Bolt Sticking! Is it my load?

[Deederswy]

Hey everyone,
I seem to have an issue...I have a Remington 700 7mm mag that i load for, my combo is Winchester brass, Fed 215 primers, 68 grains or H1000 and Berger 168 VLD. 1 in every 5-10 rounds fired my bolt sticks and it takes a bit to get it unstuck but the rifle fires fine before and after each time. I got to looking at my COAL and according to SAAMI the max is 3.290 and i seat mine at 3.350. This is the first year ive used this combo and seated my bullet that far out. Also, my brass ive used with it is once and twice fired brass. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this problem? Could it be a pressure thing? Heat thing?

 

[MudRunner2005]

Do you full-length size or neck-size your brass? After a couple of loadings neck-sizing, it is good to FL size to keep the base and all in check.

Also, make sure your brass hasn't grown and that it isn't longer than spec. If it has, trim it back down to SAAMI spec.

Also, make sure you chamfer and deburr your neck openings on your brass, that will help, too.

 

[Clay Target Guy]

Do you have grease on the bolt? I have seen bolt get sticky with "light loads" due to galling.
Just a thought

 

[Deederswy]

I full length size my brass. I set it up as the manual says and I also chamfer and deburr my neck openings. It very well could be that I have to trim down the neck some. Ive never had this issue so its very possible that the brass has grown some. How would the brass growing, stretching cause my bolt to stick? Just curious, its all pretty new to me....

 

[MudRunner2005]

If it grows on the neck too much, it can stretch out and when you lock your bolt shut it will be forced into the throat of the chamber and then when the bullet leaves it will press the excess brass out into the throat gripping the sides of the throat with the edges of the neck that has expanded too far.

If this is the case, you will see a little lip on the edge of your brass around the opening. My buddy has some Remington .300 WM brass do it really bad. Wish I still had one or two laying around so I could show you.

That's just my theory of it, because that's happened to his rifle before, and I reload for his rifle, since he doens't have a press or any of the stuff. He does buy his own powder, primers, dies, and bullets. I just do all the labor, and he buys me a case of beer for loading them for him.

But I have also gotten a load so hot that it flattened the primers to a pancake and caused the brass to swell so hard at the base, that it stuck the bolt and I could get the bolt handle to go up and unlock, but the bolt wouldn't slide back. Which is never a good sign. LOL

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Likely a hot load. I'm only at 66 grains retumbo with the 171 barnes in my remmy 7mag and that's a hot enough load. With belted mag brass it's rather easy to beat it up just ahead of the belt and you may have to chuck the brass or use a collet die/ body die to bring it back to usable dimensions. Easier to run milder loads imo.

 

[Tube Man]

i had a similar problem a few years back with a 7MM Rem Mag. I would get a "sticky" bolt every so often. I checked my loads, chamber, etc. everything checked out fine. I finally discovered that I missed trimming some brass. Once I trimmed all my brass to proper lengths my problem went away.

 

[Deederswy]

Thanks everyone for the info, i really appreciate it. Im going to start with trimming the brass and see if that works. Ill post on here if i have any more issues after that, but i have this gut feeling thats what it is after reading what everyone posted. Thanks again!

 

[joseph floerke]

Factory bolts can get Sticky pretty fast it wont hurt anything but you Must know the actions limits.

 

[Dick Tinsley]

I've got agree with MudRunner an Tube Man! Try trimming your brass. I understand that every rifle is differant, in saying that the only real differant of your load an mine is in one of my 7mags I bump the load to 71gr of H-1000. Havnt had any sticky bolt yet! Just try trimming your cases an see what happens! Just my 2cts!!

DT

 

[rick523]

I've got agree with MudRunner an Tube Man! Try trimming your brass. I understand that every rifle is differant, in saying that the only real differant of your load an mine is in one of my 7mags I bump the load to 71gr of H-1000. Havnt had any sticky bolt yet! Just try trimming your cases an see what happens! Just my 2cts!!

DT

0+1 and I don't think your load is too hot I'm loading 68.7 H-1000 in a custom, and my hunting partner loads 69. grs H-1000. In a stock sendero. I have been as high as 71.5 with no problems other than it didn't group that well. We are both also shooting 168Vld's guess I should have mentioned that.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I'm running 70.0gr of H1000 behind my Berger 168 VLD's in my 7RM Browning A-Bolt II, and so far its shooting great. No sticky bolt, no pressure signs other than some slightly deformed primers, but as long as my brass shows no pressure signs, I'm fine with the primers flattening a little bit. It's barely enough to notice, but you can just spot a small lip right around the flat edge of the primer where it is exposed to the bolt face.

 

[prototype427]

0+1 and I don't think your load is too hot I'm loading 68.7 H-1000 in a custom, and my hunting partner loads 69. grs H-1000. In a stock sendero. I have been as high as 71.5 with no problems other than it didn't group that well. We are both also shooting 168Vld's guess I should have mentioned that.

+2 I would like to mention that a sticky or stuck bolt is the beginning of problems when brass is longer than the maximum length. The bigger picture is that when a round is chambered there is a potential that the brass will not be able to release the bullet before the case fails. The resulting pressure spike could have disastrous results for both the gun and/or shooter.

 

[speedmaster97]

I had the same problem with my 7 rem mag. I was shooting 70.0 H1000 w/ 150 gr Noz. BT. I bought a belted magnum collect resizing die from Larry Willis at Innovative Tech. No problems since, it works on all belted magnums. gun)