real hunter over-pressure experiences, not your friend

[rockwind]

anyone that hunts a lot and pushes your fps to upper end, like right before pressure signs, anyone (not stories you have heard of but something that happened to you personally) ever have a real bad experience in the field with moisture/water in the chamber causing pressure spike or has anyone who neck sizes,,or even full length sizing with a tight chamber, have any problems with dirt, or anything, getting in chamber with cartridge? thanks, just wondering, my node is at upper end with my 7mm rem mag but i have another node much slower than i want to go and trying to decide based on safety, practical issues.

 

[Rich Coyle]

I work at the top end and never had a problem.

 

[Rick Richard]

No problems either, but anything is possible.

 

[BallisticsGuy]

Problems I've had from dirt (my regular monthly match is done in an extremely dusty environment) have been with reliability of feeding and extraction. Dirt in my chamber can stop me getting a round in if the grain is big enough and in the wrong spot. More often what I see though is a dimple in my case after firing. A round that's gotten water on the case just before chambering has never been a big issue for me the few times it's happened.

YMMV

 

[Trnelson]

Ultimately, it really depends on how much of a safety factor are you comfortable with running. It's not for me to decide what is or is not ok in your rifle.
I have a similar situation with one of my rifles. Best SD and accuracy are right where bolt lift just starts having a slight intermittent hitch. Not every round, but a solid plurality will display it. The next best node with similar SD and accuracy is quite a bit down. In the end, I backed off a full grain from where I first encountered a verified issue for the sake of safety, certainty of a easy follow up shot and brass life. I gave up ~ 40fps of velocity, SD went up to 13 and accuracy is ~ 0.80MOA. In my rig it really isn't much to sacrifice, but that is my experience and how I chose to address it. YMMV

 

[26Reload]

I have been trying nosler 142lrab with rl26...high node was 55.8gr... .6"..es 12 SD of 5...
little weight to bolt lift at 56gr...
Went back to 55gr and does okay.....es 30.. SD of 15...

Tried nosler 129 lrab with retumbo..went to 58.7gr no pressure but ran out of powder space....
57.3-57.7 gave me 3000fps and Okay accuracy....loaded a bunch at 57.5 to see how they shoot for es and sd....

I think the barrel makes the choice....go to hot and things don't happen for the better......these days...rather be cautious and safe...hospitals and gunsmiths cost too much.....ha

 

[lancetkenyon]

I run almost all of my hunting rifles hot as long as accuracy is there. Never had an issue. The only issues I have ever run across is getting overpressure when temps get really hot, like over 85-110°+ depending on powder choice.

 

[rockwind]

my "high node" is still almost a full grain below pressure. 67.7 gr of h1000. i got ejector marks at 68.5 and heavy bolt at 69. i think i am good at that margin but i was just wondering what wet conditions would add for pressure.

 

[J E Custom]

[QUOTE="26Reload,

I think the barrel makes the choice....go to hot and things don't happen for the better......these days...rather be cautious and safe...hospitals and gunsmiths cost too much.....ha[/QUOTE]

That has been my experience as well. Some barrels just get better the harder you load them, other barrels do there best at mid velocities.

We all like speed, but that speed comes with a price. (Hopefully not injuries).

Many years ago I came to the conclusion that if I wanted more speed
than the cartridge could safely deliver, I just went with a bigger cartridge with more powder capacity. One such rifle was a 7 rem mag
for 1000 yard matches. It was loaded very hard and won many matches. The harder I pushed it, the better it shot, but the down side was that Only one brand of brass would/could be fired twice the rest would blow the primer 1 out of 3 times on the first loading.

Loaded to the max consistently will use up your rifle and components much faster and increase the possibility of a failure of the worst kind.

Now I set my max pressure limit to 62,000 psi and don't exceed it under any circumstance.

Just my opinion

J E CUSTOM

 

[Hand Skills]

When accuracy really comes together, it's hard to ignore - be it a high or low node.

The lower nodes do tend to be a little wider and are more forgiving in variable conditions, but at the same time it can be hard to give up 150fps...

Might be worth trying a different powder? These days I favor slower powders - usually the low node of a slower powder offers more velocity than a quicker powder. Tradeoff being, the upper node is often unreachable. Theoretically this offers a nice compromise, but how many powders is one willing to try?

How much of a looney does one have to be to try fix something that isn't broke?

It's a great question, and I'm sure many of us have faced the same dilemma. Personally I err on the side of caution and reliability in the field. Incurring an injury could impare my ability to make it home. I try to keep that in mind when out in the woods, and carefully minimize risk where possible. I enjoy pushing the limits from time to time, but remind myself that such persuits are best reserved for closed courses with help standing by.

 

[MagnumManiac]

The ONLY problem I have EVER had loading at the upper end ( MAX LOAD) was when using a stiff load in my 25-06, RE22 powder and a 100gr BT. I worked this load up during early spring, it was fine at those temps, in summer though, that load blew primers and locked the bolt solid.
From that experience, I work up all my loads in summer, if the temp is lower than 30 C I don't bother doing work ups.

As far as dirt, water or oil goes, raising pressure enough to cause an issue is very rare.
I have oiled, greased and wet cartridges to SEE what happens. The ONLY visual thing that occurs is the EXTRA bolt thrust, it shows up as an ejector mark, but the primer pocket DOESN'T enlarge any. Even over the chrony there is no significant increase in ACTUAL velocity, with the Pressure Trace, there is no large pressure variation either.

I have had an issue with 'stuff' left in chambers prior to shooting, patch threads, bits of brass, bullet jacket and even a plastic tip from a bullet. They all left impressions on the brass cases, no other issues were noted, however.

As long as you stick with published data, 99% of the time a max load will/should be perfectly safe, it the 1% you need to look out for, such as my example above regarding temperature when shooting.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

 

[Canhunter35]

I'm currently having issues with my wife's 204. Using 32 gr varminator with vv n140 I developed the load in the winter and I'm .5 gr under book max but I'm literally blowing case necks off the other day when we took it out and it's warm. Kind of puzzled, but I'm gonna wait until winter to try that load again

 

[Gord0]

There was this from a while ago about water in the bore causing some issues. It's a good read.

https://www.longrangehunting.com/threads/rifles-in-the-rain-important.179431/

 

[Rich Coyle]

I'm currently having issues with my wife's 204. Using 32 gr varminator with vv n140 I developed the load in the winter and I'm .5 gr under book max but I'm literally blowing case necks off the other day when we took it out and it's warm. Kind of puzzled, but I'm gonna wait until winter to try that load again

Sounds like you're using a powder that is too fast for the application.