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Found a Good Load But Have Ejector Marks on Brass
- Thread starter Vect0rstar
- Start date
I wish both of yall would shut up
Send your love notes in private messages
Send your love notes in private messages
Just trying to save a highschool kid from losing his hand.
This goes right along with this thread, I have a howa 1500 6.5 Creedmoor that is a factory gun that is in a krg bravo stock. I was having this same issue and i posted earlier in this thread that i was having a very similar issue to the OP, but anyways i was shooting yesterday with 2 different factory loaded hornady rounds. I fired 28 140 gr ELDs and 10 147 gr ELDs and atleast half of them had hard bolt lift when extracting them. I am stumped now as well. After i shot last time and got the pressure issues, i cleaned my bore, chamber and bolt face and made sure there wasnt any wet spots from lube and then i went and shot these rounds and i am having the same issue.
So i am sitting here today looking over everything and the only measurements that i find different between the fired cases that had hard bolt lift and the ones that didn't is the case length. My hornady book and my nosler book both say 1.920 inch max case length and trim to 1.910, the ones with hard lift even after putting them in and just cycling the bolt on the fired case measure 1.915 or above. I have the headspace comparator and ogive comparators and oal gauges and i have measured all that. My lands measure 2.253 in and thats measured to the ogive, and some of these factory rounds measure 2.187 and 2.164. My handloads measure 2.207 to the ogive and they worked great until i hit 42 grains of H4350 with a 129 gr sst on top. 42 grains had ejector marks and the one 42.5 grains H4350 with the 129 sst had hard bolt lift and i stopped. the case length on my hand loads before firing were 1.910 and after they are under 1.915.
So with all that information, can the case length extend enough when firing a factory round to cause hard bolt lift or do i have another issue as well??
So i am sitting here today looking over everything and the only measurements that i find different between the fired cases that had hard bolt lift and the ones that didn't is the case length. My hornady book and my nosler book both say 1.920 inch max case length and trim to 1.910, the ones with hard lift even after putting them in and just cycling the bolt on the fired case measure 1.915 or above. I have the headspace comparator and ogive comparators and oal gauges and i have measured all that. My lands measure 2.253 in and thats measured to the ogive, and some of these factory rounds measure 2.187 and 2.164. My handloads measure 2.207 to the ogive and they worked great until i hit 42 grains of H4350 with a 129 gr sst on top. 42 grains had ejector marks and the one 42.5 grains H4350 with the 129 sst had hard bolt lift and i stopped. the case length on my hand loads before firing were 1.910 and after they are under 1.915.
So with all that information, can the case length extend enough when firing a factory round to cause hard bolt lift or do i have another issue as well??
Ok, you are throwing out OAL length numbers of your brass. It would be rare that long necks yield a stiff bolt. Usually it is swelled cases, at the bottom end for the most part that creates the drag. But length at shoulder can too, tight in, tighter out.
So measure the growth of the shoulders between cases. I'd bet your factory chamber has a long neck in it and what you mention is not the problem. I would point at the ammo itself.
OK so those measurements are factory hornady ammo, what would you recommend to bumping my shoulder back then? Also am I wrong that I would of thought factory 6.5 creedmoor ammo should of fired in this rifle with out any pressure signs since it is a 6.5 creedmoor rifle?
Im not overly thrilled with this howa compared to the ruger precision rifle I have in .308, seems to me it should be the other way around. Does anyone else think the same as me?
Sorry for steeling your thread vector.
Im not overly thrilled with this howa compared to the ruger precision rifle I have in .308, seems to me it should be the other way around. Does anyone else think the same as me?
Sorry for steeling your thread vector.
I'd bump the standard .002" of the long ones. rest will be ok running through the die
I'm not a Hornady ammo fan, we have a local 2 team match that has been going on for eons. I watched a guy practice with Hornady ammo for it one day, he fired 15 shots, let barrel cool, resumed, got 3 off, then 3 blown primers, we all scratch our heads, then fires 15 more w/o incident, then more blown primers, just a crap shoot
Well that kills my buy hornady rounds and re use the brass. I don't shoot matches so maybe the reloads will be fine in the hornady brass.
Too bad you didn't have a chronograph running.
It's either inconsistent loads or bad brass.
Just out of curiosity where are your measurements taken at my hornady ammo at home is all around 1.534”-1.5355” my creedmoor headspace Gauge measures 1.535” and fired brass all comes in under 1.5365” your numbers are quite a bit larger .020” longer pretty much that could be an issue or I could be wrong I’m new as well so take it for what it’s worth
I would not worry about this, your numbers are yours, his are his. Maybe a diff tool used.
You guys throw numbers out which I understand, but I use Whidden case gauges, I work with GO + 3, bump to GO + 1.5. Or on new brass growing, GO - 3 to GO + 3
As long as you have a grip on what is going on, all that is needed.
That is normal for new brass, bump fired brass .002" and call it a day, lol
You should reduce your charge. Whenever you see ejector marks, the brass is over pressured and is flowing back into the bolt face. You'll notice your primer pockets getting looser each consecutive firing until they start popping out while shooting. Here is the load data for that bullet.https://press.hornady.com/assets/site/hornady/files/load-data/6-5-creedmoor-147gr-data.pdf
yea i use a charge master and found them to be off a bit. on the low side. i measure with that and a mecanical scale and found it to be off by .02 grains
the book also says that h4350 powder is max load at 40.3 grains. for a 147grain round. max speed 2600.
is that a factory barrel? if so lower the load somewhere in the middle and work up from there. 147 are great but they dont go fast and your primers show pressure on some of them.
is that a factory barrel? if so lower the load somewhere in the middle and work up from there. 147 are great but they dont go fast and your primers show pressure on some of them.
Ummm, are you confirming this discrepancy with check weight or "SWAG"..... which scale is correct?
Regardless, you're stepping into a 2year old conversation that is long finished....
Well, yea but look how flat those flat spots are, those may be flattest flat spots I have ever seen. 
I have the same exact mark and same exact problem. But after wasting lots of powder and finally getting to really light loads that could not be causing any pressure problems but were causing the same mark, my brain finally woke up and I tried this. Try putting a sized or new piece of brass in your rifle with no powder, no bullet and no primer. Load and eject the casing. Same mark? Yep, this is what is happening on my MPA 6.5 creedmoor. Same mark without firing. So now I either am going to ignore it since I know its not pressure, or try cutting back the ejector pin spring so the mark goes away. Hope this helps. Like I said, I wasted a lot of powder but now I am happy that I can go back to that load/seating depth that was giving me fantastic results at 100 yards and well beyond!
