Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Well this time I f'ed up in a major fashion

Law of averages caught up with me after 12 years. I usually load my 6.5X55 Swede, Rem 700 action, with 45.5 grns of H4350 behind a 130grn. Nosler Accubond. I managed to pull the jug of H4895 off the shelf and made my loads with 45.5 grns of it which per the Hodgdon site is 6.5 grains over the max of 39.

Kaboom, plenty of smoke coming out of the floor plate etc.., took several good whacks with a brass hammer to open the bolt. Primer pocket enlarged, shown below, along with world class extractor mark. Bolt face covered with brass and a nice Win 6.5X55 clearly visible on it.

Any recommended course of action other than run it thru the bandsaw and hang it over my bench???

Don't have Quick Load so don't know what the pressure was but I bet the velocity was exceptional

Did something similar many years ago with a 5gr overload from not seating the Lyman Ohaus balance beam coarse setting correctly. Not quite as violent as your description.. but close enough I've never forgotten how close I came to eating the SAKO 579 243's bolt. I still use that 40+ year old scale and think about it evertime it comes off the shelf.

The 'smith used a Large wooden mallet for 1/2 hour to open the bolt but the NO GO guages were good to me and life was back to the same old 6'& 7's.
Otherwise no harm no foul... just really will keep you awake at night sometimes.
Ron

You still got your face and fingers, so hang it over your scale as a reminder for next time.

You might be surprised. Have a good 'smith check it out.

Go to castboolits and look for po ackly kaboom.

just inspect the lugs real well or have a gunsmith check it out,they are pretty tough actions.

Just load up five more and have the chrono set up....

glad you're OK. Hey, stuff happens. Just be glad no hospital trip was involved

FWIW....I have all my loads listed on index cards that I have on the bench while I load. I always double check the powder, weights, exact bullet, etc. I've caught this kind of stuff before it became an issue.

Glad you're OK. No need to say anymore.

If nothing is broken, I'd have a competent 'smith check it over and if he says that it is good to shoot, I'd keep shooting it.

I blew up a sporterized FN 24/30 in 7x57 over forty years ago by plugging the barrel with snow. The pressure was so high that it broke a wedge shaped piece out of the bolt face. After inspecting the action and determining that it was OK, the 'smith welded up the bolt, reheat-treated it, and checked the headspace before returning it to me. It has been through a couple of barrel and stock configurations since then, it is currently a 257 Roberts, and has had easily over 1K rounds fired without a hind of trouble.

Had a similar occurrence many years a ago. IIRC it was 7grs over a max load of 4064 for the 7x57. Rifle was a large ring 98. Results were almost identical to yours. No damage to rifle whatsoever, still shoots very well to this day. I look back on it and refer to the experience as my one and only DIY blue pill proof load.

Get to someone with a set of headspace gauges. You might be luckier than you already were.

But....

DON'T DO THAT AGAIN.

I came really close a few years ago with a Sako Finnbear several years ago. Barnes 160 original bullets. No load info. Went with higher 156 load. Blown primer pocket and a sticky bolt. No damage, but learned a lesson.

Those little "oh [bleep]" moments get your attention, don't they.

Did the same thing, was using IMR 4320 and mis-read the book for 4350, almost ruined a SAKO, No harm no foul, but now I only use 4350 for my hunting rifles.

A good reminder for all of us.

Looks like it extracted without tearing the rim off the cartridge. The action may be fine. I've seen overloads where the bolt was beaten open with a mallet, tearing part of the rim off the cartridge case, and the action was still fine.

I'm with most others , the rifle is fine. I'd clean it up and inspect it. After that if it was me I would slip a normal round in it with it in the sled . Put a string to the trigger and step behind a solid object and test it. If it works well and the case doesn't show any trouble then I would keep on shooting. But thats me. I'm a little crazy and I've blown a primer or three out the case. I've beat the bolt off one rifle getting it open and soldered it back and shot it the next day. Those actions are a lot tougher than folk think they are.

I had something go wrong on a 6.5 Swede, that I presume was factory loaded.. See the problem with that statement?

This happened in my custom 6.5 Swede, and the damage was much worse. Actually broke the claw extractor and the ears off the Mauser 98 action.

I'm glad your ok Ned. I bet your rifle is ok too! Go over it with a fine tooth comb before your you fire it again and make sure I'm not at the bench beside you. Just kidding!See you at PSC.

TEXMAG

thanks guys, as always.

lol @ TEXMAG, Come on down Monday, I'll save you a bench next to me

Many of us have done the same sort of thing - some years ago I reloaded some 22.250 cartridges, thought I knew it all from memory and loaded 38gns of 4895 behind a 63gn pill. Went to the range, shot some groups, alls well, still 3/4moa for 5 shots, but boy oh boy did they go boom! Back to the bench, checked my data and it was meant to be 34.5gns of 4895! I had loaded 10% over in a teeny tiny 22.250 case. Years later that Tikka still shoots 3/4moa.