Yesterday I thought I would check my latest batch of ammo. I shot at 100 and 200 and they would string up and down. I tried it with 150 & 170 Speers on different charge weights and they were all no good. So I returned home loaded some more even going to the extreme with BLC 2 to the point that when I tried again the fire ball from the 16" barrel was unbearable with ears on! Oddly though there was no bad sighn of pressure but who knows come a hot summer! This hot load was the only grouping load @ 4". At 200yds it dropped 7-8" thus giving me reason to believe a vel of 2200-2300fps which is impressive from a 16" tube but I feel it is too much.
When I returned home I was really fed up and checked the gun all over. The front barrel band is gripping the mag tube but floating on the barrel just as it was when it was shooting better. The rear band was still tight on the wood and barrel so I lightly sanded the wood lacquer down untill it just slipped into position just nice and worked the rear band so it just slipped over the barrel and wood, thus I hope that this will improve things in this area. Next I checked all scope mounts and they were fine.
This morning I loaded another batch of test loads and found my brass was sticking in the sizing die, something that has happend regular. I realised that some of the brass was coming out with a rounded shoulder. It appears the decapping rod was grabbing the neck and stretching the neck thus pulling on the shoulder! I raised the decapper and immediatly noticed how much easier the brass was to resize
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
I then looked at the last batch in question and noticed that sure enough some had rounded shoulders and some had not
![Crying or Very sad :cry:](./images/smilies/icon_cry.gif)
I have done some more test loads with an adjusted die and they all look how they should now and weather permitting will test them after work. I just hope it was that/me and everything will work out fine again.
If it does go fine I will pull the affected batch and salvage the bullets /powder then put a pinch of W231 under some lead'ns to fire form the cases and start over
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
Has anybody here ever experienced this or am I special?
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
Nath.