22.250 oal

Munkjack

Well-Known Member
I've just started trying to reload for my recently rebarreled 22.250 it's got a new 1in8 twist boarder barrel,
ive got some 80grn hornday v max this evening I thought I'd have a go at seating one in an empty case I tried several times each time pushing the bullet further into the neck and trying it in my rifel I could not get the bolt to close until I pushed it so far it went inside the case??
factory 55grn ammo loads fine. Am I doing something wrong ??
ive had this rifel built especially to shoot heaver grn bullets?
Any help on this is much appreciated as I'm new to reloading.
cherrs.
 
Sounds like the neck region is stopping it closing. Try colouring over the neck and bullet with a black " mighty marker" pen then trying to close the bolt with bullet in the chamber. Area giving problem should have pen ink rubbed off. If it's brass from before the rebarrel then quite likely the brass needs to be full length sized first.
 
I've just started trying to reload for my recently rebarreled 22.250 it's got a new 1in8 twist boarder barrel,
ive got some 80grn hornday v max this evening I thought I'd have a go at seating one in an empty case I tried several times each time pushing the bullet further into the neck and trying it in my rifel I could not get the bolt to close until I pushed it so far it went inside the case??
factory 55grn ammo loads fine. Am I doing something wrong ??
ive had this rifel built especially to shoot heaver grn bullets?
Any help on this is much appreciated as I'm new to reloading.
cherrs.
The cases were originally fired in your rifle? If not, then FL and probably a trim would be wise.
I assume that the rifle runs on factory OK?
I use everything from 40-80 in mine (1:7" Lothar-Walther) and they fit fine.
 
As Barkingsnake has already said I am guessing that the case used was not fired in this new chamber prior to neck sizing? F/L size and all should be good. You will get a far more accurate measurement using an OAL gauge and modified case (preferably one formed from a case fired in this chamber), your method is a little agricultural although with time and patience you can get away with it.
 
Hi guys commitments have ment that I have not yet had chance to get back to the relading bench!
your right the cases I'm using are once fired federal brass wich were put through the rifle when it was standard.
There is some great advise wich I'm taking on board of you guys.
I have the latest edition lee manual with a couple of 80grn OAL guides in it but there not for the same bullets as I'm using,
i have an RCBS precision mic wich I think I've got the hang of One of the reasons I was trying the combination was to see if the results were some were near haven't got that far yet, it looks like I'm going to have to run all the brass through fl dye first I will report back when I can cheers.
 
I would say that your new chamber has been cut with a standard 22-250 reamer having a standard throat more suited for 50-55grn bullets and thus is too short for the long 80grn bullets you are trying to use.
If this is the problem you will have to get your smith to throat the barrel to accommodate the 80 grainers

Ian.
 
I have the latest edition lee manual with a couple of 80grn OAL guides in it but there not for the same bullets as I'm using,
i have an RCBS precision mic wich I think I've got the hang of.

I'd be very wary of using the COAL published by any manual but especially when putting "funny" bullets into a standard cartridge.

I've owned a couple of 22BR and a 22-250 shooting heavy'ish bullets and learnt from the first one to leave the throat "standard" and, as I put it to the 'smith, “Leave the throat for the right length for 69grain Sierra MKs and _no_ longer.” The reason for this instruction being that I hoped it might give me (now proven) a bit more barrel life.

My current 22-250 has a 1:7" barrel is set up as per this. For target use, I normally use Berger 80grain VLD but it seems to be happy enough with 40grain VMAX through everything else except Nosler 60grain Partition which was a bit like a shotgun.

The COAL varies a lot with the bullet design and I attach the photo as an example. NOTE: IT'S AN EXAMPLE AND NOT FOR YOUR USE!!! :)

IMG_3122.jpg

The "red tipped" moly coated one is a 75grain AMAX, the other moly coated bullet is a 73grain Berger and the normal looking one (actually HBN coated) is a Berger 80grain VLD. All of them are seated to just engage softly into the rifling and that's where I develop my loads. I will acknowledge that this isn’t always “optimum” for some and that I normally use a 55grain Sierra HPBT which is set to a book length. However, that is not for ultimate accuracy and I don’t want any functioning issues when in the field such as a bullet stuck up the throat or a simple failure to feed.

As has been mentioned by someone else before, the Hornady gauge is a simple route to getting the length “right” for setting the bullet up to the lands (for target use, I assume) but it isn’t the only way.

I have the RCBS gauge (in 308, which I don’t own any more) and it worked fine.

However, I found that I refining a little bit and, maybe, “wasting” the odd bullet allowed confirmation of the amount of engagement I thought I wanted.
To date, I’ve found it simple enough not to use the gauges but, using an unprimed / unloaded case, just seat a bullet “long” and see if it engages into the lead. Hopefully, it will…although I owned a shot out 303 that wouldn’t!
Estimate the amount of additional back off needed and repeat. It’s pretty obvious when you’re in the right ball park for length and if you go too short then try again with a new case/bullet etc.

End note: Try full length resizing just a handful of cases first as it wouldn’t be the first time I’d heard of a rifle not taking to cases fired in another.
 
Oal

Hi guys just a quick update I tried just one of the bits of brass and that would not chamber so I fl resized a couple of bits of brass and theses chamber fine looks like the brass was the problem not the bullets I'll post again once I've done a fully loaded one but for now thanks to every one for you help I'll keep you posted.
 
Best of luck, glad the cases fitted. I've found that the round is quite "tricky" with the 80grain Berger to get the best accuracy from it and resorted to some extended 200yard testing with 0.3grain powder increments.
 
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