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I've been reloading now of 10+ years and have never had any problems with my reloads. I loaded 50 of my pet loads for my 25-06 last year and have used about 30 of them so far with lots of dead critters to their credit. Sunday evening I shot a whitetail doe and again the the round performed flawlessly but. . . . .when I went to eject my case I couldn't lift the bolt. So I finally ended up putting some power to it and was able to lift the bolt and eject the case. The primer was gone and there was a large flat spot on the bottom of the case that erased where it was stamped 25-06.There are no cracks in the case and I can't see any other deformities. Any ideas what happened? Just a little nervous now, don't want an action blowing apart on me. Thanks in advance for any advice.


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All the same headstamp on the brass? I've had that happen when a stray got in the batch. Not quite to the extent of the primer being gone, but sporty none the less. Check seating depth and pull a few randoms to check charge weight.


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With an event like that and only 20 round remaining I would pull the bullets on the remaining loads and perhaps weigh a few of the charges. Though it might only be the one round that may have been overcharged, it is not worth the risk to your safety. I have no idea as to the cause, hard bolt lift and deformed case head indicate the pressure on that round was borderline dangerously high and needs to be looked into. A couple of things come to mind as possible causes, case length (might have been overly long when chambered it may have caused the mouth of the case to crimp) also it might be possible that the bullet was touching the lands or actually in the lands causing and overpressure condition. Might be worth checking the overall length of the remaining rounds before pulling them. Also check the case length, do you trim often and/or check length prior to loading?

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I'd say you hit 75-80+ kpsi with that one. I've experienced this "pressure excursion" personally with RL-22. I don't go near that stuff anymore.

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Thanks for the replies. The brass is all the same headstamp and I weighed each load by hand so I'm 99.9% sure the charge is correct. I do check case length and trim before loading. I will definitely check the length of the remaining rounds. I had somebody suggest that I get the headspace checked after firing that round. Any thoughts on this? Thanks again.


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Checking the rifle's headspace would be a prudent idea, pressure the level of which that round exhibited does not do an action any good. May not have hurt anything but the cost of a trip to the gunsmith is well worth the peace of mind.

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I would not be surprised if the bullet was the wrong weight. Sadly I have seen that.


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Number of firings on the case?


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Did you clean the rifle recently using a bore guide? My son had a sudden pressure problem with his 243. At first he thought the problem was caused by using a X-die. He read an article about a gun writer having the same type situation and found there was a ring of crud built up just ahead of where the bore guide ended at the throat. Once he cleaned the hardened crud out the pressure problem was gone.


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Great replies here guys, thanks! Bullets all came out of a brand new Hornady box, 4th time the case has been fired, and I haven't cleaned it using a bore guide. Taking it into a gunsmith tomorrow to be checked over. I will be measuring the rest of the rounds later tonight; I'll let you know what I find out.


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Originally Posted by Ringman
I would not be surprised if the bullet was the wrong weight. Sadly I have seen that.


This is NOT the only possibility but it is a REAL possibility. Sometimes STUFF happens.

IMO you are doing the right things in checking this out.

Good Luck

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Not the first time. I once had a 6.5 bullet in a new box of 25 cal. Luckily it crushed the case when I tried to seat it

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Update:

Well the good news is my rifle got a clean bill of health from the gunsmith today.

The bad news is I'm a moron. I pulled some bullets and weighed the charges. Some how I got distracted during my last loading session and over charged the cases by 8 grains. Thank goodness for a strong Ruger action.

Good lesson learned with no damage and no one hurt. Unfortunately I'm still a moron for doing that.

Thanks to all of you for your help and advice. This is such a great site!


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It can happen. Always best to stay singly focused while reloading. I notice as I get older and more experienced, I tend to let my mind wander while performing the mundane tasks of reloading I've done so many times before. Not during the charging operation yet anyway! blush


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A good reason to use "two scales."

For rifle loads a ChargeMaster (or equivalent) then manually weighing the 1st load -- every 10th load -- and the last load.

For pistol/revolver loads I throw the powder again manually weighing the 1st, every 10th, and last load.

Lastly I leave all charged loads in the loading block and visually check for consistent powder levels to identify any under/over charged cases, then and only then seat the bullets.

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+1

I like to use a slow enough powder to that at max charge fills at least 90% so that an over charge is usually very apparent. A large overcharge like that probably wouldn't even be possible without the powder running all over.

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Glad to hear that you and your rifle are O.K. and that you've found the problem. As has been suggested by posters that have responded, vigilance is always first and foremost when reloading. Check and recheck, a checklist of reloading steps posted at your bench would serve as a reminder so no necessary step is overlooked. I have been reloading since the early 70's and while I have been fortunate to not have experienced and overload situation like yours I recently made an error about as bad. I had finished loading some pistol rounds using Unique, got up from the bench and dumped the Unique from the measure back into the container. Problem was that when I screwed the cap on I noticed that I had dumped the Unique into a container of Bullseye. The Bullseye became fertilizer for my garden, no way to separate the two. Good reminder to ALWAYS pay attention to what you're doing.

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congrats on solving the problem in a better way than shooting them all off!


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