Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles CFE223 and 7mm-08.

Fairly new reloader here. Loaded up 3 each 47.0, 48.0, and 49.0 with a 120 gr NBT. Remington new brass, Federal primers, 2.80 oal, Shot today.. sunny ad 85 degrees. All 3 loads grouped well with the 47.0 being a near one hole group and the 49.0 was around 1 inch or slightly less. Problem is... I had sticky bolt lift and hard extraction even from the 47.0 load. No other pressure signs. Brass looked good... primers looked a shade rough in the 49. gr loads. I was shooting a Model 7 stainless. I was wondering if I overlooked something or if this is the norm with cfe223? have read a lot of other folks having pressure issues with it.

Hodgdon's data states starting load of 46 grains to a Max load of 49.5 grain. You may want to check the bullet manufacturer's data and compare the two, which you should always do. I would suggest you start at 46 grains and only move up a half grain at a time with a bigger sample group of 5 loads. In your rifle you may already found your max at 47 grains.

49gr was warm for me, but no pressure signs. 120NBT in two factory bolt action carbines with once fired RP or WW brass, which weigh nearly the same, CCI 250 mag primers. 18" gun made 3,120, with 20" gun gaining 40fps. 85 degree days.

Have you measured the distance to the lands with this bullet? It may be protruding into the lands causing more pressure. I've got a friend with a 260 that was loading a 120 BT at factory length and was having the same problems. He finally measured his length and he was into the lands.

Good idea on the OAL measurement......

Sticky bolt lift and hard extraction...but the brass looked good. Dosen`t make sence to me. Do you have any shinny spots on the case head? With any of the loads? If so, your pushing some warm, if not hot, loads.
I can not say I`ve ever had hard extraction with out these pressure signs.
If your COAL is to long, you will have hard bolt closing..any problem there? And hard bolt closing may not only be caused by COAL, but also by your brass not being trimmed to proper length.
Or it could simply be that in your rifle these loads are to warm. Try a load 2 grains under the starter of 47. with the same bullet.

The NBT will have more drag than the Hornady, so the top load will likely be less.

What brass are you using? I can't imagine it would make that big a difference, but trying to understand what is happening here. How many firings do those cases have? Has your rifle had sticky bolt lift before? Is there something you have on hand that has normal bolt lift that you could shoot, to see whether it is the gun rather than the ammo?

As far as picking test loads goes, the only thing I would have done differently is load some at 50. I'm not sure what "primers looked a shade rough" means.

I'd blame a lot of things before I blamed the powder or charge. In terms of SAAMI specs, with Remington cases and primers, 47gr should have produced around 43k cup, nothing that would cause sticky extraction on its own in a properly working bolt gun using appropriate components.

What did the chrono say??????

Thanks for all the replies! You folks have gave me a lot to check over. Looking at the brass closer... the ones I shot with the 49 gr charges had slight shiny spots on case head. I will be loading some more this weekend and will report back. Brass was brand new Remington and Federal 210 primers. Never had any trouble before with sticky extraction or bolt lift.

Went back and checked everything over and measured it all again and the only thing I could find was the brass was trimmed to max length and expanded to 2.05 and possibly caused the hard ejection. Skipped straight to Varget and found a half inch group with 44.9 grains of Varget. So I doubt I go back to try to CFE again.

To quote someone else here on this site: "The gun has spoken."

+1

Hard to beat Varget with 120 NBT's in the 7-08.

DF

I, too, got some shine on the heads at 49.0 with CFE223. I also noticed that I had to trim the brass after only 2 reloadings.

FC