Trouble at the Reloading Bench

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Re: Trouble at the Reloading Bench

Postby BD1 » Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:18 pm

I use old .284 brass cut down to 1.70, not reamed. I use the Hornady sizing die and seating die, no expander, and a modified Lee 45-70 factory crimp die I run everything back through the Hornady crimp die set just to kiss the case mouth back to .480 It never really touches the .284 brass, but it does smooth the flare off the mouth of Hornady brass that's gotten short to the point that the "waist crimp" is right at the mouth. I shot 50 rounds of .284 brass today with no isses at all. The photo attached is the best load I found using the 225 FTXs over 297, a one inch 5 shot group at 100 yards, ( 4 shots stayed in .6 inch). One other difference is that I'm seating the 225s longer to 2.245. My rifle has enough throat for this and they really do shoot well seated out that long. The limitation on my rifle currently is the trigger. I think there's a RRA 2 stage in my future.
BD
Attachments
IMG_3233.JPG
225 grain FTX seated to 2.245 over 43 grains of 297
IMG_3233.JPG (39.43 KiB) Viewed 7789 times
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Re: Trouble at the Reloading Bench

Postby Hoot » Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:31 pm

So you get enough tension with the 225 loaded that far out? That's one heck of a stab crimp then. You said waist crimp. You mean right on the rearward cannelure? On my brass the front cannelure is out of the brass at 2.24, so no chance of using it. I didn't load mine that far out ever for fear of inadequate neck tension and high SD's. Something to try next trip...

I have the RRA 2-stage. It's better than a stock trigger but still breaks harder than I prefer. Too lazy to build a jig to stone it though.

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Re: Trouble at the Reloading Bench

Postby BD1 » Tue Jul 06, 2010 10:25 am

I don't worry about the cannelures. I load them to the OAl that seems to work and crimp them where they fall. My crimp die puts a .08 wide squeeze on located .1 back from the mouth if the case is 1.70 No problems with bullet jump. They are a PIA to pull though. The SDs from that load work up with the 225s and WC297 were in the twenties and thirties. I view SDs as an indication of whats going on, nothing more. The proof is in the groups, not the SDs. One of the best loads going is the 250 grain FTX over 37 grains of LilGun and it has SDs in the 70s no matter how hard I crimp them.
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Re: Trouble at the Reloading Bench

Postby Hoot » Tue Jul 06, 2010 6:59 pm

BD1, I bet if you seat those 225s to the front cannelure they won't thunk. I seated one to 2.245 OAL and the bulge was hardly noticeable as opposed to when I seated them to 2.12 OAL and it was huge. That comes as no surprise sice we know that the further in you seat, the thicker the walls. No doubt why the bulge is more prominent.
Even at 2.245, the bulge would not let me thunk, but I found an easy fix that doesn't trash the entire bullet. The majority of the 225 bearing surface on 10 bullets I measured averaged .4515, whereas the bullet itself bulges immediately below the 2nd cannelure to .4523. With the mouth at .480 as produced by the taper crimp, the only part of the cartridge that hangs in the chamber is that bulge in the case right above the bulge in the bullet. Without changing any other dimension and using the standard .056 width Lee FCD crimp applied directly to that case bulge, the cartridge thunked easily. If I use either the resizing die or the taper crimp to get that bulge pushed in, by the time it's pushed in, the mouth is down to .4767 and the entire bullet is squashed down to .449. There's hope yet, though it comes at the cost of a few extra steps. Interestingly, the 200gr FTX has two cannelures yet for some reason, despite the lower one being real close to the base of the bullet, they do not cause distortion to the bullets like encountered in the 225s. Probably why they cost half as much.

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