First time reloading - not enough room in the case?

I just read your last post. If this brass is not already formed to your rifle any findings are inversely less informative in relation to how precise your trying to be. Of your looking for minute of moose you'll hardly notice a difference between fire formed or even head stamps, while if your looking for decimal points these bullets are nothing more than trigger time. Don't modify or focus your load charges, jump, col untill your baseline is with brass formed to your rifle.

And the best advice I can give at all is to not bother fiddling too much with load tuning, don't examine the results until YOU can shoot well enough for the targets to mean anything about your load.
 
Sierra list 42.8 as Max with 180 grain bullet and 180 grain bullet.
Their accuracy load uses VV N540 and Hunting Re15.
Adding the powder slowly and with some tapping may reduce the compression.
Otherwise everyone is just guessing. Make certain of the details you are supplying.
Weigh your brass and see if the lightest brass solves some of your problem.
 
You're going to want to get a bullet puller. Once you find what you like, you might be done the research;

So true story, loaded up five rounds each from just above minimum to max at .5gr increments. Reading the cases after firing, I found I didn't need to fire my last few, loaded approaching maximum, rounds. So I disassembled them.

Is all I'm sayin'... bullet puller.
 
Hodgdon site says 45.2 C ? The C means compressed

Son of a b---h, that's what that means? How did I miss that? I feel like an idiot.
 
When you pour your powder in the funnel don't just dump it in. Pour it in so it swirls around as it goes down the hole and into the case. It will pack tighter and more consistently and leaves more room for the bullet with less crunching.
 
koesdibyo said:
All the powder fits, and fills the casing to the shoulder. I have my seating die set for the 2.750 without hitting resistance from powder in the casing (first few loads of 40.7 didnt quite reach the point where the bullet was touching yet), and I was unsure of if I should tighten it up and force it to 2.750 (without the tightening of the seating die yet, the OAL is 2.760 before it hits the resistance).
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What do you mean by "hits resistance?" There is no way that a .010" compression of the powder would create any resistance. At worst you may hear a crunching as the powder is compressed. .010" is nothing in the grand scheme of things. The neck tension should be many times greater than any resistance from lightly compressed powder.

If you are measuring to the tip of the bullet then that is the wrong way to go about measuring seating depth. All bullets will vary in OAL so measuring to the tip is a waste of time. The only way to accurately measure seating depth is with a tool that measures at the bullet ogive.
 
This is only my opinion so take it for what it cost you.
This is the second thread trying to stuff this much 4064 in a 308 case specifically loading for the 10TR.
First of all my 10TR will not load a 180gr bullet to 2.800" OAL without it being jammed into the rifling so make sure what your maximum OAL is with your exact bullet BEFORE you start loading
Sierra and Hornady both show 42.8gr as a max load.
Sierra start load is 35.6gr.
I was getting high pressure signs such as stiff bolt lift and hard extraction at 41.5gr using military brass.

Start low and work your way up especially if you are unfamiliar with reloading.
 
thump_rrr said:
First of all my 10TR will not load a 180gr bullet to 2.800" OAL without it being jammed into the rifling so make sure what your maximum OAL is with your exact bullet BEFORE you start loading
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This would greatly depend on the shape of the bullet. With a round nose you may have a point but a spire point should work just fine.
 
Suputin said:
This would greatly depend on the shape of the bullet. With a round nose you may have a point but a spire point should work just fine.
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Not quite.

180gr SMK 2.780" Jammed
175gr SMK 2.805" Jammed
168gr SMK 2.820" Jammed

For comparison my Savage 10BA is 2.820" jammed with 180gr SMK's.

In my opinion they setup the leede in this rifle specifically for the 175gr SMK knowing that it was being marketed to the LE crowd.
 
Suputin said:
What do you mean by "hits resistance?" There is no way that a .010" compression of the powder would create any resistance. At worst you may hear a crunching as the powder is compressed. .010" is nothing in the grand scheme of things. The neck tension should be many times greater than any resistance from lightly compressed powder.

If you are measuring to the tip of the bullet then that is the wrong way to go about measuring seating depth. All bullets will vary in OAL so measuring to the tip is a waste of time. The only way to accurately measure seating depth is with a tool that measures at the bullet ogive.
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I guess resistance was a poor choice of word to describe; I could feel it was touching the powder and did not want to force it as I was unsure of if crunching it would be an issue. At this amount of powder, it was far from what I was planning on maxing out at according to Hodgdons, so it worried me that I still have ~3 grains to go and the bullet was already touching the powder.

ciphery said:
Are you by chance loading mil-spec brass? They have smaller interior space.
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Not mil-spec. Just my lack of knowledge on ability to compress, swirling techniques, etc.

Kayser Sose said:
You're going to want to get a bullet puller. Once you find what you like, you might be done the research;

So true story, loaded up five rounds each from just above minimum to max at .5gr increments. Reading the cases after firing, I found I didn't need to fire my last few, loaded approaching maximum, rounds. So I disassembled them.

Is all I'm sayin'... bullet puller.
Click to expand...
I have a knack for getting addicted to things (guns for example), so Im sure it wont be long before the addiction kicks in here and I want to have all the goodies. Unfortunately I have to take it a bit slow as the initial set-up costs of reloading are, as everyone knows, expensive. As time progresses, so will my tool kit/powders/bullets/etc

I ended up with 85 rounds to fire tomorrow; I hope to find the sweet spot, and improve on it with more tweaking and range days. Even if I find the sweet spot right away, I'll still end up testing all loads for the sake of it. Ill admit, I was rather giddy over the last 2 days of prepping/loading that even seeing how much a matter of grains makes a difference will be a great experience for me.

Obviously I have a steep learning curve ahead of me, so I will try my best to absorb anything and everything I can from the wisdom of others. Still lots of room for improvement on my loading abilities with this particular rifle (proper seating depth, etc) so that means more reloading and more learning.
 
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Compressed loads are not unusual, so while I cannot speak concerning the load you are working with; for an illustration consider the following: Maximum load for IMR 4320 in a 222Rem is 26.0C (if memory serves well) - without a drop tube, this fills the case pretty much level with the neck leaving you to balance the bullet on the top until it is guided into the press and powder compression starts before the bullet has even begun seating.

When in doubt, consult powder manufacturer literature then literature from another publication like those from the bullet manufacturer.
 
That sure is a short OAL. Try 2.90" and see if the bullet hits the rifling. If it does, it will leave marks on the bullet, Then try 2.875", etc, until it does not touch.

Stick a straw in the bottom of your funnel to make a drop tube. This will get more powder into the case.
 
I would stay away from compressed loads until you have some more experience loading. I have found that max loads are very rarely the most accurate loads anyway.
Maybe look through some loading manuals for a powder that delivers similar velocities without using 100% of the case capacity.
I like to look at the Hodgdons website for info as well because they post pressures and I like to try using a powder that generates the same velocity while making less pressure when possible. Just be careful because they post some results in psi and some in cup. Nosler website also has load data and they have % case capacity used. There are some free resources out there that can help you.
You can never have too much information when reloading.

http://www.hodgdonreloading.com/data/pistol
http://optimalchargeweight.embarqspace.com/
http://www.reloadersnest.com/index.asp
http://www.nosler.com/load-data/
http://www.mysticprecision.com/wp/category/tech/tech-reloading/
 
Any issue with compressing powder, some manuals have a "c" beside charge weight, like in my .223 has compressed charge, its up about the top of the shoulder into the neck, my bullet compresses it a bit but such a small case needs it, in my larger cases the best charges i get are at a starting charge or a bit less, ususally around 90% capacity of the case for a uniform burn i think without funky pressure spikes.
 
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