Chamber problems

CA30-06

Active Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2014
Messages
34
Location
Northern California
I have been having a problem with some of my reloads ejecting from my 1903a3. They have been cleaned, sized, loaded, seated all to a gnats ***** to the specs. They are not max loads. They are somewhere in the middle. They chamber a little tight but nothing to worry about (I think) but once fired, you have to really jerk on the bolt handle to get it to turn and yank it back to eject the shell.

Any ideas?
 
I have been having a problem with some of my reloads ejecting from my 1903a3. They have been cleaned, sized, loaded, seated all to a gnats ***** to the specs. They are not max loads. They are somewhere in the middle. They chamber a little tight but nothing to worry about (I think) but once fired, you have to really jerk on the bolt handle to get it to turn and yank it back to eject the shell.

Any ideas?

What does the brass look like after you eject it? Any scratches or nicks out of the brass?
 
I have been having a problem with some of my reloads ejecting from my 1903a3. They have been cleaned, sized, loaded, seated all to a gnats ***** to the specs. They are not max loads. They are somewhere in the middle. They chamber a little tight but nothing to worry about (I think) but once fired, you have to really jerk on the bolt handle to get it to turn and yank it back to eject the shell.

Any ideas?

I think you're experiencing extraction rather than ejection issues.
Are you full length resizing?
How much shoulder "bump" are you getting?
How old is your brass? (Brass that's been fired a lot, especially if it's not annealed, will "stiffen" up and not relax after firing - that can cause difficult extraction)
Have you checked the OAL of your cases and compared to specs?
Chambering a "little tight" is not a good thing.
 
If the load is not a hot load, the next place to look is the chamber of the rifle. Sounds like maybe a dirty or pitted chamber causing the cases to hang in chamber. If the rifle has had corrosive shells shot in it and not cleaned may be coming back to haunt you.
 
Sounds to me that you may have excessive head space. I ran into similar issues with my 03-A3 chambered in .308 Norma Mag. As stated above, "a little tight going in" is anything but no big deal. The gunsmith that I took mine to, Jeremiah Shannon, showed me a bolt out of a rifle with this problem and it was peeled like a banana, and damned near killed the trigger man! Have your head space checked, please..
 
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