|
A bolt action is extremely hard to blow up. People are worried about blowing one up but I almost never happens. I was going antelope hunting and wonted my 243 Ackley improved to shoot a 90 grain bullet at 3900 FPS. The first two shots did that the third was 4525 FPS. I thought my crony was broke. The bolt opened a little tight and the primer fell out in my hand. The primer pocket had expanded .015 inch. It was a turned neck barrel and the donut at the bottom of the neck was holding the bullet and that caused the pressure to skyrocket. About the only way to blow one up is with a slow burning powder like 4831. And that is not with too much powder it’s with way too little. What probably happens is you get flash over and all the powder burns at once. Nobody really knows. I heard a few years ago H4350 had blown up a few guns. The first person who told me he had a rifle to blow up I thought, oh yes you did something wrong like getting a really fast powder instead of 4350. I heard it from several more people who didn’t know each other.
The problem with off the shelf presses is the ram and dies aren’t straight and you wind up with crooked ammunition. You can get crooked ammunition from several things, brass that it is thicker on one side than the other. The thin side is easily to resize and that makes the ammunition crooked. Not having the same amount of lube all the way around causes the same thing. The little lube pads are the main culprit here. Use Ideal lube and apply it with your fingers. The expanded ball is another reason for crooked ammunition. Get Redding neck bushing dies with the right neck bushing and you won’t need the expander ball.
How much does all this help? My big game guns will all shoot under a half inch and my groundhog guns will all shoot under a quarter inch 5 shots at a hundred yards. I built all of them.
Lynwood
|