300 WSM reloading and chambering problems

[Carbine Kid]

Vol: yeah, unfortunately I did not take the magneto speed with me as I was going hunting and had to limit how much gear I took along. I was of the mindset that I could hit the range in my downtime and run some ammo thru it to start the break in process. Since I wasnt working up a load, thought it unnecessary.
Certainly wish I had done it now it would've been nice to know what the velocities were.
To the your second point, I can fit a bullet into the neck of a fired case.

vance: I appreciate your point about mixing brass and realize I did not make completely clear that I was separating brass. I'm actually slightly neurotic about that, I ALWAYS separate cases by head stamp and once they are shot they are dedicated to that firearm. Good to know about the Hornady, I think I will start by pulling some of those Federal rounds and back off the charge and shoot them thru the chrono to see what those particular bullets are doin. Once I get that figured out I'll take that once fired brass and work up my own load looking at pressure and velocity to see what I get.

G'day Itchy.
I haven't fired factory loads in any of my rifles for about 40yr and all of them are wildcats except my 300WSM. The loads for it are Speer 125gn TNT with Re 15 for 3448fps and 7mm groups also Speer 180gn HotCor with Win 760 for 3010fps and 10mm groups. These are accuracy loads and below max for this rifle.

To your issues. I have never, during bore scoping, seen a significant carbon ring on a hunting trip where we can fire up to 300 x 125's and 100 x 180's, therefore not your problem at some 30 rounds. Copper fowling also is not your problem.

Your idea to pull and reduce factory load by 2gn is valid and will give you a source of F.F. brass.

I would start work up with the 30 you have and see how you go. That is if the cases will fit after F.L.S. If not use some "reduced" load factory cases
.
You obviously have neck clearance, satisfactory headspace and 35thow "jump" is fine for factory loads.
A custom rifle SHOULD have a "tight" chamber, that is why you build/buy them.
Someone suggested a chamber cast, ok, but that should only confirm that you have what you payed for, a tight custom chamber.

More free bore is not a solution, unless you have built on a long action, as mag length controls your OAL.

I don't believe you have a problem with the rifle and reloading is what the chamber is cut for.

Well mate that is all I can think of.
The 300WSM is, top of the heap for hunting.
It is easy to work up loads for and my two loads take pigs, roos, deer etc apart out to 1000 yds.

Reload and enjoy your new rifle,
Steve.

 

[itchytriggerfinger]

Update on where I'm currently at;

I am still waiting on bump gauge and go gauge to check headspace.
I removed the firing pin from the bolt so I could feel resistance better, I chambered the first ten fired rounds
which the bolt closed with almost no resistance.
I chambered the 11 thru 30 rds fired, and they chambered but with noticeable resistance.
I then full length sized the first ten and chambered effortlessly.
In the meantime, I have prepped some Norma cases that chamber fine in the gun. I will drop the max load by 8-10% and work up a load with these. I will also pull 20-30 rds of the factory cartridges and reduce the charge by two grains to check for pressure and chronographing everything as I go.
I plan on shooting these if the bump and headspace gauges do not indicate any problems there.
But first, I borrowed a Browning A Bolt in 300 WSM from a friend. I am going shoot the factory Ammo in his gun and see what it does. If the ammo is over pressure it should show up in the cases and velocity readings.
Im really starting to believe I may have gotten some hot Ammo from Federal.
I will post my results as I get them.

 

[cajun]

Sounds like a tight chamber and or short throat. Plus the wsms with that sharp shoulder angle can be a biotch. My son has a remington 270 wsm. Would not chamber some factory ammo. We just bought some brass and started from scratch. It's either that or have it throated longer.

 

[Blackhawk]

Hello all,
I could use some input here. I recently bought a custom rifle built by a very well known and reputable gunsmith.
It is built on a Stiller Tac 30 action, Bartlein barrel chambered in 300 WSM. To date, I have only fired 30 rds thru it.
My problems started with some 1x and 2x fired brass I bought to start prepping brass for load development while I was waiting for the rifle. The 1x fired brass is Federal and the 2x is Norma. After running the cases thru a Redding FL size die in a RCBS RC press set to cam over, I found the cases were hard to chamber and harder to extract. This issue remains unresolved.
I was able to find 200 rds of Federal ammunition loaded with 180 gr soft points. On two different outings to the range, the first time I shot 10 rds, letting the barrel cool and then cleaning between shots. The gun shot nice and I noticed zero issues.
The second outing I fired 20 rounds letting it cool and cleaning every 2-3 shots. As I shot I noticed the bolt was getting hard to lift.
This progressively got harder to open the bolt and decided I had better quit. Looking at the cases, the first 10, only one I could see a faint mark from the ejector. The second round of 20, every case it is obvious, some bad enough I could feel the edge of the brass that had flowed into plunger hole.
I can't imagine what is causing this and what changed between outings. The condition was very close temperature and pressure wise, it was at two different ranges with the first one being 500' MSL elevation and the second 900' MSL.
It has been suggested that for reloading I should be using virgin brass, (which I would be if I could find it) or possibly re throating the chamber.
I'm not sure what my next move is, I'm considering pulling the Federal ammo apart and backing off the charge to see if this alleviates the sticky bolt.
Any input would be greatly appreciated...
Thanks,
Jim

I experienced the same issiues on a New Savage110 High Country in 300 Winchester Magnum Caliber.
My rounds became increasingly harder to extract.
After firing as little as 5 rounds with no problems I could not extract my brass from the chamber without striking the lifted bolt with a rubber dead blow mallet.
Consequently I removed the bolt and placed a light coat of oil on the lugs then replaced it.
I then fired off two more rounds without a problem but on the third round I again experienced ejection problems.

I went home and re weighed my powder and checked my jump and found that they were all 2 1/2 % from max with a bullet jump of .040". (all within a normal range)
I changed powder and went back to the range and guess what , the same thing happened after 6 rounds sent down range with zero issiues. I was pretty confident that I had solved the problem until I fired that 7th shot. Yup you guessed it I had a failure to extract.

Note:
All my brass was cleaned in steel pin media ,annealed, Fl resized using a match grade bushing die, trimmed to length, and shoulder bumped .0035" to fit in my chamber using a Redding Body Die and Competition Shell Holder set. Actual bump was measured using a Horandy Head Space tool before seating a primer and loading any powder or seating a bullet. Neck tension is set to a - .003"as measured brass case necks using a micrometer on a finished round.

Well all this was driving me crazy as I had never experienced anything like this before .
With that being said I fired said rounds in one of my other rifles chambered in 300 Win Mag and did not have a single problem and this led me to believe after considerable time spent researching this problem that said problem may be a weak extractor spring , ball and the extractor itself.
I then ordered and subsequently changed out my extractor replacing it with a HD unit designed for Savage rifles.

Long story short, it was the extractor that was weak and caused the failures to extract a fired shell case.
Simply by changing out the factory extractor for a heavier HD unit my problem has vanished and I am now a happy camper.

So perhaps you have a weak extractor ,and or ejector as well, and you may benefit from a simple change out.
I know it helped me to solve my extraction problem.
Best Of Luck

 

[grouse]

Custom rifle with hefty price tag should not have these issues.

 

[MagnumManiac]

Have gone through this myself.
Two things spring to mind immediately, whoever chambered the barrel has left some burrs which haven't smoothed out yet, and the throat is too short.
I built my 338 Edge using a +P reamer and a turn neck, biggest carbon ring inducer I ever come across. Plagued me with all sorts of grief. I re-chambered with a regular sized neck .004" over regular brass and the problems vanished.
Not saying you have a carbon ring, but a good look with a bore scope will tell what you do have or not.
Recently sold that Edge for far less than what I had in it, just no confidence in it any longer.

 

[highdrum]

I know some high end smith's who will chamber a rifle to a customer's desired brass upon request, vs a saami go gauge. My 300wsm has saami headspace, which happens to be about 6-7k longer than my friends rifle that was chambered to just close the bolt on new unfired norma 300wsm brass. Buying once fired brass isn't a great idea. Norma brass also has a fair bit thinner necks that Winchester brass. I would contact the smith and get a print of the reamer he used.

 

[Blackhawk]

Have gone through this myself.
Two things spring to mind immediately, whoever chambered the barrel has left some burrs which haven't smoothed out yet, and the throat is too short.
I built my 338 Edge using a +P reamer and a turn neck, biggest carbon ring inducer I ever come across. Plagued me with all sorts of grief. I re-chambered with a regular sized neck .004" over regular brass and the problems vanished.
Not saying you have a carbon ring, but a good look with a bore scope will tell what you do have or not.
Recently sold that Edge for far less than what I had in it, just no confidence in it any longer.

I was just thinking about a bore scope as you mentioned it. Makes sense to me.!

 

[FEENIX]

Custom rifle with hefty price tag should not have these issues.

Agreed!

 

[Blackhawk]

Custom rifle with hefty price tag should not have these issues.

It may be either a small thing or a big thing that is causing headaches and just because you are paying for a high dollar rifle doesn't mean that it will be without any issiues.
I agree that in theory you should get a better built high quality rifle simply by paying more however a look on this site alone tells a different story!
It will depend on the smith and the components that he uses. as well as his individual skills.
This applies to a custom built rifle.
Off the shelf factory rifles can either be assembled great, very good, good, or poorly.
it just depends on how many sub assembly's and hands are involved in the builds as well as their individual skill sets and level of experience.
Bottom Line you don't always get what you are paying high dollars for!

 

[JAYgs8163]

It may be either a small thing or a big thing that is causing headaches and just because you are paying for a high dollar rifle doesn't mean that it will be without any issiues.
I agree that in theory you should get a better built high quality rifle simply by paying more however a look on this site alone tells a different story!
It will depend on the smith and the components that he uses. as well as his individual skills.
This applies to a custom built rifle.
Off the shelf factory rifles can either be assembled great, very good, good, or poorly.
it just depends on how many sub assembly's and hands are involved in the builds as well as their individual skill sets and level of experience.
Bottom Line you don't always get what you are paying high dollars for!

Bottom line, you should!

 

[Blackhawk]

Bottom line, you should!

jgs8163:
With all due respect.
Sir, I agree that you should get a working custom built rifle simply by investing in one and in a perfect world that would be the case, however we do not live in a perfect world and problems can and do arise.
With that said I revert back to my other reply (refer to post #52 )

 

[FEENIX]

Bottom line, you should!

Agreed! This is why it helps to establish a good working relationship with your gunsmith. My go-to gunsmith and I have become close friends have taken many happy clients to him since 2003.

 

[Blackhawk]

Agreed! This is why it helps to establish a good working relationship with your gunsmith. My go-to gunsmith and I have become close friends have taken many happy clients to him since 2003.

That is wonderful that you have formed a close bond with smith !