Thread: Keyholing and stiff bolt lift

Greetings All,
I would not read too much into the varying pressure due to the nature of the ammunition being used. I have read that some of the Greek ammo was tumbled to clean it up. This is a doubtful practise due to the chance of the deterrent powder coating being rubbed of in the process. Different batches receiving different treatment and then combined before packing could easily account for quite different pressure in different cartridges. I think the message should be clear that don't use ammo of doubtful history and if you do don't expect too much in the way of consistency. Drawing conclusions on the basis of crap ammo is futile at best.
To @Frogfeatures AR2206H is a powder that you can go well below start loads with safety. Hodgdon gives a minimum of 60% of max loads for reduced loads with H4895 (AR2206H) and I have gone as low as 32 grains with the 150 grain plated projectiles with good results. Much below that the cases were smoked full length.
Regards Grandpamac.

@hamsav hi just my too cents worth i have a 303 1917 smle did the same thing re ripping the patch i got a patch and put some autosol polish from repco on the patch and worked the bore made a big difference as i shoot cast only in cheers

Originally Posted by Frogfeatures

My son has a new toy, 1900 Spanish Mauser rebarrelled by their military to 7.62-51 in 1950.
Bore and crown look ok. So he bought some Greek surplus ammo for it and off we went to the range yesterday
First 3 shots went ok, but the bolt got progressively harder to lift. Last 2 the projectiles went sideways and really
Hard to eject. Ejection marks on cases. Too hot obviously
My question is - Why did it get progressively worse ?
Why didn’t the first projectiles tumble ?
I’ve loaded up some nice soft loads with Sierra 150 gr spitzers to try next range day.

Where you do get the 1950 from? The 7.62x51NATO was only developed in the 1950s so 1950 seems early, the .308Win was 1952 and the NATO cartridge only two years later.

The 7x57 Mauser has comparable pressure to the 7.62x51NATO so the CETME thing is a non-issue. The action will handle it especially as CIP proof loads for 7x57 will wayyy exceed the 7.62x51NATO's rated max pressures.

I think the barrel has 1953 stamped on it, from memory.
Pretty sure the problem was the milsurp ammo
I’ve loaded up 2 different rounds to try, one at ADI’s start load, and one a little below that.
He’s only shooting paper, so a nice soft load will work fine.