Seating .22/250 bullets long...pressure issues.
Rifle is a Rem. 700 SPS Varmint. COAL is 2.533" when touching the lands. Hodgdon's COAL is 2.35" for most bullets. That would give the bullet nearly .200" jump to the lands. I've always seated out close the the rifling and never had a problem till now.
All loads use Hornady 50 gr V-Max and Win. brass (new at the first loading)
First load: CCI LR primer and 35.0gr Varget. COAL 2.5". Slight cratering around firing pin. No extrusion into extractor. Mixed grouping.
Second load: CCI LR BR primer and 36.0 Varget. COAL 2.51" Primer looks the same. No brass extrusion. Worse grouping. Stock is not fitting the action well. Change to Hogue pillar bedded stock.
Third load: WLR primer and 36.0 Varget. COAL 2.533" First shot blew the primer out of the case.
So apparently, seating out to the lands increased pressure like flipping a light switch. I don't think that the primer change would have a large effect as WLR is what Hodgdon used. And I worry that the first two loads had more pressure than what they looked like.
I'm hoping that others have loaded their .22/250 bullets long and can give an idea of where a safe maximum is. I'll stay .020 or .030" off the lands for now. How would you approach the problem?
Rifle is a Rem. 700 SPS Varmint. COAL is 2.533" when touching the lands. Hodgdon's COAL is 2.35" for most bullets. That would give the bullet nearly .200" jump to the lands. I've always seated out close the the rifling and never had a problem till now.
All loads use Hornady 50 gr V-Max and Win. brass (new at the first loading)
First load: CCI LR primer and 35.0gr Varget. COAL 2.5". Slight cratering around firing pin. No extrusion into extractor. Mixed grouping.
Second load: CCI LR BR primer and 36.0 Varget. COAL 2.51" Primer looks the same. No brass extrusion. Worse grouping. Stock is not fitting the action well. Change to Hogue pillar bedded stock.
Third load: WLR primer and 36.0 Varget. COAL 2.533" First shot blew the primer out of the case.
So apparently, seating out to the lands increased pressure like flipping a light switch. I don't think that the primer change would have a large effect as WLR is what Hodgdon used. And I worry that the first two loads had more pressure than what they looked like.
I'm hoping that others have loaded their .22/250 bullets long and can give an idea of where a safe maximum is. I'll stay .020 or .030" off the lands for now. How would you approach the problem?