Reloads hit higher than factory

[longnkrnch]

All of my reloads (38g oil gun, 250FTX) have a POI about 3.5" higher than the Hornady factory loads. They still group about as tight, just higher. Does anyone else see this and what might be the reason?

[Hoot]

All of my reloads (38g oil gun, 250FTX) have a POI about 3.5" higher than the Hornady factory loads. They still group about as tight, just higher. Does anyone else see this and what might be the reason?

I'd be guessing a hot batch of "Oil Gun", hotter primers than Hornady, Powder that sat in the dispenser a couple of days, tighter crimp, different ambient temperatures when the two were shot, any or all of the above. Without a chronograph comparison, all one can do is speculate. Now if they're flying at the same speed and one hits that much higher, then the hats come off to allow for scratching.

Hoot

[longnkrnch]

Well I actually meant (Lil Gun) LOL. My phone thinks it spells better than me. I'm thinking that a few thousands different in brass length might affect the crimp. I'm going to try sorting it better and batch it while not re-adjusting crimp die and see if it makes a diff in POI. Next, I gotta get a chrono.

[Hoot]

Well I actually meant (Lil Gun) LOL. My phone thinks it spells better than me. I'm thinking that a few thousands different in brass length might affect the crimp. I'm going to try sorting it better and batch it while not re-adjusting crimp die and see if it makes a diff in POI. Next, I gotta get a chrono.

I knew what you meant. Was just poking some fun at you. I fall victim to the same spell check syndrome myself.
You may be on to something with the length and the impact it has upon taper crimp intensity, but unless you've invented a case stretcher and you're holding out on us, I'm betting that Hornady's new brass is longer than the fired ones you're reloading. They still may be using a lighter crimp amount regardless of case length, than we do. I forget if anyone did an investigation into how much, if any, the commercial rounds pull when they've been chambered a couple of times, compared to our reloads with different amounts of taper. IE crimp a few in .001 steps down to as low as we normally go and see who pulls the most for x number of chamberings. Might be interesting. If you key off of the resulting crimp diameter, then length is of no consequence, since we adjust our dies and I'd bet Hornady just runs them with a fixed manufacturing process. I have personally seen boxes of new Hornady brass vary considerably in length even before ever loading them. If that's the same situation in the factory, chances are good that they occasionally run some through with shorter cases, hence a lighter crimp, hence lower velocity. I have n idea what kind of lot testing they do during production to know when to stop the line and recalibrate. I do know that when production quantity demand is high, those QC staff members tend to get a little blinder in order to make their shift quota. Look at the state of 22 rimfire bulk lately. Some pop, some puff, some go bang. That's a reflection of quantity over quality due to demand. That's also a lot of speculation. My money is on a hot lot of Oil Gun. I ran into that the summer I was testing Barnes XPB bullets. Screwed everything up right in the middle of testing when I opened a new bottle. It's the biggest variable in the equation. Then again, I once had a trusty scope go bad on me and had me looking under rocks throughout my process trying to determine what was wrong and why my reloads became so inaccurate all of the sudden. Trust No One Mulder!

Hoot

[commander faschisto]

At least, "the answer is out there"....