Flattened Case Mouth

[MahtewsSB]

I finally got my 6.5 lapua put together after 6 long months of waiting on all the pieces. The first thing I notice upon shooting it is that the fired case mouths are ever so slightly flattened in a small portion. The cases are not hitting the ground, they are being ejected slowly and directly into my hand so I don't have to chase them around.

Is this common?
Is it a big deal or can I just resize and all is good?
Is there a way to eliminate this issue?

About the gun:
Remington 700 action
factory SA bolt
krieger barrel

 

[Ledd Slinger]

Nothing to worry about. The case is hitting the side of the receiver when it comes out of the chamber. If it is a tight neck chamber and your necks are turned thinner than normal, the brass is more susceptible to that type of damage, but it wont hurt anything. One run in the sizer and they'll be back to normal.

If you want to eliminate the flattened necks, you can remove your ejector spring and pin from the bolt face and just pick the cases off the bolt face by hand.

 

[MahtewsSB]

Should I use the expander and the bushing to push the mouth back to round? Or just the bushing like normal?

 

[memo43]

You will need some sort of expander to square up the case mouth. The neck bushing will only target the exterior of the case. It needs some sort of mandrel to even up the sides as well as resistance. If not you will end up tearing some of the jacketing while trying to seat them

 

[MahtewsSB]

You will need some sort of expander to square up the case mouth. The neck bushing will only target the exterior of the case. It needs some sort of mandrel to even up the sides as well as resistance. If not you will end up tearing some of the jacketing while trying to seat them

Okay that is what I thought as well. Thanks guys

 

[Mega]

Been there, had that happen. Pain in the rear end fixing bent cases. Ejector spring too strong.

Change the Ejector Spring to something lighter. The spring out of a Bic Lighter is perfect. Once changed no more bent / nicks on necks. No matter how hard / fast you pull the bolt back the empty case will eject but only as far as beside your rifle.

Use a fired case, sit it on the bolt face held by the extractor and base flat with the bolt face.

Use a pin punch or suitable size nail and punch out the roll pin. The empty case will stop the ejector and spring from flying away never to be found. Cut the end of the Bic Spring square only on the end that sits over the plunger and replace.

Problem solved forever.

 

[MahtewsSB]

I think I might try this replacement spring I found online. There is a medium and a light version. Has anyone used these before? Follow the link.. http://erniethegunsmith.com/catalog/i17.html

 

[dkhunt14]

I usually remove a coil or two to lighten the spring. Be careful not to go to far unless you have a spare one. Matt

 

[MahtewsSB]

I usually remove a coil or two to lighten the spring. Be careful not to go to far unless you have a spare one. Matt

Maybe i will try this before i go and buy a lighter replacement spring.

 

[Mega]

I usually remove a coil or two to lighten the spring. Be careful not to go to far unless you have a spare one. Matt

Maybe i will try this before i go and buy a lighter replacement spring.

Don't you have Bic Cigarette Lighters in the USA....???? I would think pulling the Flint Spring out of an old one to try for free would have been far better than buying a replacement spring and /or risking cutting coils off your original spring with the chance of making a mistake. It takes about 5 minutes to replace the spring, job done.

Perhaps we are a little different down here on the other side of the world.

Of the three 6.5x47 Lapua chambered rifles I have the Remington 700 is the only one that has given grief with cases, my Stolle Grizzly or even Tikka T3 work fine and are also more accurate than the Remington 700 despite it being a completely trued action. I'm just a benchrest shooter and don't like chasing cases off the concrete floor. Nice calibre and extremely accurate for my 500 yard plus shooting.

 

[dkhunt14]

I don't worry about making them to short. I go a little at a time. If I do get it to short I put a bb in the hole and it makes it long again. Usually on my Bat one coil is enough. I like my shells to land and stay on a towel on the bench. In Matches don't want them to leave the bench and land on stone or cement. My shells are all there and I can put them back in the block when done. It just works for me. matt

 

[Mega]

The ejector spring on my Remington 700 6.5x47L was so strong it didn't matter how slowly you pulled the bolt back it still put a dent on the case neck. In fact not only a dent but also a small nick in the end of the case neck that could not be removed by passing a mandrel down the case neck. The only way to remove that was to trim the case neck but they were already short enough.

Sticking fingers in the chamber to protect / extract a fired case isn't really acceptable when you have a small limited time frame to get scoring shots away in competition when you are trying to beat a wind change and have all hands on deck cycling and reloading another round. I wanted the cases to drop beside the rifle onto the towel on my bench also not wasting time chasing them around the bench either since they are all sorted into a firing order and replaced in the same order.

In my view this damage was causing a change of neck tension which I certainly didn't want, repairing damaged cases was also something I didn't want to be doing and again means that each case differs from each other depending on the damage.

Perhaps I'm being over fussy but that's how you stay in the top few at competition shoots. It doesn't take much to loose points at 600 yards yet alone further out.

Even if the rifle was for hunting and / or precision varminting I like to find cases close by at my feet rather than scattered around the paddock.

My other alternative was to remove the ejector pin altogether and plug the hole.

 

[davebrantnerwv]

MATHEWS SB , I don't normally reply to post, but felt like I have removed more dents then most shooter. I shot the m-14/M1A for over 20 years, I first tried
Expander Balls. Of all sorts , went to manderals, which were a big improvement.

I then came across a taper sheer pin. Not sure the number,#1-2-3. I bought
A few of each . About 3" long , I even harden them use case Harding , Kasite.

To get what I wanted I took the tapered pin welded a 2 1/2 " 3/8 "rod to the Big
End, as a handle. Making it like a big "T" .

Shove it into the mouth, it will be a too long. Using a hack saw cut the small end
Off about 1/2". I believe. It should be bottom out on the web , but flair out and
Round the mouth. It should be flailed out no more then .003 " at the mouth.

This has worked for me with the 6MM , 6.5, and 308 for tears , I made mandrel
To fit the Sinclair mandrel die , out of drill rod, for many cal. However the taper pins ,
Even though they are soft sheer pins , they do work the best.

Now for the problem , I had a 22-250 I built for my Grandson, that did the same thing
I cut two coils I believe off the ejector spring , I then ground it flat on the end. Not sure but believe I had to cut a bit more spring . To stop the denting.

The taper pins as I said are Sheer Pins and they are very ,soft, you will need to polish them to a bright
Shine. The pin I use for the 308 is. - .258 small end X .341" large end X 4.065" long. What ever # this should turn out to be , get the next taper pin down , it will work on 6mm and 6.5 .

Great tool for dents in case necks. I have done Hundards over the past 50 years. Goog luck

Dave Brantner

 

[bsumoba]

if you're shooting f-open, take the ejector out. this is an option too.