Soilarch

So I shot of the first of my 22-250 handloads the other day. Of all things I was expecting and watching for...something caught me off guard. I wish I had pictures but I'm gonna have to try and describe what's happening. (60 partitions are being used)

I did the little deal where you take a dummy round barely seat the bullet and then chamber the cartridge to get an ideal of your max overall length is. I did this and it can out alot longer than I was expecting so tried it again with another dummy long-round, same thing. I certainly didn't feel comfortable leaving bullets ANYWHERE near there so I looked as some factory ammo and set the bullets about 1/4 of the difference between factory and my crazy chamber-dummies longer. (does that make any sense?) I'm working w/o a micrometer right now so I can't just throw you guys a number.

Anyways, my groups were fine and no pressure signs I knew of BUT I think my round is still too long though I can't see how. In the 700 action there's a round button that contacts the case's base at about 7 o'clock and this is shearing off tiny amounts from my cases. Can this be anything besides OAL being too long? The ammo feeds fine but at the end of the "stroke" when you have to rotate the bolt there is a slightly noticeable increase in the needed pressure. The cases were once fired. Is the 22-250 a caliber you must trim between every loading?

Roskoe

That little round thing on the boltis the ejector. If fired cases have a round mark on them that is about the same size as the ejector, it is generally a sign of high pressure. If the mark is made when closing the bolt, before firing, it is usually a sign of too long of a round - either not resized enough, not trimmed enough, or bullet seated too long. .22-250 cases do need to be trimmed. Every shot if the load is hot. And too long of a case can really spike the pressure curve of a load, since the bullet is not being released from the neck smoothly. 1.912 is the maximum overall length for a .22-250 case. Should trim to 1.902". Hope this helps. Roskoe.

Soilarch

Thanks, it was making these marks before firing. It wasn't really a hot load, 34.5g of IMR4320. I'll trim after every firing from now on.

Ought Six

Color one of your bullets with a black magic marker and then chamber it. If you see the magic marker rubbed off in little spots evenly spaced around the ogive, you are touching the rifling. Some rifles actually like their bullets seated into the rifling. Usually, I seat mine a couple thousanths off the rifling.