Terrible Day Shooting

[beemanjohn]

This may not be what you want to hear, but since it is a new rifle I would send it to Tikka and have them check it out. If there is something wrong with the chamber they may just send you a new gun. I bought a Kimber one time that had a chamber that was not what it should be. I sent it back to them and when it came back it was the best shooting 270 I have ever seen. (and the 270 is not known as a great shooter)

 

[dickn52]

Not from a Tikka.

Pretty sure they claim 1" from the factory on all their rifles.

 

[Steve Ladino]

something is wrong. you shouldnt be having those kinds of problems with factory ammo in a factory rifle. I never had a factory rifle that wouldnt accept a factory load. OF coarse i never had a 6.5 creedmoor either. do you have a caliper you can actually measure the ammunition with and is that how you know the federals are different? If i was you i believe id take the gun to the dealer you bought it from or a gunsmith to check it out. The hornady case that blew the primer was a sign of a very over pressure load. it may have caused a problem in the chamber and thats why you cant get the federals in. did the whole hornady case come out of the chamber? Of coarse it could be just because its a 6.5 creedmoor(that last part was a little joke)

This doesn't sound like a typical Tikka product at all, although the two that I have do have (.223 8 twist ) short free bore.

 

[hoz53]

This doesn't sound like a typical Tikka product at all, although the two that I have do have (.223 8 twist ) short free bore.

thats what i thought everyone ive talked to with a tikka really likes them

 

[okedoke]

After reading all the comments which most are good advice, there is no mention of a cleaning regiment. You should call any barrel company & get their barrel break in & cleaning procedure, they will all have similar procedures. I've had folks with the same problems as you bring their rifles to me for answers & most of the time I bore scope the barrel & find a lot of copper, carbon & lead fouling which explains the tight chamber, stuck case, high pressure--ECT. Most of the rifles I have cleaned will shoot a 1"-- 1.5" 3 shot group after the proper cleaning using factory ammo & remember by not keeping your barrel clean, your bore diameter gets smaller & the pressures get higher hence the stuck cases, hard chambering & extracting & so on. Remember your rifle has a SAMI spec chamber & you have a light weight sporter rifle with factory ammo--- good luck & keep the tube clean-------- have a good one Craig

 

[drover]

Show us a pic of the bullet on the Federal rd you forced into the chamber, I bet the bullet is scratched up from being jammed into your rifling.
You don't have the means to pull a bullet with no reloading gear, or seat the bullet deeper. You could take a hammer and pound one in slightly and recheck.

Flat primers on new brass can be a byproduct of headspace too, case is not chamber dimension yet and gets slammed into the bolt face upon firing. In my head, once a certain amount of pressure is built, there has to be some energy trying to push the primer out of the pocket, the bolt face prevents it from happening, they can get flat on new or oversized brass.
But the blown primer is a serious sign of pressure.

This has to be the worse advice I have ever seen given on an internet forum or any other place. Please for the sake of safety and possibly your own life DO NOT HAMMER ON A BULLET IN A LOADED CARTRIDGE. There are recorded instances of people being killed by hammering on a cleaning rod to try to remove stuck loaded cases from the chamber, pounding on the a bullet with a hammer is an apt to cause a discharge.

To the OP - Contact Beretta Customer Service and advise them that you are having issues with three factory cartridges, ask for a Call Slip to have the rifle returned at their expense and let them deal with it. Another option is to return it to the dealer you bought it from and have them send it in for repair.

To the OP - When you get things sorted out and are ready to shoot the rifle again leave the tripod off - get on a good solid bench with a good rest with sandbags front and rear and you will find that your groups will tighten considerably. Bipods are notoriously difficult to shoot from unless you have a lot of experience using them. If you don't have sandbags then take the legs from an old pair of jeans, fill them with sand and you have instant sandbags on the cheap and very much more stable than the bipod.

drover

 

[Milo 2.0]

This has to be the worse advice I have ever seen given on an internet forum or any other place. Please for the sake of safety and possibly your own life DO NOT HAMMER ON A BULLET IN A LOADED CARTRIDGE. There are recorded instances of people being killed by hammering on a cleaning rod to try to remove stuck loaded cases from the chamber, pounding on the a bullet with a hammer is an apt to cause a discharge.

To the OP - Contact Beretta Customer Service and advise them that you are having issues with three factory cartridges, ask for a Call Slip to have the rifle returned at their expense and let them deal with it. Another option is to return it to the dealer you bought it from and have them send it in for repair.

To the OP - When you get things sorted out and are ready to shoot the rifle again leave the tripod off - get on a good solid bench with a good rest with sandbags front and rear and you will find that your groups will tighten considerably. Bipods are notoriously difficult to shoot from unless you have a lot of experince using them. If you don't have sandbags then take the legs from an old pair of jeans, fill them with sand and you have instant sandbags on the cheap and very much more stable than the bipod.

drover

Quite a difference hammering on a cleaning rod with a loaded rd in a chamber, case is supported and the firing pin could still be extruded. I had said it was bad advice, no reason to bring it to the surface. Even though I would do it, have done it.
The op's rifle fired 21 shots, one brand of ammo does not chamber. One brand of ammo blew a primer, an ammo known for this to happen, I have seen this first hand more than a few times.
I'm still lost on why this gun needs to be sent in for anything.

 

[drover]

I saw a guy run across 6 lanes of heavy freeway traffic and he didn't get hit but it is not something I would recommend for other people to do. If you choose to hammer bullets into loaded cases feel free to do so but it is not something you should be advising others to do.

Just curious how you would hammer a bullet deeper into the case without the case being supported and the base (where the primer is located) setting on something, which could cause the primer to fire.
I am not sure how you use a cleaning rod to try to remove a live stuck case from a chamber with the bolt closed which is the only way you would be hitting an extruded firing pin. If the bolt is retracted, which one can assume it would be since the case could not be driven out otherwise, then the firing pin will be retracted in the bolt and bolt more than likely will be at the rear of the receiver anyway.

It appears from the OP's original post that he had trouble with three different factory ammos -

"I tried out three different types of factory ammo (Hornady ELD Match, Norma HPBT Match, and Federal Premium with Nosler Accubond). Had problems with all three. Groups looked pretty good until I came across a round of Norma that wasn't hollow point. It looked like lead was filled all the way to the tip. I should have thrown it out because my groups started getting bigger after firing that round. One grouping later, I shot a round of the Hornady and I could barely eject the casing. Turns out that the primer blasted out of its pocket and welded itself to the bolt (not literally). It took about 40 minutes to remove the carbon scoring from the bolt after I got home. Frustrated with Hornady and Norma, I switched to Federal which would not even load into the chamber"

My recommendations still stand to the OP.

drover

 

[Milo 2.0]

It appears from the OP's original post that he had trouble with three different factory ammos -

"I tried out three different types of factory ammo (Hornady ELD Match, Norma HPBT Match, and Federal Premium with Nosler Accubond). Had problems with all three. Groups looked pretty good until I came across a round of Norma that wasn't hollow point. It looked like lead was filled all the way to the tip. I should have thrown it out because my groups started getting bigger after firing that round. One grouping later, I shot a round of the Hornady and I could barely eject the casing. Turns out that the primer blasted out of its pocket and welded itself to the bolt (not literally). It took about 40 minutes to remove the carbon scoring from the bolt after I got home. Frustrated with Hornady and Norma, I switched to Federal which would not even load into the chamber"

My recommendations still stand to the OP. If you choose to hammer bullets into loaded cases feel free to but it is not something you should be advising others to do.

drover

Once again, I left my post in place, then posted it was not the smartest advice. In the op's post,things were going fine with first batch of ammo till he fired a bullet that did not look good. Downhill from there, switching to Hornady, he blew a primer. Pic below of the federal that would not chamber, to me it's apparent the bullet was the hangup. Then the op states he did force the bolt closed on a federal case with the nosler bullet, so he was essentially seating a bullet with his bolt. It would take one ham fisted gorilla to mangle a brass case in a chamber with just the bolt.
The op needs to clean his bolt face, his chamber, and his barrel and find an ammo that will feed just like the Hornady and Norma did, if he wants to shoot the federal he may need to find someone with a press and a die to seat the bullets deeper for him if pressures allow.
I'm not even going to condone what I said about hammering a bullet in.
But 15 yrs ago blindness or death was imminent if you decapped a live primer. Up until 6-7 yrs ago tumbling live ammo would result in utter demolition of your residence. And to your delight, I guess I do not want my name on someone getting hurt hammering a bullet into a case, so there.
I've seem my share of questionable things in my day, some I laugh at, some make me cringe.
There could be many scenarios concerning a rd stuck in a chamber, if you got the bolt open, most likely your extractor is broken, or you've ripped some rim off your case.

I'm done arguing with you and do apologize to the forum for my post.

I still stand by this gun does not need to go anywhere but back to the range with suitable ammo. After a clean job.
I

 

[Doom]

I recently read that a reloader found that two different powders reacted poorly when fired one after the other. Bad fouling was the result. Just a thought.

 

[jimmymac]

IMO, this thread isn’t going to a place where anyone here can solve the problem in this format. If anything, this thread just leads to more confusion. It could be as simple as a good cleaning...or not. We don’t know. He doesn’t know.

This is a hands on situation that needs dealt with by someone considerably more qualified than the OP. Whether that’s a good gunsmith, Tikka or a knowledgeable reloader who can diagnose problems, someone needs to look at what’s going on first hand and get it figured out since the OP can’t.

 

[dolek]

IMO, this thread isn’t going to a place where anyone here can solve the problem in this format. If anything, this thread just leads to more confusion. It could be as simple as a good cleaning...or not. We don’t know. He doesn’t know.

This is a hands on situation that needs dealt with by someone considerably more qualified than the OP. Whether that’s a good gunsmith, Tikka or a knowledgeable reloader who can diagnose problems, someone needs to look at what’s going on first hand and get it figured out since the OP can’t.

+ 1...

Dangerous advice by a novice gun plumber helps nobody...

 

[pirate ammo]

IMO, this thread isn’t going to a place where anyone here can solve the problem in this format. If anything, this thread just leads to more confusion. It could be as simple as a good cleaning...or not. We don’t know. He doesn’t know.

This is a hands on situation that needs dealt with by someone considerably more qualified than the OP. Whether that’s a good gunsmith, Tikka or a knowledgeable reloader who can diagnose problems, someone needs to look at what’s going on first hand and get it figured out since the OP can’t.

this is all like being 200 hundred miles offshore and talking to someone on the phone trying to fix an engine problem,,#1 your in the engine room,can't hear squat,,#2 YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN,,
experience is the only thing that is going to help,,brand new firearm,ship it back,,

 

[Legionnaire]

So, clunker, where are you located? Perhaps one of us is close enough to offer eyes-on assistance.

 

[pirate ammo]

this is going to crap,,if I had a NEW firearm that WOULD NOT chamber a round ,it's going back,,and I'm a dealer,,go figure,,

 

[TAJ45]

Unless I'm misreading something, your cartridge measurements all look like they are in spec. Could be you have an out-of-spec chamber. I'd pull the bolt and carefully inspect the chamber using a good light. Some years ago while I was taking a long range class, I was shooting from prone in some long grass. Somehow, I closed the bolt on several blades of grass that got plastered to the walls of the chamber on the first shot. From then on, my Federal match ammo chambered hard.......

 

[TAJ45]

I don't agree in that the D and E lengths are a combined EIGHTEEN
THOUSANDTHS -- MORE . It seems a bit excessive. I do realize that we are talking handheld calipers and not Cadillac gage here but it does fit with the "hard to chamber" scenario.
The Hornady, say, was under spec, annnnd the Fed was slightly long, that could account for the Hornady primer and the non chambering Fed. Case web stretch on the Hornady?
I'm betting a chamber cast is in order.

 

[clunker]

Here is the verdict. I will be sending the rifle to Beretta. Thank you all for the advice. There are simply too many issues that happened on the same day to just ignore. Someone on the Tikka forum suggested that many of the T3x rifles have a manufacturing defect that results in an incorrect head space. I'm not taking any chances

I thoroughly cleaned the bore and chamber before firing a single shot, and I only fired 21 rounds. I have been meaning to post another pic, but I apparently exceeded my allotted 10 posts per 48 hours and had to wait until today. The following pic shows an identical scratch at the shoulder on several casings. The disturbing part is that all 21 fired casings from both manufacturers have the exact same scratch. I loaded some live rounds to see if the scratch might have been caused by loading or ejecting but could not duplicate the scratch.

 

[TAJ45]

Please keep us posted. I'm very curious. I give you props to your general approach and asking for input.
You will go far.

 

[hoz53]

Here is the verdict. I will be sending the rifle to Beretta. Thank you all for the advice. There are simply too many issues that happened on the same day to just ignore. Someone on the Tikka forum suggested that many of the T3x rifles have a manufacturing defect that results in an incorrect head space. I'm not taking any chances

I thoroughly cleaned the bore and chamber before firing a single shot, and I only fired 21 rounds. I have been meaning to post another pic, but I apparently exceeded my allotted 10 posts per 48 hours and had to wait until today. The following pic shows an identical scratch at the shoulder on several casings. The disturbing part is that all 21 fired casings from both manufacturers have the exact same scratch. I loaded some live rounds to see if the scratch might have been caused by loading or ejecting but could not duplicate the scratch.

View attachment 1053781

youre handling this in an intelligent way clunker- sending the rifle back- good job and please do let us know what the deal was. i know it sucks youll be without your rifle for awhile but youre doing the right thing.