't see the first shot, we saw the second shot which missed just low of plywood on the left side. So I corrected and fired 3 more getting a waterine group of 2-3" of vertical with about 4 feet of windage. But that wiindage is only 2 mph of wind shift with that load, and I wasn't paying too much attention to the wind since there are so many hills it's hard to read. You see one hill between you and the target, but there's really 3 hiding in there.

So to me, the load shoots great. Te problem, it's at the upper edge of pressure showing a little ejector mark and the primer pockets have loose at 9 loadings but still holds the primer in. So essentially: 284win pushing 180gr smk at 2890 fps with a single digit ES and sub 1/2 Moa grouping and many times less than 1/4. But I'm getting about 9-10 loadings per brass at probably an over pressure.

So retune at normal pressure to possibly gain some brass life and a bit of barrel life. Or keep the load and the performance but give up some brass and barrel life. I frequently shoot the rifle at 800-1200 yards and a few times a year at about 1700.

Thanks,
Kyle

 

[Frank in the Laurels]

All depends on how much cash you want to spend, that kind of velocity comes with a cost..throat erosion... Seems like you got a great barrel right now, question is how long do you want to keep it, if you planning on it being an every weekend shooting toy your in trouble, f it's a twice a year hunter you'll be fine just like you are... Better order some barrels and have them on stock if your planning on shooting it a lot....brass, that's another story, who knows what the hell is going to go on in the future with brass...