Kinda bad but then good news & a lesson learned

[RBDMTJager]

My appologies as there will be no pictures as I forgot my cell phone at home
As some will remember I came here seeking advice on reloading for 450BM as well as some advice on rifle selection.
I ended up with a bolt action CVA Cascade rifle in Vail Wildland camo. It ended up shooting essentlually SUB MOA with all my loads from 38grans to 40 grains of H-Lilgun in .5 grain increments.

I liked the rifle so much I started looking to buy another for my oldest son to hunt with it. Found one a few months ago literally LNIB at Cabela's used gun library and bought it. Took it to the range five days ago. All reloads are with using Hornaday 245 grain .452" Interlocks, Hodgdon Lilgun powder and CCI #450 magnum SM/RFL primers and new or fired Starline brass.
Used the same loading as for my other CVA Cascade I purchased NIB loads beginning at 38 and up to 40 grains in 0.5 grain increments.

As I had a fair number of reloads left using 39 grains of Lilgun left I started with those. Good news was two shots literally formed one hole. Bad news was I felt an ever so slight barely noticeable stiff bolt lift on both shots. I looked at my brass and at first saw nothing no signs to indicate high pressure. Then I noticed something odd on the face of the base of the brass case. I had to retrieve my 2.0x cheaters and sure enough saw it.

An ever so slight mark on the face of the shell bottom that was made by to hard of contact with the ejector button in the bolt face, a sure sign of an over pressure loading.
So I went to the loads using 38.5 grains of H-Lilgun and much to my great relief three shots at 100 yards was one ragged hole about 5/8" C-C
Once I got home I checked other pieces of brass I had fired out of the other Cascade and sure enough there was the same mark from the ejector button VERY VERY slight and I needed my cheaters again to see the mark under VERY bright light but sure enough it was there. Just this rifle didn't have a stiff bolt lift like the new/used Cascade I just bought did.

As I said the ejector button made such a faint mark I needed a strong light and cheaters to see it. But good news the 38.5 grain load shoots if anything better then the 39 grain loading did. After 30+ years of reloading rifles mostly belted magnums or WSM's this is the first time I had anything on my bolt leave a mark on my brass indicating a high pressure loading. Yes I have had stiff bolt lifts before on my 7mmSTW and my 308Win but this is the first time contact with a bolt face left a mark on my brass indicating high .an excessively high pressure load.

So moral of the story check your fired brass very very closely and always start out with the minimum loading for load development.
I didn't bother taking a picture of the target once home as it was a well recycled target with a lot of bullet paisters on it so it wasn't really fit for posting.

I still to this day despite having five different loadings all produce SUB MOA accuracy are just astonished at how well the CVA Cascade (M700 clone by Bergara) just flat out shoots lights out good.

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Yep. A lesson I’ve had to learn the hard way. Sometimes less is more.
After I went nuts pushing the limits of the 450B an at great risk to myself and to the rifles, I’ve learned that with the 450 Bushmaster, we can color inside the lines and achieve outstanding performance.

Those tests I did with the 230 grain FMJs? I read those posts today and cringe . I must have been crazy.