New 338 Edge will not fire. What now?

[Down Under Hunter]

Glad to see a smile on your face again mate !

Call me and let me know what shes doin

Get some practise and we'll go head to head over summer hey ?

DUH

 

[Topshot]

Tried her out today at 440 yards. With the long throat that I had cut, I have plenty of powder space. I got the following results. Using H1000 (AR2217)
OAL 3.972
89 grn 2685 fps
90 grn 2697 fps
91 grn 2720 fps
92 grn 2756 fps
93 grn 2781 fps
94 grn 2811 fps
95 grn 2834 fps.

Pressure was still fine and tomorow I will try 96 grains etc.

Interesting the 93, 94 and 95 grain loads were all within an inch of elevation of each other and about 9 inches above the 88 grain load. Maybe a sweet spot?

 

[Down Under Hunter]

Sounds good !

Mine ran at 2870 at the muzzle but I used 2834 to make it all line up with Exbal.

Could be a dead sambar stag or two shortly !

DUH

 

[Topshot]

Tried a few more loads today. I bumped the shoulder back a few thou to take some of the stress off the bolt lugs on closing the action as it was a bit tight to chamber a round..

96 grains gave me 2893 fps and hit 13" high.
97 grains gave me 2958 fps and hit 13.5" high.

With the 97 grain load the primers are starting to flatten out. No sign of this in the 96 grain load.

I think a 98 grain load would give me 3000 fps but is it worth it running with warm loads?

Ok, so what do I do now? Do I call it quits or do I go for 3000 fps?

How hot do some of you .338 Edge shooters run your rifles?

 

[Down Under Hunter]

I think it depends on a couple of things..

1. Which load is more accurate ? Could be very clear cut ! Shoot the most accurate that does not stress the setup and will offer good case life.

2. Talking with SC about this he suggested that the hot loads tended to stress the cases and only allow a couple of reloads. These ofcourse were in his guns chambered to his specs. Yours may be different.

3000 would be great if it shoots tight. Just have to do some groups to know this I guess. Either way its a hot gun and if you end up at 2900-2950 with accuracy you will be going faster than most. The deer wont know the difference anyway. Sounds like you picked a good week to be off work mate !

DUH

 

[Topshot]

I think it depends on a couple of things..

1. Which load is more accurate ? Could be very clear cut ! Shoot the most accurate that does not stress the setup and will offer good case life.

2. Talking with SC about this he suggested that the hot loads tended to stress the cases and only allow a couple of reloads. These ofcourse were in his guns chambered to his specs. Yours may be different.

3000 would be great if it shoots tight. Just have to do some groups to know this I guess. Either way its a hot gun and if you end up at 2900-2950 with accuracy you will be going faster than most. The deer wont know the difference anyway. Sounds like you picked a good week to be off work mate !

DUH

Hey DUH,
Good advice, will start with 94 grain load and work up from there and look for some accuracy. Don't want to stress the thing too much and wear it out quicker that I have too.
Summer time practice session sounds great.
Man we will "givem****" next year!

 

[JAWZ]

Norm thats great velocity and you have now got me thinking.

I have no pressure signs at 93 grn of powder other then a slight extracter mark . I might load up a 94, 95, 96 and see what happens .

That is a fired 93 gr next to an unfired 94gr

I'm sure Matty and myself will be able to make it down there over summer but only if the spearing is bad.

 

[Topshot]

Andrew,
You see that raised ring around the firing pin indentation. Mine does the same thing.

I think the gun smith's heavy use of the live center on the lathe when he worked on our bolts has caused this.

It opens up the firing pin hole a bit and let the primer metal flow into the space. He told me if it is too bad he might need to bush the firing pin hole.

He said it was a fault with Remington bolts but as yours is not a Remington then it makes me think?????

Anyone elso have an opinion about this?

 

[hammertyme]

Some exceptional advice here and in particuler from Joel. (You can) know the reason if you will pour a cast of the chamber prior to doing anything with any smith.

However, there are any number of us on here in particuler Shawn who can give you the Edge measurements that your case should have. Compare that data with your fired case. Then ask for a refund if the smith is at fault and go somewhere else.

The reason I say this is I know a guy that went to a smith????? because he could get a chamber job for less than half the going rate. Exact same problem as you indicate so took it back to the same guy with the exact same problem happening again. He then took the gun to a retired officer friend of mine who just happened to have gauges for the caliber.

It was a Savage rifle and when the bolt was closed they could rattle the no go gauge back and forth. Pulled the barrel dropped in the gauge and it was flush with the breach of the barrel. Savage protrusion of case out of breach .125!


I am very glad you are able to type this information. Thank you so much for reminding us.

Neal