First time poster, been tinkering with the long range for a few years now, learned a lot on here in that time. I've been reloading for years and ran into a issues I can't figure out and need some advice. I been helping a buddy with his Sendero 7 Rem mag. I did the initial load development and settled on 68.5 of H1000 with Hornady brass. It would shoot 180 bergers, 10 thou off, .5 moa out to 800 (as far as I took it). It shot well, it did have a little firing pin crater, but the primer still had a good round shoulder. No other signs. I loaded him a bunch up, some new and once fired. I should have told him to keep them separated but I didn't. He calls me and says the bolt is sticking and hard to open. I didn't have any issues during load development. We go and shot it and it was sticking! I loaded up some rounds from 66 grs H1000 up to 68 to see what happens. I switched brass to new nosler for this. Shot one at 66 grs and it took stuck hard. All stock except for muzzle break and trigger. Any ideas?
Sticky Bolt Lift
- Thread starter RobL24
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bigngreen
Well-Known Member
Any ejector marks or shiney spots in the case head.
cohunt
Well-Known Member
Assuming but please confirm
When you worked up the loads for him, you used his rifle- right?
Any large temp swings involved here? Ammo left in hot car?
May all be a stretch but just trying to weed out the obvious things first
When you worked up the loads for him, you used his rifle- right?
Any large temp swings involved here? Ammo left in hot car?
May all be a stretch but just trying to weed out the obvious things first
I cleaned the rifle. Took it apart cleaned the trigger, bolt, and chamber. I wanted to make sure there wasn't any foreign material. I will try the lighter bullet. Thanks!
cohunt,
Yep his rifle! Not to my knowledge on large temp swings when he had it. I reloaded new rounds at 66 grains and went out the next morning.
bigngreen,
No ejector marks. That's what I don't understand. During load development I stopped at 70 grains, that is were I started to see ejector marks.
cahunter805
Well-Known Member
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Same lot of powder? Same primers?
Yes, I had my buddy buy three pounds when we started. Using Fed 215M for primers. He did shot the Hornady precision hunter ammo 162 gr ELD-X through it for the first year he had it with no problems. He asked me to help with a load the next spring. He did put the break on after I did the load development.
cahunter805
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- Messages
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Sounds to me like a carbon ring. Have you scrubbed the neck area and barrel with a dedicated carbon cleaner?
H1000 is an extreme powder and has minimum temp differences, however, if your load is on the edge it does have some temp differences. Check two variances; is the current weather condition the same as your initial test? Are you shooting at a different altitude? Being hear in Colorado I load for different altitudes also, I know it is actually not the altitude but the barometric pressure that correlates with altitude.
J Doss
Active Member
Strange?
I guess you checked all the case lengths?
Sounds like you did the chamber cleaning.
You might try sticking a scope in to get a good look at the chamber up to the throat area. Just to see if there is anything funky going on.
SCSCHNUR
Well-Known Member
I had an issue like that and found it was using mixed brass or brass that wasn't fire formed with my particular rifle. May need to full length resize dies.
BoatTail
Well-Known Member
I would focus on the neck. If you've already checked the overall length of the and it is okay, I'd consider checking the neck thickness. I've seen the issues you are describing , and it will follow down with lower powder charges, when either the neck is too thick for your chamber or there's a donut where the case neck in the shoulder meet. This won't be helpful unless you know your chamber neck size. If you do you can add up your neck and bullet size and subtract it from the chamber neck size and make sure you have 4 thousands clearance. The other instance I've seen is if you're cleaning your chamber wow shooting and leave it wet, this will cause a spike in pressure. Good luck in solving this.
