stuck cases not near max

[Southwind]

A good buddy was doing some load testing over the weekend with several rifles and one has us baffled.

Remington 700 in 300 win mag step loaded using win brass, cci primers, barnes 180 grain ttsx's, hogdon 4831. Published max I believe is 73 grains of powder and at 69 grains he is getting stuck cases. Bolt lift is normal, chambering of rounds were normal. I looked over the brass and there is no sign of any obvious markings on case body or rim. Primers look normal.

He could not pull out by hand and had to use the ole 2x4 to get them out.

He did not have a chronograph with him but what else are we missing here?

Any thoughts?

 

[g0rd0]

the first thing that you have to ask is, does this happen with other brands of brass? If not, there is your answer, the make up of that lot of brass. How accurate is your charge/scale? Did this happen with the same load and brass in a differant rifle?
It really could be just the quality of brass.

 

[boomtube]

"... he is getting stuck cases."

Not 'near max", huh? Humm, lets think about this; 1) cases fit the chamber easily before firing; 2) cases are stuck - hard - after firing.

I have to wonder if maybe the cases are swelling (and so is the chamber), so maybe the pressure is excessive no matter what the book says, or what the primers/rims look like, etc, ...

Rifles differ and maybe that's why the books all say to "start low and work up towards book max unless pressure signs indicate otherwise"? You do know sticking cases are a MAJOR sign of excessive pressure while 'flat' primers are not, right?

 

[lloydsmale]

my guess is a dirty or rough chamber. I had to send my 7stw back to rem to have the chamber polished because of the same problem .

 

[sp6x6]

A chrono is nice because if you are shooting at max velocity or above is another indication that you are at top pressure.

 

[Browninglover1]

Has he annealed his brass? I've heard of guys over annealing their brass and end up having similar problems... just a thought.

 

[Southwind]

boomtube,

yes I know that different rifles have different pressure limits and maybe that is the case. And yes I know you can be getting high pressure problems without flat primers etc.

He was over 5 grains below published max but pressure is pressure.

lloydsmale, That was one of my thoughts and he is going to check that out. Brass didn't really show any abnormal signs of scratches.

He did not anneal either.

He should have taken my chronograph because that is always helpful.

Thanks for all the input definitely a lot more to check out.

 

[kermodie]

How many times has he reloaded those cases? The belted magnum cases don't get resized down to the web and what you discribed is typical especially if one of the previous loads was hot. I know of one 300 WM that can only reload brass 3 times before chucking them. My 338 WM does the same if I run a hot load. The brass looks fine, just sticks.

 

[Hookturnr]

Recently ran into this problem with a tight chambered custom of mine. Turns out the factory extractor had twisted a slight bit and was camming through the rim of the fired case instead of lifting it on the turn of the bolt. A sako style extractor solved the problem..

 

[jpeaston]

I helped a buddy once that had the exact same problem that you describe in an unbelted cartridge, he brought it to me and after some trial and error, we concurred that the factory chamber was a bit short. he was trimming to reloading book stated length and after trimming brass back about .010 the problem went away. In his particular case accuracy was the same both ways, and even though he had never chrono the load the trimmed brass had a lower point of impact, so I am guessing he had some spikes in pressure.

 

[Wile E Coyote]

Was the brass new? or had it been fired previously in a different rifle?

I have two .308s that must be fed from different boxes of ammo because the full length sizing die doesn't go all the way to the base. Cases fired from my Remington 700 will not chamber freely in a Savage 99 lever gun even after FL resizing. That last fraction of an inch that the sizing die doesn't cover expands just enough to be slightly tight in the Savage. If then fired, the case then needs to be driven out with a brass rod; An ugly process that I've only done twice in 30 years and don't plan on doing again.

Rounds loaded specifically for each gun work just fine, every time.

Hope this helps.

 

[7stw]

At this point, I would like to recommend that you get a Kerasafe kit, and do a chamber mold. Big green has in the past, ( and present), had issues with chamber reamers, out of square chambers, and egg shaped chambers. I had a problem with a 7 mag about a year ago. Same problem you have right now. Took a mold, compared to SAAMI specs, way out. All we did to fix it was run a FINISH reamer through chamber, and Presto" , all better. My rifle originally belonged to the state police, and I think it is why they sold it. It was almost like new when I bought it, now I know why. I think you are in the same boat. Have a COMPETENT gunsmith mold it and correct it. Should be less then $100.00