22-250 help

I'm asking this for a friend.

He has a Remington 700 bull barrel 22-250rem that shoots 50gr Hornady v max very well. He trimmed Hornady brass with a lee pilot, lyman ez trim shell/case holder and it would trim them at 1.911. His start load was 36gr of H380 to 39.3, OAL of 2.342 which is factory spec. This load shot 3 shots one hole, 1 flier and one to dirty the barrel. He trimmed the cases with an RCBS lathe to 1.902 and did not adjust the seat depth on the die and when we measured a bullet OAL it was 2.352.

Last night we measured all the cases out to 1.902, adjusted the die to the OAL of a factory round and he shot them today and they are shotgunning all over the paper. We also tried using the Hornady OAL tool with the modified case and it was giving us results way over the book max OAL.

Any thoughts from you guys what's going on here? I figured if the factory round shot well then that seat depth would give him at least something decent but we are talking softball and larger groups.

horsey300 said:

Nosler:
Trim to length, 1.912
Seat to 2.35.
Start 37 gr Max 41
Hodgdon:
Trim, 1.902
Seat, 2.35
Start 38 Max 41
Your original results that were decent were 1.911
2.342
36 gr
You took MORE brass off the neck and put LESS bullet in the case. Thinking that you better RE work that load up, bet you need more powder....
Personally, I wouldn't have changed anything, I would have loaded up 15 and shot at 200 yds. Then, if we're really competing with factory loads, I'd shoot 15 factory at 200. See how THAT compares. Also, I would NOT have trimmed shorter AND lengthened at the same time without a full new workup, I would lengthen first, and adjust charges if needed, but two changes at once can lead to tail chasing.

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the lee pilot trimmer trimmed them at the 1.911/1.912 but the hornady and hodgdons manual said otherwise so HE trimmed them to that. should HE seat the bullet a little longer now or deeper?

He is thinking that the shorter cases are not getting neck sized right because they are too short but i cant see it making a difference because its still a book number but i could be wrong?

Here was my suggestion. start min-max with the 1.902 and seat the bullet to the book spec 2.350 or factory spec 2.343 and run 10 of what charge shot well and see what they do. he says when he was shooting them after going from a trim length of 1.912 to a trim length of 1.902 and not adjusting the seating stem which was set at 1.912 for a OAL of 2.343 he had rounds that would not chamber and when we measured them they were 2.353-3k over the book max OAL. IMO it liked the 39.3 charge so try the two seat depths that are know (book and factory) and see what happens.

He says he is now going to load up the rounds with the longer cases at the known good charge and see what happens.

Blue68f100 said:

I have found over the years it does not pay to try to match factory ammo. Mainly because we do not have the canister powder, may or may not know the bullet details. I've had much better luck just working up a load. In the end my hand loads out shoot any factory ammo I have every tried. So I no longer buy factory ammo, I just buy the components and make up my own. I've also learned over the years to follow the mfg recommendations on OAL, at least to start with. Then I fine tune that after I have my best charge.

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he seated some at 2.353 and said they wouldn't chamber but the OAL tool showed the rifle to have a very long throat over the 2.350. I figured with it liking the longer jump from the factory rounds it would like that OAL with reloads and also having the book length be 3k from what would not chamber i told him watch going to book OAL.

Well he just loaded 3 at the good load with the short brass and book oal and the long brass at book oal and what his brass grew to 1.908 and every group shot minute of pie plate. I suggested he ditch the h380 and try varget or an imr powder reload Ron recommended so we will see if he takes my advice. He shot 3 factory round and got about 3 inch groups at 100yards. I'm thinking with the oal from the hornady gauges putting us at over 2.350 the throats shot but could be wrong.

redneck2 said:

I would never, ever use OAL for different bullets. It's actually a crap shoot even on bullets from the same box. Tip length can vary just from bullet to bullet. Get a Hornady ogive measuring tool.

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that's what we used. I don't do OAL from the tip anymore.

I told him ditch the powder and he ended up with varget. Ended up with half inch group about 5-6 tenths from max at book trim and seat length. he wanted tighter so I advised seat about 3k deeper watching for pressure signs as book is 2.350 and factory is 2.335-ish so I wouldn't go deer than that. if that doesn't work go up 3k but watch the neck tension.

2bfree said:

I am confused here, you said he got a 1 hole group using H380, why tell him to ditch it ?

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he tried that load about 3 more times and wasn't able to do it again. upon talking with him later after the first post it was only 2 shots touching and the rest was shotgunned all over the place. He sent me a pic today and varget got him 3 shots within a half inch and he said hes happy.