reloading .223 for tc contender

[tmar04]

I have reloaded several hundred rounds of once fired .223 to use in a Savage bolt action rifle I have. Most of these loads are in excess of the max recommended in the Complete Reloading manual for Contender. Some, if not all , of the pressures are 50,000+. "When I say in excess of max, I mean by no more than 1 grain of powder. Wonder if these loads will be OK in my contender??  What should I look for in the fired cases?  Thanks to all.

[Steve P]

.223 SAAMI spec for .223 is 55kpsi.  If the loads you have are book loads for your rifle, they should work ok in your contender.  I have shot many 5.56 loads in my Contenders without problems (62kpsi).  For example: If your rifle manual says to use ABC powder, X primer, Y brass, and Z bullet, and you have done exactly that you should be fine if you use + 1.0 grain of ABC powder over the Contender book.   

Several things could become aparent if loads are too hot.  Any one of these would cause me to rethink firing more.  Action really hard to open (caused by excessive stretching of brass OR cratered primer holding around firing pin or orifice.)  Action opens, but brass is hard to extract from the barrel.  Primers are flattened so NO round edges are visible.  A lot of primers are actually a little domed and they have rounded edges on them.  Having the primer flatten around the firing pin dimple is normal.  If primer flattens all across that surface and the rounded edges are no longer rounded, you are getting a little hot. 

The complete reloading manual for the Contender is a compilation of several different reloading manuals.  If you are familiar enough with reloading manuals, you can quickly tell which pages are from which manual.  Compare your rifle loads with the Contender reloading pages that come from same manual.  Exceeding a max load by 1.0 grain should not be a problem as long as all other components are the same.  HOWEVER if you use military brass which is thicker and has less case volume, pressue can spike quickly. 

Here is a photo of some things to look for on primers.

Good luck, but stay safe.

Steve
 

[tmar04]

for some reason, I just now got around to reading your reply. thank you so much for this info.

[Lloyd Smale]

I like to back my contender loads off a bit. I stretched the frame on one tc shooting hot 4570 loads and it didnt even make a good paper weight after that. plus most of my loads for my .223 contender are a bit more accurate backed off a grain or two then they are using book max loads.