problem with a remington 700 Sa 308

[Ron Padilla]

I had this problem come up a while back, my sons and I were shooting some questionable ammo and after firing it was almost impossible to extract the spent case, I fired the rifle several more occasions using ammo that I had reloaded or good store bought ammo with out any problems until today. Today we went out to the Montgomery shooting complex and ran in to the same problem, this time it was a box of Brazilian ammo that we had picked up a while back, at first I thought it might be the stock as I installed a new archangel stock but realized that isn't the problem. If anyone has any ideas
please let me know this is a new Remington that I don't have 50 rounds through it yet.

Thanks

[RED333]

It is the ammo, is it steel case, rust in very small amounts will cause cases to stick.

[Ron Padilla]

the cases have all been brass that is what has stumped me, and the Brazilian is new brass.

[Lowpower]

You might try this.....

 

Remove the bolt then take it apart, Remove the firing pin/spring assembly.

 

With the firing pin assay removed stick the bolt back into and cycle in and out of battery a couple of times.

Feel just how easy the bolt handle just drops down into battery.

 

Now stick one of the new fangled Brazilian rounds in and see if the bolt drops the same.

 

Now try one of your spent cases. It should be already fired formed to the chamber. The same thing should happen 

as if it didn't have a case in the chamber. The bolt handle should drop easily into battery.

 

If you're getting any binding or it requires any real pressure to bring the bolt handle into battery then start looking at

your cases for length, or shoulder depth. Something may be incorrect on the brass.

 

If everything works smoothly with light pressure on the bolt handle then you need to have a closer look at your 

chamber.

 

If you've never taken your firing pin assey out of the bolt before let me know. You can easily do it without any special tools

just a dime.

 

Lp

Edited March 10, 2014 by Lowpower

[Ron Padilla]

I did try and used 1 of the fired Brazilian rounds and there is pressure charging and still very difficult extracting the spent brass. I am new to reloading and have done a fair amount of reading and was wondering if there might be a brass, round problem with it not meeting specks, I have never taken that bolt completely down but with the now fired brass does that tell more of a story? Thanks for the offering of help.

[Lowpower]

yw..if you give me a few minutes Ill take apart on of my bolts and take pics for you.

 

Ref your brass.. if you have a fire formed case that will go easy into the case, you can actually do nothing more 

than neck size it then prime, charge and load a new bullet. All thing's being equal it should chamber easily and once

fired be very easy to open the bolt and remove the case. If it word like that then it may be your reloads.

Factory ammo has been know to have bad batches from time.

 

It doesn't mean that yours does but you might buy a case gauge that will immediately give you feedback as to the loaded bullets. 

Dillon sells em. Brownells does too. They're all over the place. Very handy and very accurate.

You can look at them here. Just scroll down to .308.

 

http://www.brownells.com/reloading/measuring-tools/case-gauges-headspace-tools/wilson-case-gauge-prod33287.aspx

[Ron Padilla]

Ya I was thinking about running a couple through the press and resize tomorrow then see how the brass chambers, the gauge is one of the items on my list that I need to pick to check the reloads with, as I mentioned all of the good store bought and the ones I have reloaded have run fine it has been these and the other questionable stuff that has given me a problem. One of the other things I have been meaning to do is look at a few utube videos on taking the bolt apart. Thanks again for all the help I will post back after I resize the brass and try and chamber a few

[RED333]

Might help

 

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-a&hs=Y1W&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=sb&tbm=isch&imgil=eRq6D4wDaJUmgM%253A%253Bhttps%253A%252F%252Fencrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com%252Fimages%253Fq%253Dtbn%253AANd9GcThJ9EPZOicqCpkKx64cJDrKlPuPF4G0jYzS1owSJiKmLIyt1lj%253B400%253B284%253B8LkYwpwT8WyEBM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252F.308_Winchester&source=iu&usg=__sYTgfVaXrY_7pB4uNkcQJW1pLJs%3D&sa=X&ei=QyQdU_2APYWQyAGKz4CAAw&ved=0CFIQ9QEwAQ&biw=1366&bih=638&q=308%20case%20spec#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=boa2ivC6t8SecM%253A%3BHAnDZImvEk1FjM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thegunzone.com%252Fimages%252F762v308.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.thegunzone.com%252F30cal.html%3B250%3B221

Edited March 10, 2014 by RED333

[Dolomite_supafly]

If they chamber and extract easily when not fired then are hard to extract after firing then they are HOT loads.

How do the primers look?
Are there any flow or swipe marks on the back of the cases?

[Lowpower]

ok, took some pics...

[/UR bolt is out of the gun. L]

put the top notches against a wood (read hard but not metal) and pull down this exposes a slot at the top of the bolt

stick a dime in there 

 

unscrew the firing pin assembly and use the bolt to check headspace and case size.

[url=http://s587.photobucket.com/user/ren1795/media/b5_zpsf93f2c4a.jpg.html]when you screw the firing pin back in just make sure you align the slot then pull the dime out.

Edited March 10, 2014 by Lowpower

[Ron Padilla]

The brass shows some markings around the neck, and the primer looks like it had a hard strike, my sons commented that they could be hot loads, so I was thinking that I would not fire any more of those, pull the projectile and de-prime then resize, reload etc, I was recall that they were hard to chamber as well. That did give me some clue and sis not continue to fire any more, but that was all took with me for that rifle today so I will have to wait till our next outing to see how it goes. I still have about 100 reloads and a few boxes and different mainline stuff I can check, tomorrow I get the firing pin pulled and check the bolt with a good known found to see how it chambers.

[Ron Padilla]

are using the table top to pull down on that part of the bolt then inserting the coin?

[Lowpower]

Hard strike? The question is more like are there any holes in the primer? Are the primers flattened out within the primer pockets?

Take a look at a primer of one of your fired cases and one on an unfired case. Disregard the primer dent for a second and give the 

fired primer a good look. Does it appear to be bigger in diameter than the unfired but loaded primer? Also, line that delineates the 

primer from the primer pocket might look hair thin. That along with flattening are all signs of over pressure. Holes in the primer might be 

over pressure or possible shoulder (head space) issues. What can happen is the the case shoulder is shortened to the point that

when the firing pin strikes the primer it pushes the whole case forward then it gets blown back instantly onto the firing pin and bolt 

face. 

 

BTW, anytime you get a hole in a primer it;s time to stop and fix it. The super hot gases coming back from that powder in the case and 
actually deform the bolt face. 

[Lowpower]

yep, i push it hard agasint that old table top in my garage and hold it down. Then I just stick the dime in the slot on top and unscrew the firing pin

assembly. I've been doing it for years. cheap and works every time. 

[Ron Padilla]

I will look for those signs, and thanks for the info and what to look for on the primers.

[Lowpower]

good luck with it. and, again...when you pull the firing pin assembly and stick the bolt back in the rifle when you ram the bolt home the 

handle should fall by itself down in its battery position. A loaded or fired round should do just about the same.

 

Lp

[Ron Padilla]

the primers have become flattened out and very expanded in the primer pocket but no holes. I take that as being a hot load.

[Lowpower]

If they chamber and extract easily when not fired then are hard to extract after firing then they are HOT loads.

How do the primers look?
Are there any flow or swipe marks on the back of the cases?

 

heya Dolo. 

 

Alot of guys I shoot with have very tightly reamed chambers to the point we have to trim the brass' neck thickness down 

not only for uniformity of neck wall thickness but to keep the brass expansion from sticking the brass. The rounds are not

overloaded at all but can still stick in a very tight chamber. 

 

And yes, I get very anal and trim all of my brass necks to a uniform .0012 thickness for my 40X .308. They're also weighed for volume,

trimmed to uniform length, pockets reamed and de-burred, annealed every 6-7 reloads and I only use Lapua Brass.  

My Berger 175 gr Match Target HPBT bullets are pointed, weighed, ogive gauged and met plat trimmed. Bullets are seated then

tested for runout and adjusted.

 

Talk about a waste of time but she sure shoots, lights out at 600 yds. :D

 

Lp 

[Lowpower]

the primers have become flattened out and very expanded in the primer pocket but no holes. I take that as being a hot load.

Yep, what powder are you using and how much behind what bullet size? Primers also play a big roll. There's a book out there somewhere

that addresses primers. I know I have it laying around here somewhere. Anyway, they have pics of primers being fired and the pics shows the

different flashes from the different primers. It's very enlightening. 

 

All rifles are not created equal. Including those that come off the assembly line. Both are reamed the same. Both have the same barrels and are of the

same length but both guns like completely different loads/powder/bullet jump/primers to shoot tight groups. These are two guns that came off the 

assembly line one after the other.  That means my 40X .308 using 43.1 grains of Varget with the bullets touching the lands may not shoot a tight group 

in your rifle. You have to find what works and Rem 700's are notoriously accurate rifles. 

Edited March 10, 2014 by Lowpower

[Ron Padilla]

these are the Brazilian rounds and sounds like I need to be looking at a few more tools and some more reading to get on top of all this, thanks for all the help truly appreciated.

[DJTC45]

get some different quality  ammo and try that.

[Ron Padilla]

after resizing the spent rounds they did fit as they should and ejected properly as well, they were very difficult to put through the press however to resize. So needless to say I wont be shooting any more of this, I a not going to reload the brass either, and as far as I know my son has put the rest of the ammo up on craigslist. thanks to all for the advice on what to look for in a hot round.

Ron

[whitewolf001]

I had a similar problem with my 700 SPS .300 Win Mag, the bolt would lock up tighter than a nun's drawers and the base of the casing's had marring that after firing the apparently the case swelled up enough to lock up. I heavily cleaned the chamber for about 30 minutes, seems to have cleared up MY problem for the most part.

[Ron Padilla]

I haven't had a chance to shoot it lately, after cleaning the peepee out of it, I was suppose to go out this past weekend but ended up spending the weekend at the gateway medical center. So hopefully I can get out soon and shot it and see how it performs and then give up date.