Mini M16 extractor help?

[aebhunter]

Had a new .300 win mag built a few months ago and am really happy with it, shoots amazing. I have put around 150 rounds through it and never had an issue while firing it.

While reloading for a shoot I have this weekend I was checking my brass for ease of use while chambering and low and behold, after I closed the bolt when I went to extract the shell it left the shell in the chamber. This was on a sized piece of brass, not a live round. So I checked all my brass and I would say about 1 out of 7 it left in the chamber. I found a few live rounds I had loaded and it was about the same ratio. I have not had one issue extracting a spent round after I fired it. I also took the same brass that wouldn't extract from my new gun and put them in my old remington sendero. It cycled every round smoothly with not a single issue. I checked all my brass with a headspace gauge and they are all within 1-3 thou, no rhyme or reason as to why some extract and some don't. Only thing I can think of is the extractor isn't working on my bolt? It's a lone peak arms action, pretty sure they put together their own bolts? I can get it to extract the brass if I reef on it very aggressively or actually take a cleaning rod and push the brass back into the bolt face it will grab it...not ideal.

Anyone have a similar experience? Funny thing is I chose the M16 extractor because it seems to be the go to extractor for a lot of folks.

 

[Bullet bumper]

I am not familiar with that particular extractor even though I have used and been trained with M16 . I shot them but did not work on them at the time.
What can happen in any chamber is the sized brass is not quite an easy fit in the chamber and when you slam the bolt closed there is enough energy to chamber and lock .
Once you fire that cartridge the shape is rearranged in the chamber to a better fit and with some spring back involved it then extracts fine .
A poor match between sizing die shape and chamber shape can sometimes be the issue or you are just not bumping the shoulder that extra thou or two.
Conversely if you are cambering a sized case and it does not push back against the bolt face and engage the extractor claw then you could be bumping the shoulder too far and creating excess head clearance . If you had to push a cleaning rod down and push the case back then it sounds like excess head clearance to me.
If it extracts ok after firing then it seems the extractor is working ok .

 

[aebhunter]

I am not familiar with that particular extractor even though I have used and been trained with M16 . I shot them but did not work on them at the time.
What can happen in any chamber is the sized brass is not quite an easy fit in the chamber and when you slam the bolt closed there is enough energy to chamber and lock .
Once you fire that cartridge the shape is rearranged in the chamber to a better fit and with some spring back involved it then extracts fine .
A poor match between sizing die shape and chamber shape can sometimes be the issue or you are just not bumping the shoulder that extra thou or two.
Conversely if you are cambering a sized case and it does not push back against the bolt face and engage the extractor claw then you could be bumping the shoulder too far and creating excess head clearance . If you had to push a cleaning rod down and push the case back then it sounds like excess head clearance to me.
If it extracts ok after firing then it seems the extractor is working ok .

I thought it was excess head space as well, but it will do it from time to time on a case that has been fired already in the rifle. And it will do it on a case that has the exact same dimensions as a case that will "work" just fine.

 

[MallardAddict]

How many rounds have been fired since you last cleaned the extractor and extractor slot? Could be oil and crap built up in there otherwise sounds like your headspace is a tiny bit too excessive. Try some virgin factory ammo and see if it still does it

 

[Edd]

It's hard to say what's happening without being able to see it but it sounds like your case rims are too thick to fit under the extractor or the extractor isn't pivoting correctly. If your chamber is correct it won't matter where the case shoulder is, that cartridge spaces off the belt.

 

[aebhunter]

It's hard to say what's happening without being able to see it but it sounds like your case rims are too thick to fit under the extractor or the extractor isn't pivoting correctly. If your chamber is correct it won't matter where the case shoulder is, that cartridge spaces off the belt.

That is sort of what I was thinking, since I have experienced the same thing with cartridges that have the exact same dimensions. My gunsmith mentioned he has had to tweak some PTG bolts before to get them to pull all the cases out, maybe mine has the same issue. I am going to take the gun up to him this week and have him look at it. Hopefully it's a simple fix, have a 250 round shoot this weekend gotta have things running smoothly.

 

[Georgiashooter]

If it's a PT&G bolt, you probably need to replace the extractor spring for starters. I've had to replace every single one I've dealt with. I called and told them the springs were weak and I replaced mine with good ar 15 extractor springs. Fixed the problem on all but one. The other one i had to trim ejector spring as it was pushing too hard on spent case and causing it to pop out of bolt face before coming out of gun. That particular setup is a rem 700 in 6.5 Grendel. Short case probably needed more tuning. Hope this helps

 

[aebhunter]

If it's a PT&G bolt, you probably need to replace the extractor spring for starters. I've had to replace every single one I've dealt with. I called and told them the springs were weak and I replaced mine with good ar 15 extractor springs. Fixed the problem on all but one. The other one i had to trim ejector spring as it was pushing too hard on spent case and causing it to pop out of bolt face before coming out of gun. That particular setup is a rem 700 in 6.5 Grendel. Short case probably needed more tuning. Hope this helps

Thanks for the tip. Not sure if Lone Peak Arms uses a PT&G bolt, they don't seem like the type of dudes who would use crappy stuff in their actions. Hopefully I get it figured out.

 

[Bullet bumper]

I missed the belted case . I think I miss read the cartridge name as 300WSM .
My bad . Yeah in that case possibly the claw is not be a good fit over the rim .
Maybe garbage under the extractor . Also the shape of the face of the claw could be a bad angle for gripping correctly .
Maybe a Sako style extractor or a Tubb ( Sako clone ) would be better

 

[trhall]

Had a new .300 win mag built a few months ago and am really happy with it, shoots amazing. I have put around 150 rounds through it and never had an issue while firing it.

While reloading for a shoot I have this weekend I was checking my brass for ease of use while chambering and low and behold, after I closed the bolt when I went to extract the shell it left the shell in the chamber. This was on a sized piece of brass, not a live round. So I checked all my brass and I would say about 1 out of 7 it left in the chamber. I found a few live rounds I had loaded and it was about the same ratio. I have not had one issue extracting a spent round after I fired it. I also took the same brass that wouldn't extract from my new gun and put them in my old remington sendero. It cycled every round smoothly with not a single issue. I checked all my brass with a headspace gauge and they are all within 1-3 thou, no rhyme or reason as to why some extract and some don't. Only thing I can think of is the extractor isn't working on my bolt? It's a lone peak arms action, pretty sure they put together their own bolts? I can get it to extract the brass if I reef on it very aggressively or actually take a cleaning rod and push the brass back into the bolt face it will grab it...not ideal.

Anyone have a similar experience? Funny thing is I chose the M16 extractor because it seems to be the go to extractor for a lot of folks.

I know this is a VERY old thread but happened upon it looking for some other info. I shoot .300 win mags and wanted to share something I have found very valuable for extending case life. That is using the Collet Resizing Die. Belted cases have a tendency to swell or bulge just above the belt after repeated firings. Since I started using this collet and checking my cases after every firing I have been able to extend case life to more than 10 using winchester brass. They usually need resized with the collet after about 3 firings. This issue is not resolved by full length sizing as the belt prevents the full length die from getting low enough on the case and ends up pushing brass near the belt creating the bulge. You can know if you have this issue by looking for scuff marks on the case above the belt when you have sticky cases, also try coloring a 1/2 in area above the belt with a sharpie prior to firing and then see if there are any scuff marks.

http://www.larrywillis.com/

I also purchased the digital head space gauge from Larry as well. Head spacing from the shoulder with this allows me to use a full length sizing die and gain more benefits than just neck sizing. I have 2 .300 win mags that shoot sub 1/2" groups at 200 yards when I do my part. The fact I can consistently shoot sub 1/4 MOA with 2 different rifles tells me allot of the little things are working together.