Bummed that my new Weatherby Vanguard is not behaving. The short question is; How much space is needed between the shoulder of the case and the shoulder of the chamber for this hunting gun? I think I have about .007-.010 which should be plenty from what I have read, but maybe I'm wrong. So here is the background:
New PPU cases full length sized in Redding Series A die. Hornady 139gr interlock. .020 off the lands. Initial velocity ladder looking for nodes 37.7gr - 42.5gr Varget at .2 gr intervals. No problems.
Push it a little farther. Hornady manual max at 43.5, Hodgdon max at 41.5. Shoot 41.5 - 43.5. At 43.1 sticky bolt on ejection and velocity drop. Call it a day, go back and load groups at 42.0 node to see what she'll do.
Once fired cases now full length resized again. Easy chambering, but groups a bit sticky on the retraction. Not good for hunting. Primers a bit flat but not terrible. Bullets were moved up to .015 off lands to see if I could get an awesome group. .005 change causing problems? Hmmm. Cases stretching a bit more than I'm used to. (.005-.010) Some ending up over spec (2.035).
Resize again bullets back to .022 off the lands and trim all the way back to 2.025. Reshoot ladder 39.7 - 42.5. First few shots- sticky bolt. Something is up here!
Fired cases are not chambering smoothly. Let's do some measuring. Resized fired case loaded 1.615 on the .400 datum chambers smoothly.
Fired cases not resized 1.624 are sticky when chambering and ejecting. Could I possibly have a brand-new gun with headspace too short? Min chamber spec 1.630, length tolerance +.015 if I'm reading that correctly. Try a go gauge- darn $50 and wait for the mail or wait for day off and drive to far away gunsmith for gratuitous go gauge check. I'll make my own. 30-06 case reformed down to 7-08 and trim. Keep bumping until 1.630. Like hitting a brick wall when chambering- no go. Try again with another reform. Same result. Keep bumping until chambering correctly. At 1.622 it is working nicely.
So two things: 1) Original question: Should I be having problems with 1.615 ammo in a 1.622 chamber? 2) If my measurements are correct, I should probably have the gun fixed. How does a gunsmith fix this on a Vanguard?
Sorry so long, but want to understand where my thinking could be off. Don't want to just throw it at a gunsmith and say "make it shoot". or worse yet, have somebody tell me to just shoot factory ammo. Thanks for any insight on how to proceed.
p.s. Ammo is in spec for neck diameter, but haven't measured neck in chamber yet.
New PPU cases full length sized in Redding Series A die. Hornady 139gr interlock. .020 off the lands. Initial velocity ladder looking for nodes 37.7gr - 42.5gr Varget at .2 gr intervals. No problems.
Push it a little farther. Hornady manual max at 43.5, Hodgdon max at 41.5. Shoot 41.5 - 43.5. At 43.1 sticky bolt on ejection and velocity drop. Call it a day, go back and load groups at 42.0 node to see what she'll do.
Once fired cases now full length resized again. Easy chambering, but groups a bit sticky on the retraction. Not good for hunting. Primers a bit flat but not terrible. Bullets were moved up to .015 off lands to see if I could get an awesome group. .005 change causing problems? Hmmm. Cases stretching a bit more than I'm used to. (.005-.010) Some ending up over spec (2.035).
Resize again bullets back to .022 off the lands and trim all the way back to 2.025. Reshoot ladder 39.7 - 42.5. First few shots- sticky bolt. Something is up here!
Fired cases are not chambering smoothly. Let's do some measuring. Resized fired case loaded 1.615 on the .400 datum chambers smoothly.
Fired cases not resized 1.624 are sticky when chambering and ejecting. Could I possibly have a brand-new gun with headspace too short? Min chamber spec 1.630, length tolerance +.015 if I'm reading that correctly. Try a go gauge- darn $50 and wait for the mail or wait for day off and drive to far away gunsmith for gratuitous go gauge check. I'll make my own. 30-06 case reformed down to 7-08 and trim. Keep bumping until 1.630. Like hitting a brick wall when chambering- no go. Try again with another reform. Same result. Keep bumping until chambering correctly. At 1.622 it is working nicely.
So two things: 1) Original question: Should I be having problems with 1.615 ammo in a 1.622 chamber? 2) If my measurements are correct, I should probably have the gun fixed. How does a gunsmith fix this on a Vanguard?
Sorry so long, but want to understand where my thinking could be off. Don't want to just throw it at a gunsmith and say "make it shoot". or worse yet, have somebody tell me to just shoot factory ammo. Thanks for any insight on how to proceed.
p.s. Ammo is in spec for neck diameter, but haven't measured neck in chamber yet.