yesterday at the range, (long)

[jhalcott]

I watched a guy work up a load with his 270 Browning. He was trying the "ladder method". He had barnes bullets on top of charges of IMR 4831. 18 rounds in half grain increases of powder in each,from 53 to 59 grains.I noticed a shiny spot on the 15th round's base and showed it to him. He said "that looks like the pressure is getting high!?". he continued to shoot the rounds getting more "pressure" each shot. The 18th (59 grain load) did not hit the target! The primer pocket was enlarged to the point I could drop the spent primer back in.(it had stayed in the magazine when he removed the case) He loaded another round with a different bullet / powder combo. This empty did not eject! On ckecking his bolt ,the ejector was damaged and could not be freed at the range. After talking to him for a bit ,I found out that he had just started to reload since CHRISTmas. He has been a club member for many years. I guess I feel guilty of letting him continue when I saw the pressure signs. I am so glad nothing more serious happened.

[skb2706]

Although I can't recite the 'ladder method' verbatum. I am sure that there is a part that includes something to the effect that you discontinue working your way up at the first sign of high pressure.
Handloading is not for everybody...........

[sprest22]

What grain bullet was he shooting?The data he was using is 130 gr jacketed data.If he was using a heavier bullet that may explain his problem.Sound like really high pressure to damage the extractor that bad using the correct data out of a fairly recent manual.

[jhalcott]

I am not sure of the weight of the bullets,just that they were BarnesX's
Most likely 130's.As that was what the Game Kings in the next loads were.
 I believe he had seated them as he normally seated other 130's from our limited talk. He seemed surprised when I said Barnes X bullets should be seated farther from the lands than other bullets. He has not called me to let me know if the gun is repaired yet. I offered to help him gain some more knowledge of hand loading as I am retired and need a diversion!

[lilabner]

I have an old (1966) Speer reloading manual which contains an article on handloading for hunting written by Jack O'Connor. Jack's favorite .270 load was 60 gr. of 4831 behind a 130 gr. bullet. The other .270 loads he advocated were also HOT! Imagine what would happen if beginning reloaders used Jack's loads as a starting point!

[adirondacker]

its quite possible that the fella made some mistakes in his powder charging.who knows if his 59 grn loads were really 59 grns.seems like the pressure was pretty intense for a load that was listed in a manual.maybe he forgot to zero his scale or it was set 5 grns heavy.lucky the guy still has a face.

  my lyman scale has 5 grn increments on the beam that can sometimes be confusing unless you look close., and that little sliding weight for tenths ha sgotten bumped during a load session and not noticed it until like half of 50 cases were charged.nothing to do but dump them out and start over.

 i'm getting rid of this scale and going back to something that locks in place.i think my old one was a 5-0-5 or something like that seems though the beam had a turn knob for tenths that locked in place.

[Graybeard]

Jay for some strange reason when I read the subject line I just knew another gun had blown up. I see this time it wasn't yours but you were there. Me thinks a little black rain cloud must hang around over you.  

[jhalcott]

Gb you don't know how TRUE your words are. And me in a big depression! :lol: