Bolt sticks on extraction - could it be carbon build-up?

[hawlejr]

Be interested to see pictures of the throat of the chamber....let's see what the carbon build up looks like....if you nylon brush is even removing anything....

Don't have a camera to show you the chamber, but it looks pretty good with my bore light and by eye. Also, there is enough resistance to the brush to tell me it's doing something. I'm using Bore-Tech carbon remover, and it does a heck of a job on the rest of the bore with similar resistance to the brush. i.e. I think it's disolving it and with some brush work, getting it out of there. I have about a dozen rifles ranging from 25-06 to .338-378 Weatherby, and they all succumb to the Bore Tech carbon remover. By the third brushing they're clean ....except, of course for the copper!

 

[26Reload]

You'd be surprized.....what looks shiny as bare metal....shiny carbon...

 

[Koda_]

Don't have a camera to show you the chamber, but it looks pretty good with my bore light and by eye. Also, there is enough resistance to the brush to tell me it's doing something. I'm using Bore-Tech carbon remover, and it does a heck of a job on the rest of the bore with similar resistance to the brush. i.e. I think it's disolving it and with some brush work, getting it out of there. I have about a dozen rifles ranging from 25-06 to .338-378 Weatherby, and they all succumb to the Bore Tech carbon remover. By the third brushing they're clean ....except, of course for the copper!

without a borescope it would be impossible to even know if you have a carbon ring at all. But its good that you clean your chamber too, lots dont and thats how carbon rings grow. If you regularly brush the chamber for carbon its not likely you have a ring...

 

[RichCoyle]

neck sizing is dumb in the first place. just FL size and poof magic...problems gone forever

My .223 Savage was definitely more accurate with neck sized over full length sized cases. I proved it many times with that rifle. For someone trying to get the best accuracy from a rifle, he should not be locked into any dogma.

By-the-way, every seven firings I had to full length size or I had the same problem the OP has.

 

[hawlejr]

I'm going to resize the bunch. It takes a while and it's messy, and it increases the odds of needing to trim, and I never trust that some of the lube doesn't leach into the powder/primer and change performance......but.....I guess that's what I gots to do! Maybe I'll buy that ultrasonic cleaner, too. and add a cleaning step in between sizing and priming. That way I won't worry about case lube hanging around in the wrong place.

 

[marksman1941]

I'm going to resize the bunch. It takes a while and it's messy, and it increases the odds of needing to trim, and I never trust that some of the lube doesn't leach into the powder/primer and change performance......but.....I guess that's what I gots to do! Maybe I'll buy that ultrasonic cleaner, too. and add a cleaning step in between sizing and priming. That way I won't worry about case lube hanging around in the wrong place.

Unless you're loading for volume (9mm, blaster 223, etc) it's always going to be slow.

My process that seems to work for me at least is to run all dirty, unprocessed cases through an ultrasonic cleaner. Let them air dry under a fan (I've also baked them on low to evaporate the water faster which works fine). Lube with Hornady one shot, resize, trim to length. Ultrasonic clean again to remove lube, dry again. Then go and prime and load.

 

[hawlejr]

Unless you're loading for volume (9mm, blaster 223, etc) it's always going to be slow.

My process that seems to work for me at least is to run all dirty, unprocessed cases through an ultrasonic cleaner. Let them air dry under a fan (I've also baked them on low to evaporate the water faster which works fine). Lube with Hornady one shot, resize, trim to length. Ultrasonic clean again to remove lube, dry again. Then go and prime and load.

Makes sense. I'm still going to try to get a few "collet neck size" reloads in between FL size runs. If shoulder growth, or body diameter growth is the issue, I think I'll get a warning. The ones that were really sticking the other day were old military brass that I've probably reloaded 6 times...maybe more. The brass is heavy and thick. They did get progressively worse over time, so I'll stay alert to warning signals. Collet neck sizing is so much faster, and eliminates one of the cleaning steps since there's no lube mess. I'll just have to get an US cleaner and do some FL sizing ....just what I was trying to avoid, but the preponderance of the evidence says otherwise.

 

[manitou]

 

[marksman1941]

It's really not much more to fill length size. You're already doing a multi step process, one extra step (second cleaning) isn't much more, and it will save you hassle. Neck sizing has its merits but it also produces more problems in my experience

 

[RichCoyle]

It seems guys like in the video think no one ever experiments. I know positively the .223 I had preferred neck sized brass. It also preferred squared heads. It also preferred the bullet start .015" from the lands; not .010" and not .020".

 

[Farmerbrown32]

You just need to full length size. Pretty simple. Same process as neck sizing but you wont have stuck cases then

 

[hawlejr]

OK, I agree that FL sizing will solve the stuck case problem, ....but why? It seems that if you fire a round in a given rifle's chamber, that it would expand to fill the chamber under pressure, but spring back a little as the pressure relaxes, and then it would fit that chamber like a glove the next time. Furthermore, why on earth if it feeds OK in the first place is it difficult to extract? Where is the hangup? It seems like the chamber itself is ballooning more under pressure and then springing back more than the cartridge case to grip it so tight that it won't extract. Seems crazy to me. Anybody have a good technical explanation?

 

[436]

Have your gunsmith touch it up the chamber with a little JB compound, if that doesn't work perhaps touch it up with a reamer again. But.. I also go with the pressure concept as a possibility, what's your load? Just thinking out loud. Cheers

 

[manitou]

It seems guys like in the video think no one ever experiments. I know positively the .223 I had preferred neck sized brass. It also preferred squared heads. It also preferred the bullet start .015" from the lands; not .010" and not .020".

I doubt many experiment as much as that "guy in the video" and his cohorts.
Erik Cortina is a national champion long range competitor and makes his living competing and building competition/accuracy products.
His youtube channal addresses accuracy and reloading.
The circles he hangs with are are the "best of the best": World champions, world record holders, custom competition rifle builders, etc.