reloading mistake

[303carbine]

A fellow member of our shooting club said he was getting pressure with his regular load data out of his bolt action Savage 308. I looked at the primers when he was done firing and the primers were showing some gas leakage.
I said to him , "I will bet you reloaded 303 bullets, not .308's"
That was a few days ago, I seen him at the range today and he said I was right ,and the box he had reloaded his .308 from was .312 diameter Hornady's
So no matter how long you have reloaded, it pays to pay attention to what you're doing.
If that mistake would have been made in a lesser lever gun, then the results could have been a lot worse.

 

[Levi Garrett]

Never take this loading thing lightly , lucky he survived it. And how could you not know, the case neck must have been bulged.

 

[gth]

What model of Savage?? And I thought I have heard of guys shooting slightly oversized bullets with no ill effects?

 

[Suputin]

I'd HIGHLY doubt that was the problem. The extra .003" diameter of the larger bullet causes no problems and is just swaged down when the bullet moves through the bore. I shoot .308 and .311 bullets interchangeably through my 7.62x39 rifle.

 

[happydude]

Your 7.62x39 should have a diameter of .311, the savage should be .308. It's not a big deal to shoot .308 out of a .311, but the other way around....

 

[joe-nwt]

Maybe. If it was a max load to begin with.

 

[Suputin]

No, my rifle was custom made with a .308 bore.

 

[todbartell]

seen it happen, my Dad asked for a box of Hornady 30 caliber 150 grain Interlocks and after shooting a deer with them I noticed the box said .312" THat rifle didnt have the tightest dimensions so Im sure it didnt hurt

 

[John Y Cannuck]

Wouldn't even chamber in my BLR Chamber is too tight.
Must be a sloppy old bolt gun