This fall a friend and I went out to test some loads for a new rifle of his. A Weatherby in 257WBY.
What does this mean to the layman? Simple. You look up some load data for the round and figure out a range of powder grains you want to shoot. Take the most desirable of the results and cross that with your pre-determined goals: accuracy, speed, etc.
I watched the first shot and it was loud. Not unexpected for any caliber with WBY after it. But I noticed it jumped quite a bit as well from the rest. After a few more shots and some data, we realized something with wrong as the grains he choose should not have been that high up in the spectrum of results.
Also while looking at the spent brass case, the primer fell out of the pocket!
So…wisely…he stopped. We figured his powder measure back home was on the fritz. After some checking and cross checking, my friend discovered that he has worn out the reloading dies! Not an unheard-of event, but not common at all.
Incidentally, last year this same shooter had loaded 2000 rounds of 77g match 223 only to discover to his horror that the OAL was out of spec and wouldn’t chamber in a particular AR. Further testing revealed the same issue.
What can I say? We shoot a lot.
Marky
www.john1911.com
“Shooting Guns & Having Fun”
Areas of focus: Defense and National Security, Modern Light Weapons, Small Arms, Weapons Training.
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