I had the gu for 10 months and have loaded the 5 boxes of Hornadyfactory ammo for 6 times for 700 rounds.

the load is the 40 V-max CCI BR primer and 28.3 H-4895.never had any problems with the load but on a 500 yard milk jug shot the other day I blew a primer.

is 7 loadings just the life of the brass or shoud I back down a little??would you trash the brass after 5 loadings and use the load or start with new brass back off and expect longer life.never had any obvous pressure signs until now.

first time with Honady brass also,is it softer than Rem / Win.

Did you keep your brass trimmed? What were the temps like?

Doug

mrbig, 28.3 grains of H4895 is a staple load for testing .204's USING THE 32 GRAIN BULLET!! I would hesitate to use 28.3 grains behind a 39 or 40 grain bullet!! I'm shooting HORNADY brass right now that has 1 FL sizing and 6 neck sized loadings and only had 2 case neck splits out of 1800 rounds fired......and those were 1st loading after factory cases!! I don't think the brass is the problem!! You've probably been lucky up till now!!! GHD

the cases were trimmed after the first shot and necks turned and everyting.cleaned and tumbled between every loading.

when I started with this thing there wasnt much if any data and everything I read then praised the H4895.there was a bunch of talk of high 27 low 28 grain loads and I worked up to 28.7 with no problems but the 28.3 shot near one hole and around 3920.shot it all summer and winter but this last batch was off the 3rd can of powder so it may be a little faster or like GD said I may have just been lucky.


geuss I`ll back off a couple of tenths at a time with new brass and see how far down I have to go to get to the next sweet spot.

I sure hate it though,you talk about a nail driving flat shooting varmint exploder,that 40V-Max with that load was it.

Your 200 fps over top velocity loads published by Hornady,Sierra, and Hodgdon. Nuff said.

Hodgdon now lists 27.7 grs as a max Compressed load at 3740 from a 24 inch bbl.

my VSSF-II has a 26.and the 28.3 load just barely comes to the bottom of the neck.it is not compressed.

I am not real familiar with these smaller calibers.will.6 of a grain and 2 inches of bbl make 200 fps difference?

It does in your case albiet at much higher than prudent pressures as evidenced by your blown primer.
A best case scenerio would be to add 25 fps an inch for your added barrel length or 50 fps which would be 3790 if your data is accurate and stop adding powder when you reach that velocity or 27.7 grains, which ever comes first. That is also if no pressure signs show up first. By time you see pressure signs you are in reality way over already. I bet your load is in the 70,000 PSI range.

just hope I can find a load as accurate as this one was.

I highly doubt mr. bigs load was 70000 psi , he would have had more than one primer let go in that case .

However mr big , I think 4895 is a bit too fast if you want to push for speed with the 40 grainers. I would try WW748 . BL-C2 , or maybe RL15 if you want top speed with that weight bullet .

I agree slinger another would be VVN540.

every now and then the primer would round out around the firing pin but not often.not anymore than the factory ammo.

I agree it is a little on the warm side but I wonder if something else pushed that one out of 600 over the edge.

I really didn`t settle on the load for the speed but it was the most accurate load I ever shot from any rifle I ever owned.

I am going to start with new brass and find a little milder load maybe even with the new 45 gr Hornady bullet,since most of my targets are coyote/dog sized critters.

Primers usually start falling out around 75000-80000 psi- of course you have been expanding things since the first reload. Your brass is telling you that you are shooting an overload and one of these days the action will start complaining also if you don't back out off some.

I am betting your primer pockets expanded over time. This is a sign of higher pressures.

This is what happens when you try to beat a Swift with a .204- a proven fact. See above post.

sdgunslinger,
I have seen pressure tested data with snug fitting firing pin holes that registered 73,000 psi and primers that appear perfect in everyway.
I am aware of another pretty big name who has got into pressure trace and done extensive testing with it of multiple calibers. One of the conclusions he has come to is that many handloaders are operating in the 70,000 psi range.
The 223AI runs at about 65.000psi to beat the 223 operating at 55,000 psi by 150 fps. So that 150 fps come at a price of 10,000 psi despite having significant more case capacity.
You can now add Ramshot to the list of Hornady, Hodgdon, and Sierra listing 3700fps tops for the 204 at 56,000 and 57,000 psi with 40 gr. bullets and 4100 fps for the 32 grainers.
Also the bulk of the max loads are 100fps slower than the top two that are 3700 ps for 40 gr. and 4100fps for the 32 gr. bullets.
But yeah, we handloaders can just look at the max loads as minimum velocities we can attain and gain an additional 200-400 fps if these internet postings are to be believed and be perfectly safe.
Personally I'd be most worried about a case failure and the resulting gas's than a blown action/chamber. They can be quite destructive and dangerous.

FVA

I can beleive the 70-73000 psi handloads commonly showing up with larger cases than the 204-223 stuff , but those small cases are not built as strong , and I think bad things are gonna happen if you are regularly loading them at 70000 psi . Thats why the componet manufacturers are limiting them to 55000 saami or so .

I also beleive many the home grown pressure systems are in all likelyhood not calibrated 100 % accurately and errors in the neighborhood of 10 % wouldn't tough to get . If you are running a load with very good brass life and your pressure trace is telling you 70000 psi , I think your pressure trace is lying .


By the way , here is a page of Hornaday load data running the 40 gr 204 V-Max to 3800 fps with six different powders . One powder even gets to 3850 .



http://www.rugerhunting.com/204_data_hornady.php

Well, you are right there, although only one load for the 32's over 4100 fps.
One problem with Hornady data though is that they load their ammo up to spec in a pressure barrel, but then take velocities fired from that ammo out of sporting arms.
Compared to say Nosler who takes the velocity from the same barrel that they get the psi reading from. Most others do it Noslers way as well.