ruger 375

[bigted]

i purchased a 375 ruger when the 'alaska' model first came out. i also purchased a set of redding dies for re-loading...ive loaded several box's of ammo for this and chuckled at the write-ups about miss-fires and such with other folks and just figured that they must be doing something wrong...TILL IT HAPPENED TO ME !!

in the past ive used only the neck sizer provided in the redding box and never used the full length sizer also in the box.

i decided to further experiment with some other loads so i figured that it must be time to full length size the cases to start over with charges that approach full throttle.

NO IM NOT GOING TO SAY WHAT THE LOAD IS ! it is very uncomfortable and rite on the edge of preassure so NO...please dont ask as i wont be saying.

getting out to the range i fired some of my lite loads to warm up with the rifle and then slipped in a couple of these heavy loads. first thing that happened was i had a small lag between the trigger pull and shot. after a couple like this...[not really a hang fire...more like a dirty muzzle loader when the spark has a tough time getting thru the fouling] i had a single cartridge fail to fire completly. now after the 10 minute recess at the firing lane...i fumbled with this gernaid like cartridge and took it out behind a berm to "cool off" while i shot some more lite loads.

after shooting more and thinking about this strange happening i loaded up and started for home after retrieving the unfired case with the dimple in the primer. i was thinking i had a bunch of bad primers but no...i loaded some other cartridges with these primers and never had a problem. so in thinking about this i fumbled around and tore my rifle apart to see if i could see anything...no broken firing pin...chamber looked good...bolt lockup was positive...spring is good inside the bolt...so on and so forth. everything checked out...back to the shell;

then it struck me that i had full length sized these loads and it also occured to me to check the length of these cartridge against the others that fired just fine.

long storie shot...[too late for that huh] these full length sized cart are just shy of the length of the other cases that have just the neck size done to them. the offending length is in the neck area where these cases chamber against as there is no belt to provide absolute head space on.

anybody else had this happen to them with this cart or the 416ruger which is also built on the same case and principle?



i know huh...now he pays attention...mom always said i was a lil stuborn.......naaaaa!

[snowwolfe]

Had something along the same lines happen with my 375 Ruger. Not sure of the powder as I tossed it after this happened.
I loaded up some rounds with some very slow powder just for off hand practice. Since the powder was so slow was not worried about high pressure and the load was slightly compressed. About 35 out of 50 had a distint "hang fire".

Not sure if the powder went bad (never had powder go bad before) or if the compressed load caused erratic burning. But from now on I'll stay with faster powders and non compressed loads.

But since you mentioned it I'll double check to make sure I am not over sizing the cases.