berger 6.5cm ammo & bergara rifle = bad day

[eoperator]

Tried a box of beger 6.5cm 140gr hybrid ammo with my bergara hmr rifle today. Fired 3 shots all in the same hole 4th 2" high left. Next group 2 shots same hole 3rd shot high left again 4th shot ppppfffffttttt face full of powder blast. Good thing I had safety glasses on, normally I dont wear them while shooting. After taking a good look at everything I found 3 pierced primers last one broke firing pin and blew off bolt shroud. Ended up finding bolt shroud in the snow behind my truck.

140gr berger hybrids are my pet handloads for this rifle the berger factory loads have a shorter oal than my handloads. No hard bolt lift or anything out of the usual till last round fired.

Any thoughts on what I should do?

 

[wildwilderness]

Umm, every primer looks bad to me.... if that’s your usually I’d say you are always on the line. The cratering from the fire pin strike is a sign of pressure, should be a flat with no edge.

I check every primer after every shot to monitor. I would have known from the first shot! Can’t believe you fired again after a pierced primer. You don’t have to have a heavy bolt lift to have too much pressure. I’ve seen a case head separation before with no heavy bolt!

 

[eoperator]

Umm, every primer looks bad to me.... if that’s your usually I’d say you are always on the line. The cratering from the fire pin strike is a sign of pressure, should be a flat with no edge.

I check every primer after every shot to monitor. I would have known from the first shot! Can’t believe you fired again after a pierced primer. You don’t have to have a heavy bolt lift to have too much pressure. I’ve seen a case head separation before with no heavy bolt!

I was in a bit of a hurry just wanted to shoot a few groups to find out how rifle liked that new ammo. Factory ammo in a familiar rifle I didnt worry/inspect brass. The first 2 pierced primers did not give any sing of something bad happening. If it had not been raining the wife and kids would have most likely been shooting also, so I geuss that makes it a good day.

 

[204guy]

Those are all way cratered. I'd contact Berger, factories can put out bad lots of ammo. They should be interested.

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[tdot]

Do you ever get a ridge around the firing pin on any of your other handloads?

Some firing pins don't mate well in the bolt and can leave that mark regularly even without being over pressure. My blueprinted Rem 700 does no matter what the load. I need to have a bushing installed in the bolt to tighten up the clearance.

I dont see any other signs of pressure on that case head, and the primers are generally well contoured still (not flat).

While the load might be over pressure, you may want to look at the firing pin too. Though with the damage caused by the pierced primer, you may not know.

Some primers crater worse then others, I dont know if it's because they are thinner or softer metal or something else???


The only case head separations I've seen are from out of spec chambers.

 

[eoperator]

Do you ever get a ridge around the firing pin on any of your other handloads?

Some firing pins don't mate well in the bolt and can leave that mark regularly even without being over pressure. My blueprinted Rem 700 does no matter what the load. I need to have a bushing installed in the bolt to tighten up the clearance.

I dont see any other signs of pressure on that case head, and the primers are generally well contoured still (not flat).

While the load might be over pressure, you may want to look at the firing pin too. Though with the damage caused by the pierced primer, you may not know.

Some primers crater worse then others, I dont know if it's because they are thinner or softer metal or something else???


The only case head separations I've seen are from out of spec chambers.

My handloads 41.5gr h4350 mv of 2650fps 22" barrel no primer cratering. Berger's ammo is listed at 2850fps with a 26" test barrel. That is a hot 140gr factory load compared to other factory loads.

Lapua brass has small primers, combine that with a hot load and possibly oversize firing pin hole ???

 

[wind gypsy]

Interested to hear what Berger has to say about this!

 

[eoperator]

Contacted Berger today they wanted all specific details and ammo returned for testing. They would not give up much other than alot of info needed to be checked out before making any conclusions.

 

[Hardwoodmaterials]

I have a Rem 700 that craters every primer no matter what load. I don't see flat primers or ejector marks. Looks like it may just be the combination of soft/thin primers and over sized firing pin hole.

 

[wind gypsy]

I have a Rem 700 that craters every primer no matter what load. I don't see flat primers or ejector marks. Looks like it may just be the combination of soft/thin primers and over sized firing pin hole.

I have a 700 that craters easily as well but it’s never pierced a primer. Seems like there has to be an over pressure condition here?

 

[eoperator]

Berger's response is their ammo if well within saami specs, primer failure is cause by rifles not set up for small rifle primers. Small primers require less firing pin protrusion causing these primer piercings. This is something they see more often in AR platform rifles. They are going to replace ammo with a new load that has large rifle primers.

Nowhere on their website does it say anything about small primers or needing a rifle setup for small primers to safely fire this ammo. Ammo sold without specific need instruction should be safe to use in any saami chambered rifle right?

 

[eoperator]

Bergara was very helpful they will fix everything free of charge the even sent a shipping label.

 

[bill_eb]

It was the ammo - I had two different boxes of 270 cal. Remington factory ammo 130 gr. CorLoks that did that to me. Burned a hole in the primer on a couple and one blew hot powder back in my face. Remington admitted the ammo was defective and replaced 4 boxes that I had from the same lot. They also replaced the bolt on the Remington 700 I was shooting at the time for free. It happened again two years later with another box of Remington factory ammo. Will never happened again since I reload now and can control the quality of the ammo.