Question About Loaded Rounds Not Ejecting In One Piece :-(

[walker2713]

I may be looking for a simple answer to a complex problem, but here goes.....

I've been reloading rifles for 25+ years, and have been loading for this rifle for four. It's Savage Model 12 F Class with a Criterion 6.5x47 barrel. I've got about 350 rounds through this barrel....also have 6BR and .260Rem barrels for it also.

I'm using Wilson hand dies for neck sizing and seating bullets, and in this case I'm using a Redding Titanium .289 neck bushing.

We had a match last Saturday, and after cleaning when I got home, I went back out to the range Tuesday to practice some, put a round in the chamber, and then needed for the range to go cold, and when I pulled the bolt back, the brass came out, but the bullet stayed in the barrel. As you can be sure, 40.0 gr. of H4350 were scattered liberally around.

I decided to bring it home to clean it thoroughly, and had other items to shoot at the range. I cleaned everything out as completely as possible, and put a cartridge in, and the bolt closed OK. But when I tried to extract it, again the brass came out, bullet stayed in the barrel, powder etcetcetc.

I can't remember the last time this happened in one of my rifles, and it'd never happened in this one until. this week.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome. One thought I've had is to a smaller neck bushing in my die....but I'm not sure exactly where to go with this.

Thanks,

George

 

[MrMajestic]

Less jam and/or more neck tension.

 

[tuttlefarm]

Carbon build up in the throat area.......... scrub, scrub and scrub some more, JB or many other mild abrasives will work

 

[jlow]

Yes, most likely the dreaded carbon ring. Not sure what brass you are using but if it is Lapua, that .289 should give you more than enough neck tension. If you have a borescope, you should be able to inspect. How frequently do you clean this rifle?

 

[bheadboy]

clearly the bullet is encountering friction enough to grip it harder than the case neck. thus the carbon ring -- as long as you are seating to the same depth and---- the lot of bullets have the same base to oj contact point.
check the base to oj on the loaded rounds that are sticking, the bullets may be the problem.
Bob

 

[Dusty Stevens]

If the carbon ring is not the problem it could be a new lot of bullets put you into the lands where you may have been extremely close before. Also the neck tension could be less for some reason. Have you been able to eject loaded rounds before?

 

[walker2713]

I clean the rifle after every firing....Wipe Out, Kroil....mostly patches, occasional brass brush.

I've always been able to eject loaded rounds...until this week...

Will do more checking on bullet seating and base/oj relations....

Thanks for the input.

 

[jlow]

When things like this happens, the first thing I ask myself is what has changed?

For example, are you seating the same way? Same batch of bullets? Same brass? Same sizing bushing? Same cleaning regiment for your brass? Same brass prep?, Same seater? Same amount of powder? Isolate that and you are likely to find your answer.

 

[tuttlefarm]

I clean the rifle after every firing....Wipe Out, Kroil....mostly patches, occasional brass brush.

I've always been able to eject loaded rounds...until this week...

Will do more checking on bullet seating and base/oj relations....

Thanks for the input.

You will need to scrub with a brass brush, or a nylon brush with JB .............

 

[Lapua40X]

You can guess and fantasize for a long time an never figure out what's actually happening. Obviously, it's a function of how tight the bullet is held in the neck and what it's locking into in the chamber.
I assume you knocked he stuck bullet out of the bore. Examine it. There should be some markings on it to give you a hint about what's happening at that end. Pull a few seated bullets and see how securely they are in the necks. Get a bore scope and see what's actually in the chamber.

 

[waldo1979]

Less jam and/or more neck tension.

^^

 

[BoydAllen]

After you clean the barrel have someone take a look at the throat with a bore scope. You may have a hard carbon buildup that requires the use of some sort of "abrasive" cleaner. There has been some discussion about whether one of these is an abrasive. To clarify, my use of this term, in this situation, applies to products that work through the mechanical action of particles. In the short range benchrest game this issue (hard carbon) has been successfully dealt with. If you want to know details, you can PM me. I grow tired of the online back and forth on some topics.

 

[noload]

If you seat a bullet well short of jamming does it still pullout when unchambering it? Because It's either getting stuck in the lands or stuck on excessive carbon in the throat.

 

[searcher]

Clean the throat completely with a chamber brush then re-measure your bullet "at jam" lengths using your Hornaday or whatever tool you used the first time when determining your bullet seating depths. If you had recorded your measurements with your particular bullet, and the new measurement is SHORTER than your previously recorded measurement, you either have more carbon to remove, your new batch of bullets is longer at the ogive or your brass is work-hardened and needs to be annealed to maintain the grip you previously had that kept things together when unloading live ammo. Throats tend to roughen up a bit after a lot of firing and that can cause more friction against a jambed bullet than there was when the bore was new. I assume that your load is a purposefully jambed one. To prevent such occurances in my bench-rest rifles, I moly coat the bullets which enables easy extraction of loaded rounds without the disabling powder dump in the trigger.