Why my loads were excessively hot at mid range??

45C

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Hey
I loaded 7mm rem 150 g Hornady Eld x, using Vithatori 560.
I started second from the lowest published load,in my Hornady manual.
At the third load data ,I was getting a sticky bolt.
At the fourth, I got sticky bolt, a high extractor swipe/ huge and the primers were missing.

I stopped there.
Browning Xbolt SS.

Ok, so I find this really embarrassing, but here goes.
First, I've been reloading for 7 years and this is my first big mistake.
I've been under a lot of stress lately, with work .
Anyway enough of the excuses.

I recently bought two different Vithatori powders.
N150
N560
So,by now,I think you know what I did.
And I was so sure I used the 560.
But I just rechecked ,and sure enough the 560 was still sealed.
Sorry for all the stupid questions.
 
Last edited:
Just used Hornady starting COL 3290.
Rnds were easy to chamber.
I had to give the bolt a good smack to get it open,on the third load.
 
Check the powder charge on any remaining loads, check your scale. Check the trim length of your brass.
I know the trim length was good, I'll check the scales again,but the cases didnt look overly full.
No compressed loads.
 
Each rifle is different. If your rifle is tight in the throat and the manual's rifle is looser, their Start Load could be max in your rifle. Velocity will tell the story. It is a surrogate for pressure.

The rule is to start with the START load, and go from there. You may have to adjust down, not up. I had a 6.5x55 blow the primer and lock up hard on the Start load.
 
Put some sharpie on the bullet ogive and chamber the round (obviously safe direction etc)

See if there is rifling marks on the sharpie

Doesn't a ELD-X have a very long profile, which would mean loading to 3.290" would be highly unlikely to touch the lands?


OP have you loaded for this rifle in the past, or is this your first crack at it?
 
Run them over a chronograph by chance?

Yep I agree and that’s why you start at the starting load and if you achieve higher velocity then what the recipe in the book says then you adjust accordingly. I have gotten away with using published data for a long time but once I got a chrony I realized this is truly the only way to go for me. Too many unknowns without it.
 
why are you jumping in such large increments? that's 4x as big of a step as you should be doing

That's how I've always done it,when starting with a new bullet/powder combo.
Once I find the best load out of that,I start working around that in smaller increments.
 
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