Thread: new barrel - hard to eject rounds

Hi all, very much a beginner & amateur loader.

I have recently had my rem 300wsm re barrelled by Hardy’s.
Blueprinted ect.
it chambers my rounds fine, including factory ammo because I had to check that. but all rounds fired are very hard to open bolt and eject. bolt lift is normal, but to empty the chamber takes a few hits on the bolt to come free. this is including factory rounds..
any ideas what I have done or need to do?
have been hoping to start load development but this is a major flaw in my plan.
chronograph is a basic model but speeds are approx 2700fts firing a Sierra 175 TMK with H100V.
cheers,

Return to Hardy's should be your first option, give them a chance to sort.

Originally Posted by tetawa

Return to Hardy's should be your first option, give them a chance to sort.

Definitely this

Very good cheers guys. I have just emailed them,
Thanks again

Sounds weird, definitely go back to the gunsmith. Lifting the bolt usually starts withdrawing the case from the chamber, so it should slide back easily after that, there may be something else binding and causing the problem.

Originally Posted by alphaDelta

chambers my rounds fine, including factory ammo because I had to check that. but all rounds fired are very hard to open bolt and eject. bolt lift is normal, but to empty the chamber takes a few hits on the bolt to come free. this is including factory rounds..
any ideas what I have done or need to do?

Had the exact same problem on a Remington Model 7 that some fuckwit 'gunsmith' put a PTG Rem 700 bolt into and never bothered to check headspace.

I'd put £20 on it being long-chambered, the brass is expanding too much and what you are seeing is the result of trying to rip a piece of brass out of the chamber which has not been able to spring back enough. Being able to lift the bolt up to the primary extraction cam is a good sign, as that is often done wrong in a re-barreled Remington to where the primary extraction surfaces on the receiver and bolt handle miss each other entirely.

Borrow a No-Go gauge (or if you can only find a Go gauge, put a single layer of masking tape on the case head) and I bet the bolt will still close. This is quite an unsafe condition as you are stretching the brass beyond it's elastic limit. If you want to verify this, go find or buy an L.E Wilson case gauge ( https://lewilson.com/case-gage ) and I bet your brass will protrude from the rear end of it. Another thing to confirm this hypothesis is find another person with a 300WSM who reloads, get them to run your case through their FL sizing die and try and chamber it. It probably won't chamber and will require a small base die to get it sized down around the case web (you are better off binning all the fired brass at this stage TBH)...

Originally Posted by alphaDelta

I have recently had my rem 300wsm re barrelled by Hardy’s.

Thanks for taking the time mate, awesome info cheers

Best to let the builder have a look at it and remedy it first.

If its a std rem factory action which has been rebarreled then it should be quite a simple fix you would hope.

Originally Posted by mikee

Best to let the builder have a look at it and remedy it first.

If its a std rem factory action which has been rebarreled then it should be quite a simple fix you would hope.

Fingers crossed,
Cheers all for the help

so if you chamber a round and dont fire it..will it eject easily???

Almost sounds like a lack of primary extraction.

Was the brass brand new or has it been fired in another barrel?

Originally Posted by GWH

Almost sounds like a lack of primary extraction.

Was the brass brand new or has it been fired in another barrel?

Nope, the bolt lift being normal as per OP's first post would not indicate a PE problem.
@alphaDelta could you stick up a video showing extraction after firing if possible? Focus being on where the bolt handle hits the receiver cam on extraction.

Another thing to do would be measure the dimensions of your fired brass against unfired (the L.E Wilson Gauge is just a lazy way of doing the same thing).

Ive struck a very similar issue where fired brass was very hard to extract from chamber, bolt had to be taped rearward to pull out brass from chamber.

The issue was the new barrel had been chambered with a match reamer, which was slightly tighter in the webbing/ case head area. I used brass that had been fired in the old barrel, it chambered fine but super hard to extract after firing in the new chamber.

The smith told me to use brand new brass, and sure enough when i did the problem was fixed.

The area of the case back by the case head that doesn't get sized by the FL die was the issue.

@GWH I dont think that this is the issue here as hes said that it happens with new factory rounds.
But ya never know eh.
My money is on it being a head space issue as stated above. But sent back to the builder and it should be all good.

Originally Posted by GWH

Ive struck a very similar issue where fired brass was very hard to extract from chamber, bolt had to be taped rearward to pull out brass from chamber.

The issue was the new barrel had been chambered with a match reamer, which was slightly tighter in the webbing/ case head area. I used brass that had been fired in the old barrel, it chambered fine but super hard to extract after firing in the new chamber.

The smith told me to use brand new brass, and sure enough when i did the problem was fixed.

The area of the case back by the case head that doesn't get sized by the FL die was the issue.

Small base die should fix that?