Reloading Question, things gone bad and can't find a reason

Good rule of thumb is to start at minimum when changing any components. You are on the hot side of things, this will exagerate everything. First time firing could be an excessive headspace issue and adding to that a heavy load and it is very likely to cause trouble. My 22-250's liked 3500 to 3650 fps. well under your loadings. It sounds like several things together are causing the trouble. Add to that you may even have a burr on the firing pin now that is causing punctures. Back the loads down until you have no pressure signs and stick with it no matter what the speed is. Tune the load with seating depth at that point. It needs to be safe to shoot. My favorite load is a 55 gr. sierra HP in front of 38.0 gr. of H-380 Win. primer into the lands .003" . I have used Varget, never that much of it though. 34.5 was what I used with a sierra 55 gr. HP Win. primer.

Back off before something happens to your face!!!!

It will shoot slower speeds.
Andy B.
 
It also helps if you read some of the other post I've made before making assumptions and suggestions.

GeneBeggs hit the nail on the head in the first reply. They weren't mixed, just a hot batch.
For those that made positive responses, I appreciate your help. I would have never dreamed one container of powder could give a 300fps increase over another of the same lot number. That's like a adding a few more grains of powder to the load, that's scary. I've never seen anything near this in new containers of different lot numbers.
 
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trying to be positive. Sorry if it came across otherwise. Hate to see anyone get hurt. Just take a good look at the firing pin before proceeding. As a result of the primer piercing, not a root cause. I saw your comment about needing to make a change. Just trying to give you a starting point.

Andy B
 
It's not piercing primers. It blew some primers out of the shell. Extensive testing was done during the developement of the 36.6 grain load, it was not just some load I pulled out of my hat. Yes, it was a border line hot load but was very accurate and was pushing 50 grain Noslers near 3,800 fps for approx a month without excessive pressure. I had mic'd the bases number of times and they had not expanded any. I was not until I loaded some with this fresh container of powder that a problem arose, and the pressures went through the roof. I've measured all the brass I've used the powder in and I have nine good pieces out of the thirty, those were only because I didn't shoot them.
 
BK I shot palma for quite some time and consumed a bunch of Varget, NEVER had a fast lot but I did buy in 8 pound jugs. The hotter powder should be sent a sample of to Hodgdon, we have seen slower powder but never hotter to the extent you have experienced, seen H 4895 that acted like Varget. Be safe back down.

Clarence
 
Oh, I will back it down, a lot. I've got to start over after this. I'm going to back it down 34.5 grains and load a couple of bullets. I'm also going to load a couple with each of the other two containers exactly the same. I also have a few 243 bullets I was trying Varget in (from my very first container) I'm going to pull and use it to load a couple. A friend using Varget is giving me enough (some he's had at least a year) to load a couple also. Then I'm going to run all these through the chrony and see how they compare. If they all check out about the same, then I'm really going to be scratching my head. If this container I'm loading from shoots hotter than the others, or the rest of this lot number shoots hotter than my couple of older samples, then I'm sending a sample back to Hodgon. The rifle had about 30 rounds down the barrel so I'm not even cleaning it so having to get the barrel fouled to settle down will not be an issue. It definetly made me question the chrony for a minute there when it starting displaying 4089 fps with 50 grain bullets. I mean there was a big holys*** came out of my mouth after the first one and I quit shooting after two more of those. That was kinda scary.
 
Ben,

I can only imagine that feeling. I only use Varget in my 338-06 now. no issues Purchased last fall. 55.0 grains and 200gr. bullet. By "Blowing out " primers, Pushed back flush to case or picked them out of the action after removing the case? Not sure I understand the phrase.

Andy B
 
Are some of your cases too long, the 22/250 is a bugger for stretching cases and nothing jacks up pressure as quick as a pinched neck.
 
You had said that the weekend before was 28 degrees and it shot fine. The weekend that you had problems the temperature was 31 degrees. Was the rifle or rounds kept warmer prior to shooting them on the 28 degree day? If it was that would be understandable because the barrel would constrict more so when colder prior to shooting and cause higher pressures.
Ron
 
Now I'm Tee Totally confussed. Just to make several comparison's, I stopped by Bass Pro Shop's and bought a new container of Varget. Four different powders from totally different sources and they all produced very close to the same velocities.

Backed down to 34.5 grains of Varget, With 50 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips, 12 bullets from the four different sources were between 3852 and 3863 and still showed mild pressure signs.

12 bullets with 34.5 grains Varget and Sierra 52 grains were between 3649 and 3660, no pressure problems

One bullet with 55 grain AMax was 3760 and was so over pressured, it stuck the bolt blew the primer out, that was with only 34.0 grains of Varget. I knew these ran higher pressure's so I loaded three with 34.0 grains, and even that was way too hot.

All bullets were seated .010" off the lands.

Accuracy was anything but good with any of them.

Six weeks ago, this rifle was shooting 50 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips, seated touching the lands with 36.6 grains of Varget at 3780 fps and one inch groups at 400 yards.

I've bore scoped and slugged the barrel, there's nothing visiably wrong with it.

After 45 years, no telling how many thousand's of loads, I've never come across anything like this.

Next step is dig out the little press and haul everything to the range so I can reload there and figure out what the hell is going on.
 
How are you weighing the powder? Is it possible something is wrong with your scale? Bridging kernals in a thrower or static cling, florescent lights effecting a digital scale?
 
Scales are not the problem. I've tried my old balance beams and I've double checked both against a set of precision scales and the loads were within .03 grains.

Brass is not the problem, I've even tried brand new brass, trimed to minimum length.

I'm starting to think the rifle needs and exorcism. Something evil has gotten in it.

I'm backing the bullets off the .050" from the lands to increase the jump even more and see.
 
I had a pressure spike like this occur with a 220 swift once. I tracked the problem down to a difference in the pre-ignition temperature. I developed the load in winter when the ambient air temperature was averaging about 69 degrees f. Then during summer when the air temperature was around 94 degrees f the safe but near maximum load was wrecking brass. It wasn't the temperature that was the problem just the difference between the load development temperature and the higher temperature at the time of use. I adopted a winter load and a summer load and the issue never occurred again.
Andy.
 
Ben Yes watch it when changing lots of powder, ran into the same problem with RL- 22 and H-4350 always know what the velocity your at then when you change lot# start 1-2 grains low and see were your at.

Joe Salt
 
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