I realize that I have screwed up by trusting some one elses handloads. From now on, factory or my own.
I've got a fairly new .243, and a friend who shoots .243 ALOT, loaded me some rounds using IMR 4064 and hornady
95 gr. sst's. he was aiming for 1.5 grains below max according to the hornady manual. he overshot.
I fired and felt powder/gas blow back into my cheek. looked down and saw smoke out of the back of the bolt. It took alot about all that i have to remove the bolt. When I got the bolt pulled, the case was locked into the bolt face. With a pair of channel locks, I was able to work the spent brass out of the bolt. I brushed the bolt face clean of the brass "splinters". The extractor/pin etc... seemed ok. I gave the gun a long time to cool and then locked the gun in a sled and dixie rigged a string to pull the trigger. Fired a few fed. factory rounds with no obvious problems. The gun seems to shoot/group pretty good now. I was just curious to know if I have done any unseen damage and if so, what should I look for?
Thanks for your replys/advice. Also, thanks for not retelling me how stupid I am!

When using someone else's to hand loads for your weapon creates problems . Not just the amount of the charge but case sizing cartridge OAL , how much projectile is off the lands .

You now know as the lesson has been learned .

Your not alone , those shoes have been well worn by many !,

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

Hi!
I look at handloads like a toothbrush - NEVER use someone else's.

thanks for ya'lls advice. the toothbrush analogy is a good one, one that I will take to heart.
It had to have just been too much powder. I asked him how he figured oal and he said that since he wasn't super familiar with my rifle, he went with factory length. don't know how he figures this as I have seen different lengths from different makers.
anyways, it looks as if i am going to have to do some serious research/learning and get a kit and start loading my own.
main question though, I have fired the rifle (700 bdl) about 20 times now with factory loads
and it is still shooting/grouping decently, about one and one eighth average 5 shot group, sometimes three quater if i can do what i'm supposed to. That being said, am I safe or could there be unseen damage to the gun to affect longevity? could the action be weakened or dangerous?
Thanks

If the rifle operates normally, with no feed, extraction, or ejection issues, after a close inspection of the bolt locking lugs (for cracks) you might as well regard the rifle as simply having been re-proof-tested.

REPEATED hand-overloading will cause metal parts to accumulate fatigue at an accelerated rate. An isolated occurence which hasn't caused any of the parts (except, of course, the brass) to yield (permanently change shape) probably is no cause for concern.

Physical damage to the boltface (pitting) can cause problems, and tiny parts like Remington extractors can have hidden damage. Tiny bits of brass inside the bolt or in the trigger mechanism can cause misfires or ADs.

Have the rifle cleaned and inspected by a gunsmith and count yourself lucky.

BV

Thanks for the advice.
I have already ordered my own reloading gear, so from here on out my fate is in my hands.
I appreciate everybody not trying to make me feel like a dumb @$$, like on another forum I tried out.
Once my equipment gets in, I'm sure that I'll be on here with many rookie questions. Looking forward to learning from ya'll!!

The rifle is fine. Virtually any rifle (particularly a modern bolt action) is far stronger than the brass case. The Remington 700 is among the strongest. As was mentioned above, a steady diet of overloads can fatigue the steel of the action or gall the locking lugs/seats, but a single overload that pops the primer is unlikly to do any lasting damage.

From your description, I sincerely doubt that the problem round you fired was loaded to the specifications you mention. The powder could have been misidentified, or the loading scale could have been set one poise notch (5 grains)higher than intended.

You know what they say? Live and learn.

You'll get more satisfaction loading your own anyway.

What did you plan on doing with the remaining ammo he loaded for you?

Or the case neck needed trimming. That will cause a spike similar to what you experienced even if the load is otherwise safe.

as far as the rest of the ammo, i'm going to pull the bullets and see if there any more problem charges. then back to square one.
can't wait till my gear comes in to start loading my own, but you can bet that i will definately start on the low end and work up incrementally!!!

Weigh the charges and measure the case length. I bet it's one or the other.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Weigh the charges and measure the case length. I bet it's one or the other.

I won't shoot someone else's reloads unless I have their data on it. Mostly I want to know what powder they're using, charge weight.

Not too worried about primers.

I pull apart a couple loads, measure/weigh the bullets, weigh the charge, measure the brass. Generally work up a spec on the load and then see if it "fits" with the data I've been given.

Then if it fits the parameters of a standard MANUFACTURE'S PUBLISHED LOAD, I'll go ahead and shoot it, looking for obvious pressure indices, like flowing/flattened primers.

Lots of chambers these days have "freebore" -- between the chamber and the leade in the rifling. This keeps the bullet from being jammed into the rifling.

There's been a time or two when closing the bolt I find that the bullet is pressed into the rifling. Not a good sign!

That's one of the more common problems I run into; long-loading to their lands makes for a good chance you'l jam into your own. The other is neck-sizing when they have a bigger chamber than you, which causes the bolt not to close.

And if your unfortunate enough to ram it home hard, it can take a bit to get the round back out of the chamber. That dogged me from time to time when I mixed up otherwise safe loads between my 270 bolt gun (that I always neck-sized) and my Rem 760 which always needed full length re-sizing. Not to mention ZERO extraction leverage.