Box of over pressured ammo?

[sixdrumquads]

While at the range today I experienced my first blown primer in my relatively new shooting endeavor. I ended up shooting 14 rounds in total and all of them had rather prominent ejector swipes, one had a blown primer that left a puff of smoke in its wake. The rifle was a savage model 12 LRP chambered in 6.5 creedmoor. The ammo was factory Hornady 140gr ammunition. My mentor happened to be at the range and advised me not to shoot it if I could help it for risk of more serious issues. My issue is that I have 80 more rounds and am unsure whether it is okay, the other 400 show extremely light circles on the case rim or nothing at all, or whether I need to do something else with it. Any advice is appreciated.

Ben

 

[BoydAllen]

Contact Hornady customer service, and tell them what your experience has been, in the mean time, do not shoot the remaining ammo. Is your chamber a standard factory one, or is it a custom barrel? If it is the latter, I would get a copy of the drawing of the reamer that was used, that shows its dimensions. That could be part of the problem. Your rifle was telling you something loud and clear. But you were not listening very hard. One other thing that you should do is to clean the barrel as you normally do, and have a gunsmith look at the bore with a bore scope. If you have over 400 rounds on the barrel, depending on how you have cleaned it, and the powder, you could have a carbon (not just powder fouling) build up in the throat, that has raised your pressures. Is the latest ammo, that shows pressure, the same lot as the previous 400 rounds?

 

[sixdrumquads]

Boyd, the lot is different than my past lots # 3140415. I did just have the rifle sent back to savage and I assume they changed my barrel. This new tube has ~34 rounds through it now. I'm going to compose an email to Hornady and see what they say. I am thankful that my mentor was a 2 minute drive across the range. He advised me, since I am about to start loading my own rounds, to pull the ripcord if a round ever has ejector strikes like that.

Should I be wprried about any of the components of my rifle?

Ben.

 

[BoydAllen]

Other than checking the tip of your firing pin for flame cutting from the pierced primer, and the interior of the bolt for primer bits, I would not worry. One thing, did you thoroughly clean and dry the inside of your barrel (including drying the chamber), after you got it back from Savage? Lube in a chamber can cause pressure signs, particularly if the ammo has generous clearance as all factory generally does.

 

[Lapua40X]

I initially considered commenting but, with BoydAllen's advice, you have all the input you could possibly need and anything I might add would be redundant.
We're all grateful for your support, Boyd. I hope newcomers will read what you've posted here and take heed.

 

[BoydAllen]

;D

 

[Syncrowave]

I seem to recall hearing something about Hornady selling some factory 6.5CM ammo that was too hot...definitely call Hornady.

 

[TheOtherZilla]

I had a box of Hornaday 22 Hornet that was blowin primers.. Tried another box/different lot# and was OK. Sent the brass and ammo to Hornaday. of course they couldn't find anything wrong. They did send me back 2 boxes of new ammo.

Sent the rifle in to Ruger of course they found no issues..

I got fed up with Rugers inaccuracy, and sent it off to CT precision and had him do his magic. In retrospect I shoulda bought a CZ.. Live and learn.

 

[sixdrumquads]

I ended up getting a nice 1/2 moa group at 100 with that ammo but I'm probably going to send all 5 boxes out of that lot back and see if they exchange it, or push and see if I can get some unprimed brass back instead. I took the bolt apart and nothing seemed chipped or broken, there was a slight rub mark on one side though.

I'm just going to ask this here and not clog the forum, should I have oiled anything inside or outside the bolt assembly after I took it apart, I handled if for about thirty minutes trying to get it back together and now my trigger locks if the bolt is closed with any reasonable amount of force. At least now I know how to put that bolt back together and what could make it a PITA if I'm not careful.

Ben

 

[Lapua40X]

... I took the bolt apart and nothing seemed chipped or broken, there was a slight rub mark on one side though.
... should I have oiled anything inside or outside the bolt assembly after I took it apart, I handled if for about thirty minutes trying to get it back together and now my trigger locks if the bolt is closed with any reasonable amount of force. At least now I know how to put that bolt back together and what could make it a PITA if I'm not careful.

Ben

Don't worry about clogging the forum ... the server can handle it.

What did you use to disassemble the bolt? There are special tools for that purpose
http://www.midwayusa.com/product/492351/kleinendorst-bolt-disassembly-tool-remington-700
and, of course, there's a rather primitive method using a coin.

Also, IMO, even though you probably didn't need to remove the firing pin spring (best done with a specialized tool) you should have flushed out the bolt cavity and the spring assembly cuz there can be almost microscopic pieces of primer residue after a primer rupture that won't come out any other way.

http://www.rifleshootermag.com/2010/09/23/gunsmithing_rsgunsmith2/

 

[bheadboy]

just curious, is it possible the throat in the new bbl is shorter and the ammo that is hot is in the lands?

Bob