208gr amax + RL17 in a 308, I got problems I think.

[JTknives]

I have been fallowing the big thread on using the 208gr amax in a 308 for a long time and now built a gun to do it. So I'm stocked up on bullets 600 of them and powder. I loaded some up from 43gr to 45gr, and my col is 2.900 my max is only 2.908 in this gun. I went out and tested and found that 45grs was the most accurate. 5 shot ragged hole. Got home and went to reload and new primers could be pressed in with my thumb. Not on all the brass but on around 5. Now I must come clean on two things, first thing is I'm using lapua brass that I shot once and now realize that the Speer load data I used according to quickload is over max pressure even though it's a Speer published load. When loading the once fired brass for the 208s I did notice easy primer seating but nothing like after I shot the 208s. Second thing is I used federal gold medal match magnum primers as that's all I had. I see guys loading to shorter col then me and going to like 48grs. Is this just because thy are using standard primers? Or could my first loading damaged the brass and my 208gr load was actually ok. Also is it worth reaming out the throat of the chamber to take longer loaded rounds. The barrel is a match grade benchmark barrel. Thank you guys

 

[sierracharlie338]

I don't see any reason to mess with the chamber or throat at this point. Your coal is fine as far as I'm aware. Mine is somewhere in that same area.

Refine your loading components and start the test from the beginning with non mag primers and such.

 

[Expert684]

I have shot heavy loads in Lapau brass. Federal 210m are a little on the lose side. Wolf, Tula or BR2 should fit a little tighter. You might have to tweak the load.

 

[JTknives]

I found a K of CCI200 primers and I'm going to try thoes. I wonder if thy will work better. From all my past reloading with pistols for accuracy I found that if I could use a standard primer over a mag primer I could count on about half the group size. So I'm hoping that these non mag primers will preform better.

 

[JTknives]

Well guys I found the problem. I had 2 rounds of of fired brass I shot the other day that where loaded with the Speer book load (168gr Speer BTHP match + 45.3grs of W748 and a federal gold medal match magnum large rifle primer.). This load was stright out of there book #14. Onley thing that was not the same was I used lapua brass but everything else was book spec. So I ran them through the sizer die and the primers just about fell out with very little pressure. I pushed a primer in and felt zero resistance to seating. I grabbed the brass and a decaping rod and could easily push the primer out by hand just pushing the rod in the case. The brass I used to test the 208s was the brass I used to work up that Speer load. Speer said 46gr was max but I think I loaded to a max of 47gr. I did 2 of each at .5 gr workups from 42grs. And the load I settled on 45.3gr I just found out is blowing out primer pockets. So no wonder I have sloppy brass. So now my confidence is restored and I just pulled down 80 rounds of over pressure loads in new lapua brass. Thanks guys.