6.5-284 factory Nosler 130 showing signs of it.


One blew a primer


Was going to run these since they shot so well but I guess I will start load development now.
Have a email into Nosler will see what they say.

What rifle are you using?

Rebarreled Winchester

Have the chamber on rifle checked as well. The headspace could be off.

It's not uncommon. I had a fn that factory hornady was too hot in and a custom 22-250 that factory winchester was causing a tight bolt.

If I'm not mistaken Horizon Firearms did the smithing on this barrel. I'm sure the barrel is perfect, and this is an ammunition problem.

If I ignore the blown primer, the other primers don't look that flat. I've flattened primers way more than that.

I built a load for the 7-08 on Nosler brass, with suppressor attached. There was a day a student shot it for the class, and there was fog in the air. Out of 70 rounds, 7 blew primers, but there had been no signs of pressure before that. Obviously I reworked the load on a lower charge. We'll see if that corrects it.

I've ran hot loads before, but none were ever on Nosler brass and none ever blew primers. I'm not saying the brass is crap, Lord knows it costs plenty of money, but I will be keeping an eye on it.

Reason# 1375 to hand-load your own.

I have also had some over pressures in factory ammo using Winchester white box 45 gr hp 223 and Weatherby factory ammo 180 grain spire points. On the wby had flat primers ejector marks. On the 223 some primers came out and some of the brass had very loose primer pockets. Was some stiff bolt lift in both instances but no mallet required.

Have had some over pressure factory ammo over the years. The OP did right by contacting Nosler about it.

The Nosler Custom is hand loaded ammo. They load on Dillon progressive's using same components we the consumer would buy from what I could tell walking through and observing them working. The only canister of powder I saw was H4350 but they were trying so show the custom rifle dept and not the ammo making portion.... I was just nosy.
The only " bad" ammo I have seen was some Hornady 22-250 that the primers blew in and it was due to supposedly soft brass per Hornady and they replaced it of course.

I would check the throat, .284 Win was built on short action guns as were a lot of wildcat 6.5-284 rifles were built on short actions. Norma chose to lengthen the COAL and the throat to help keep the bullet base in the neck.

Edited: didnt see the above post before i sent this through

Could be a short throat causing the bullet to seat into the lands. That can take a normal load to well over max. Anyone know what bullet the original chamber was cut for?

I just stumbled on to this thread and there is a lot to answer here.

1) Its not a head space issue

2) The reamers we use were based off of 140 Bergers. Now that being said we have been doing them for a while and not being SAMI specked lots of people have different reamers. The HSM ammo is a couple thou too long for my reamer it puts them right up in to the lands. The Nosler ammo is usually spot on

3) I have had this issue with a couple boxes of the 130s over the last year. I called Nosler on them with the lot number and both boxes were running reloader 19, dumped my loads and they were right at max. Took them down 1 grain and they were money.

4) Did it by chance happen after you cleaned the barrel? I have seen that occasionally as well on the 6.5x284s shooting the nosler ammo. It is right on the edge of hot and the increased resistance caused pressure.

5) If you are going to load give me a holler I can give you the load for the 140 bergers. If you are loading the 130s from nos. (what I would do) or get the preloaded 129 LR I run the same case to ogive measurement on the 130s but run a more stable powder or less grains of the 19.

6) Hows the gun shooting??

hard to tell things by a picture, but other than the one that blew and the one next to the loaded round which is flattened the rest all look like normal primer strikes and no over pressure. what are you seeing that maybe the picture isn't representing well? the primer's look like they had good strikes and are rounded at the edges, when i look for a flat primer this is more what i am looking for.... disclaimer this is a internet pic of a pistol round but you get the point. obviously the left one is flattened.