advice please

[eaglewatch008]

hi all,

i have a rem700 vssf ii,and am reloading hornady 1 fired brass, neck sized with rl15 powder 27.3 grains as per load data with hornady v max 40 grain bullets, but am only getting on average 3500ft per sec with 5 shot groups, lovely grouping though.

has anybody used the same load and can give me a idea on how many grains or tenths of grains to go up buy to get the speed up to 3800fps out of interest?

[Wrangler John]

Published Hornady data for the 40 grain V-Max shows 27.3 grains of RL-15 is the maximum load. I would not recommend going hotter.

The 300 feet per second difference between the 3,800 fps of Hornady's published velocity and your 3,500 fps could be due to many factors; difference in test barrels, environmental factors, differences between chronographs, powder lots, primers, etc. Each of these factors can play a part in producing an accumulative difference. The Hornady data I saw was from a 26" 1:12" twist barrel, using Hornady brass and Remington 7-1/2 BR Primers.

Chasing published velocities can be a frustrating and futile exercise, and is often deceptive, producing no real gain on varmint.

Use the Hodgdon/IMR/Winchester powder data center at Hodgdon's web site to determine what is practical to expect in the way of velocities: http://data.hodgdon.com/main_menu.asp

Examining the data for the 40 grain V-Max finds there are no loads that reach 3,800 fps with any of the powders listed, while chamber pressures run 55,000 to 56,000 psi for maximum loads. So it would appear that you have reached the practical safe maximum in your rifle with RL-15. Unfortunately Alliant doesn't list the .204 Ruger in it's reloading guide at this time.

[eaglewatch008]

wrangler john,

thank you for reply, i will peruse the data, your answer makes great sense

thanks again

[FireBallGuy]

I got best results with RL-15 at 27.5 grains in my remington.

[Jim White]

According to the 204 Ruger home page under "204 load data" 28.0 grains is the MAX load for RE-15 for a 39 gr (may or may-not imply for a 40 grain pill). I use 27.7 for the most accurate but have tried up to 28.2 but I didn't care for it. My 204's just don't shoot the 40's all that well so I tend to stay away from them.

As far as velocity goes, the elevation and humidity may come into play as well in addition to any turbulance the chronograph may see (bouncing off barriers, muzzle blast ans so on...). Temperature can come into play as well, more effect for some powders that others. Also the lighting can make a differnce (over cast vs sunney and clear).

Your rifle may like higher charged loads over the middle of the road/low end charges. There are a couple of ladder test out there (Audette & OCW) where you can conduct experiments with slightly higher than published loads. But before doing so you MUST famaliarize yourself with ALL the symptoms of over pressure loads. For me, I've never exceeded 1% of the max advertised load in any test. Also, primers are one of the indicators of high pressure but they are not all equal in that some hide the pressure (Remington 7 1/2) better than others (Federal) due in part to thickness of the primer cup.

HTH,

[eaglewatch008]

thanks again for the replys gents,

i am very fortunate to have a local indoor 100yrd range,that i use, and all tests are done on there. at this range my rem seems to bughole the 40's quite well, i started off with 40 rnds of factory hornady ammo and cratering on all the primers was evident, and a little disconserting, but it does the same on my home loads, dont know if this is a common thing or not?

[FireBallGuy]

Don't panick about the cratered primers. Unless you have work done to that remington bolt it will show cratering on time, EVERY time! Flatenning is a much more important sign to watch for in that remy.

[Rick in Oregon]

If you're getting cratering alot, even with factory loads, chances are your bolt needs to be bushed to the proper size to prevent primer flow. I'm seeing this more and more in factory rifles from Remington lately....maybe they need to get some new tooling, review their tolerances or put a real human in the QC Dept.

[Joe O]

thanks again for the replys gents,

i am very fortunate to have a local indoor 100yrd range,that i use, and all tests are done on there. at this range my rem seems to bughole the 40's quite well, i started off with 40 rnds of factory hornady ammo and cratering on all the primers was evident, and a little disconserting, but it does the same on my home loads, dont know if this is a common thing or not?

Not too unusual for unacceptable cratering to occure on a new ,out of the box,rifle.Happened on my Savage LRPV.Talking to Cust service and a good close up pic of the problem with factory ammo,prompted an immediate UPS pick up order, for the next day.They installed a new bolt head (two tries because the first one was a right ejection)(They caught it before sending back to me).However they didn't take care of the ,non-eject problem,so a call to cust service for two extractors,and I would take care of it myself,got me two of everything for the bolt head,plus a nice embrossed leather sling,and patches (LOGO).Dont know if Remington will change out your bolt,or bush the pin.Sometimes ,buying a higher quality gun is still a crap shoot.QC at the finished end is not preventing bad stuff from going out the door.