CRYING IN MY BEER

[retired]

i have been working on a load with a berger 210 in my
heavy gun. a 20 lb 300 win mag. a ladder yesterday, groups today.
at the top of the ladder at 82* i had a tight bolt, bot only the top load.
today i shot 0.567" at 300 yards with only .07" vertical.
i should be happy right ?
bolt tight or stuck on nearly every shot, and it was 10* cooler today!

 

[jds holler]

Just keep a chunk of 2x4 with ya and you'll be fine. jd

 

[LA50SHOOTER]

Retired,

- Where do you have those Berger 210's seated at ? Jam in the lands ?, Off the lands / & if so how much ?
What kind of brass are you running ? - Maybe, just maybe switching to say Peterson 300 WM brass could be an option if it will take more pressure than your presently employed brass. - Did you F/L size ? or just Neck-Size ?

Possibly and I'm not saying to do this, throating it just a little bit longer with a uni-Throater (throating reamer with "T" handle) may be considered. - Then you would need to reset up your seating depth. - Throating it just a little longer may give the capacity required to get the load back into a suitable pressure range if that is the issue.

It appears that possibly you are at a top end node & the brass isn't up to the pressure its being run at, depending on some of the aforementioned questions I asked.

- Ron -

 

[retired]

ron and all,
i always start at the lands if i can. the rifle is not new i have used it for several years, first as a light
and then as a heavy. initially all loads were 208 amax, i have shot bib 187's. just started working with the 210's.
brass is rws, plus or minus 0.05( not a misprint) annealed,base sized, and then fl sized.
have used 4831 almost exclusively in this gun.
while i have been caught out by loads that worked at 70 then got tight at 85/90, today was the opposite.
cooler today than yesterday.

 

[Loggins J]

Just keep a chunk of 2x4 with ya and you'll be fine. jd

Rubber hammer

 

[RDavies]

Why not just reduce the load by around 120-130 fps to take you down to the next lower node. It should still like the same combination of bullet, primers, powder, brass, jam etc, just a tad slower speed but better gun handling, consistency and safety.

 

[retired]

the brass is all prepped for a session on wed/thur.
do not have to drop it that much.
i'll post if i find something.

Why not just reduce the load by around 120-130 fps to take you down to the next lower node. It should still like the same combination of bullet, primers, powder, brass, jam etc, just a tad slower speed but better gun handling, consistency and safety.

 

[sidecutter]

Just keep a chunk of 2x4 with ya and you'll be fine. jd

I did the 2x4 trick and guess what happened

 

[timeout]

I did the 2x4 trick and guess what happened

2X4 split?

 

[jds holler]

I did the 2x4 trick and guess what happened

There's guys around here who can re-weld your bolt handle. jd

 

[AckleymanII]

I can glue and pin the 2x4 back together, only you will know that it split.

 

[T 700]

If your bolt is that hard to open than u need to back off the powder!

 

[dragman]

probably get a few more grains in there! keep the ammo on ice that's all LOL

Probably back it off a touch if it's that picky it needs to be that hot to group it isn't a good choice anyways.

 

[fredo]

+1 to stay in your safety lane and operating pressure.

A tight bolt is indicative that load is already waaaay overpressure and likely destroying your brass, prematurely. As if brass life matters more than potentially blowing yer dang face off, and/or injuring someone next to you?

Seems all too common that reloaders want to try to make a given cartridge something more than it is, performance wise?
And doing so, at the risk of reconfigured facial geometry???

Simply put, if you wanna make a given bullet go faster than the present case can muster, pick a bigger case to run it from. Pushing a limit for testing is one thing, but stompin' on the pedal of a working load is a recipe for disaster. There are too many 'intangibles' that take take you from safe, to danger, so a backed off load allows a buffer for those things...


It's your face, choose wisely!

 

[DirtySteve]

Try a few with .3 less powder. Then a few not into the lands. I forgot wether you were in the lands or not.

 

[barefooter56]

i have been working on a load with a berger 210 in my
heavy gun. a 20 lb 300 win mag. a ladder yesterday, groups today.
at the top of the ladder at 82* i had a tight bolt, bot only the top load.
today i shot 0.567" at 300 yards with only .07" vertical.
i should be happy right ?
bolt tight or stuck on nearly every shot, and it was 10* cooler today!

Please contact us at 660-460-2802 8AM TO 4:30PM eastern time MON thru FRI for help on this.

 

[Ned Ludd]

Try the Berger 200-20X bullet or 200 Hybrid instead of the 210. You ought to be able to hit that node easily and with less pressure using a 10 gr lighter bullet. Both of the 200s are close to the same BTO dimension as the 210 and have BCs comparable to or better than the 210, so you wouldn't need a different throat or be giving up anything ballistically.