First attempt reloading 300wsm

[wallz]

I recently had a kimber that was giving me grief with no bang primer strikes. Also cci250 primers. But figured the problem to be the firing pin spring and pin depth, and as soon as that was taken care of, no more "no bang" issues.

Did the same thing and removed the "no bang" primers and gave them a good smack with a hammer on concrete, they all went bang; so I know the primers were good.

 

[Potashminer]

I pulled the bullets and pushed out the primers
Flash holes were clean.
Looking closer at the primers and comparing them to the ones that did fire they look like lighter strikes.
Will measure to see how much, if any, the shoulders are back.
It was all new winchester brass, but i ran the all thru the full length die.
Maybe a head space issue.
Took the bolt apart and check the pin, springs and bore. All looked ok.
Will check pin protrusion next time i get a minute

Other than 22lr I've never had a misfire. Bit of a mystery for sure.

Sam

Sammer - do not put a whole bunch of weight on the fact it was "new Winchester brass" - I recently opened a bag of 100 fresh Red Label Winchester for 22-250 - I am sure was at least 20 that needed remedial attention to even be able to chamber - many necks deformed - "outies" - I was expecting some case mouths to be dented - "innies" - and had set up to run expander through to make them round before reloading them - was not expecting to see the number of folds, potential cracks on case necks, etc. as I did. As if brass was not annealed correctly when it was formed??

I have two more bags of 100 of that - not looking forward to dealing with it. Is not my first rodeo - I have been reloading centre fire rifle since late 1970's - as I mentioned to someone - not sure I have ever seen so many questionable brass - ever - in all the years previous - in total - as was in that one bag on 100 "new" Winchester brass. Based on cases of primers I have used, I expect I have reloaded 10 or 12 thousand rounds or more - would have been remarkable and notable to find one or two questionable brass in a bag of 50 or 100 - not 20 or more!!!

Picture below of some of the more "striking ones" - I was only part way through that bag.

 

[Heddok]

I've owned a few Winchester model 70's - the firing pin usually whacks the primer pretty good. What is the firing pin protrusion?

BTW F-class John on Youtube did a video awhile back where he shot rounds with media in the flashholes (in his case rice) and found no difference to the ES or SD.

 

[sammer]

Found a bit of time this morning to look at this misfire issue again.

I measured firing pin protrusion 10 times, right around 0.058" - 0.06"

The resized, misfired, brass at the shoulder is 0.006 shorter than the fired brass.
I think they were all resized the same as I did that all in one sitting and don't recall adjusting the press during that process.

Took a close up pic of the primers after they were pushed out.
you can see they are definitely light strikes.

Top 2 were the misfires. Top right is the twice struck. Bottom ones fired.




Cleaned out the bolt channel, firing pin, and spring.

Will anneal and resize the brass with a little less bump and reload the 2 misfired cases as they are to see if it happens again.

Thanks for all your help.

And look at that I figured out how to attach a pic!!!

Sam

 

[skidderman]

I tried H4350 for kicks in my Abolt 300 wsm using 180 grain bullets. It got warm before expected velocity so got rid of it. My go to powders are RL17 and RL22. Have as well tried IMR4831 and ran into pressure quick. As well am using RL22 for 200 grain accubonds with good results. Please be careful using RL17 as some data is showing way too high.

 

[BlackRam]

My go to load in my 300 WSM is the 180 gr AB over 69.5 gr of WXR and WLRM primers (good thing a have a few pounds on hand!) for 2978 fps and .442"" groups from a 23" King barrel.
70.0 gr of VN165 gives 2970 fps and .817" groups with the 180 gr AB.
70.0 gr of VN165 gives 2970 fps and .786" groups with the 180 gr Scirocco II.
Did not write down the charge of IMR 4064 for the 180 GR TSX,and did not chrony, but did get .755" groups.

As a note of comparison, the following groups were shot with factory ammo:
Federal premium w/ 180 gr AB @ 2960 fps gave .630"; and
Winchester 180 gr Power Points @ 2970 fps gave .750".

 

[sammer]

Found some time to load up some 165grn tsx.
I annealed and resized my brass with 0.002 shoulder bump.
Loaded 3 each 63, 63.5, 64, 64.5, 65grns H4350. CCI250 primers.





The 63.5 load had an average speed of 3010fps with an ES of 18 and SD 9.
3 rounds isn't a very big sample size but looks promising.

The 64 load averaged 3031fps but 3rd shot was 44fps faster than the first, so wasn't a good example even though the group wasn't bad.
Both 63.5 and 64 were right around 1.2" groups, loaded at 2.81 OAL (Don't have CBTO handy right now)
Think I will load 10 at 63.7 and see how they go.

Also loaded up 10 more of the 178ELDX with 62.5grn H4350 to double check groups and foul my barrel.
Average speed was exactly 2900fps didn't write down ES and SD but recall they were low.
I think this load could be a keeper.
The first 2 shots with a clean cold barrel were touching! The next 3 were to the right and just under an inch group?
Let my buddy, who's not really a shooter, bang off 3 of the remaining.





No misfires this time but still have to reload the brass that gave me the issues last time to see if it was a headspace problem.

Bow season starts day after tomorrow so heading out to do a bit more scouting and shoot some bags to make sure I can still group arrows lol

Sam

 

[BearClan]

My Remington 700 XCR 300 WSM's favourite load was 62.5 g H4350 with 180 TTSXs + Winchester Brass + CCI250 primers. Ave velocity was 2950 fps and I was averaging .92" 4-Shot groups (at the time, I followed John Barsness' suggestion of 4-shot groups). Unfortunately for me, I sold that gun to get my "dream" gun - a Sako M85 300WSM - big mistake - not only does it not shoot as well (best load is 168 TTSX at 0.92", 3-shot groups at an anemic 2912 fps ave velocity), I have to rotate my scope 90 degrees so my brass would eject properly. I will probably unload it when/if Tikka comes out with a 7 mm PRC.

 

[wallz]

Yea, looks like 63.5 gr is were you want to be, and bring them together with seating depth adjustments. You want that clover pattern. Try a few depths, and you will find it.

 

[BearClan]

Sammer - do not put a whole bunch of weight on the fact it was "new Winchester brass" - I recently opened a bag of 100 fresh Red Label Winchester for 22-250 - I am sure was at least 20 that needed remedial attention to even be able to chamber - many necks deformed - "outies" - I was expecting some case mouths to be dented - "innies" - and had set up to run expander through to make them round before reloading them - was not expecting to see the number of folds, potential cracks on case necks, etc. as I did. As if brass was not annealed correctly when it was formed??

I have two more bags of 100 of that - not looking forward to dealing with it. Is not my first rodeo - I have been reloading centre fire rifle since late 1970's - as I mentioned to someone - not sure I have ever seen so many questionable brass - ever - in all the years previous - in total - as was in that one bag on 100 "new" Winchester brass. Based on cases of primers I have used, I expect I have reloaded 10 or 12 thousand rounds or more - would have been remarkable and notable to find one or two questionable brass in a bag of 50 or 100 - not 20 or more!!!

Picture below of some of the more "striking ones" - I was only part way through that bag.

View attachment 606468

I previously used Winchester brass exclusively at the beginning of my reloading "Hobby". Over the years, I accumulated tools that helped me deal with the various issues I encountered with Winchester brass (i.e., primer pocket uniformer; Neck turning tools, Flash hole deburrer; case mouth expander). It came to head around 2015 where around 20/50 cases from a new bad had various deformities that I finally decided to abandon Winchester cases. I haven't regretted that above one bit.

 

[MRP]

Had a couple of mod 70s, what I found was after you got the loading finished bring a screw driver to the range. Front action screw tight as I can one handed + 10% , rear a bit less and the center two finger tight. Farmer torque specks I know and subject to how much wheaties you had for breakfast but how me pop showed me. So basically fiddle with it a bit, especially the center almost zero torque, afterwards I mark the screw position so if taken apart you put it back the same. Marking the screw position is something I do now on every rifle.