What do you guys think happened here? (30-06 reload)

tavares86

tavares86

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This past weekend we were at the range and a friend of mine was shooting some 30-06 reloads. His first shot the bolt was jammed in the rifle and he had smoke coming out all over the place.
He actually used a block of wood to beat the bolt back out. After that he didn't use anymore of his reloads, but did shoot some factory stuff.
So his load was supposed to be 45 grains of H4895 with a 168 grain Sierra match king.
Shooting out of a Model 70.

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The primer pocket had stretched out so much the the primer was actually loose and moving around.

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Here's a comparison photo.
 
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What do I think happened?
I'll go with excessive pressure. Too obvious? ;)

Too much powder
Wrong powder
Too much of wrong powder
 
My load data doesn't have H4895 listed for 168 grain but 45 grains doesn't sound extreme to me. Is it possible he didn't maintain minimum overall length? Extra crimp?
 
That looks like close to 90,000 psi ...........................

The cause could be one of over a dozen different things. Too much powder. Wrong powder. Wrong bullet.
 
There may be a lot of things that could cause a SLIGHT increase in pressure, but only powder can cause near catastrophic pressure like the OP shows. The stated charge is 2.5 grains under what Hodgdon's call their regular full power load with H4895.
Therefore it is almost certain that a faster burning powder was used.
Of course, first thing to do is to pull a bullet on a similar load and try to figure out what powder it is. There are a whole host of rifle powders in the general burning range of 4895, such as 3130, 4320, Varget, etc, and none of these would cause that pressure in the load range given.
 
Look at the case head expansion, and the way that the head was forced into the ejector cut on the bolt face. To deform the solid case head that much takes far more pressure than is safe. Your friend is lucky that there was not a catastrophic case head failure, resulting in release of high pressure gas.
He really needs to determine what he did wrong.
 
Seriously overpressure round, he should pull the rest of those and not shoot them, weigh the powder, check that it is H4895, check scales zero. Could be 55gr instead of 45gr of powder...there is plenty of room for it.
How long has he been loading?
 
That was not 45gr of H4895, period.

I shoot 50gr of IMR 4895 with 165/168 gr bullets, and have been using that in several rifles for several years.

I am not completely sure you can even get enough H4895 in a 30-06 case to do that - it's fairly bulky stuff.

Look for another extruded, short grain powder on his reloading bench that is much faster and consider that your prime suspect....
 
Northman999 said:
That was not 45gr of H4895, period.

I shoot 50gr of IMR 4895 with 165/168 gr bullets, and have been using that in several rifles for several years.

I am not completely sure you can even get enough H4895 in a 30-06 case to do that - it's fairly bulky stuff.

Look for another extruded, short grain powder on his reloading bench that is much faster and consider that your prime suspect....
Click to expand...

57gr of H4895 is not even a compressed load with 110gr pills. It would fit 55gr and a 168gr pill just fine.
 
Hitzy said:
Seriously overpressure round, he should pull the rest of those and not shoot them, weigh the powder, check that it is H4895, check scales zero. Could be 55gr instead of 45gr of powder...there is plenty of room for it.
How long has he been loading?
Click to expand...

And a perfect example of why not to use other peoples reloads in your own firearms.
 
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