Thread: Bolt hard/stiff/gritty to lift after firing

Fired a box of 20 factory s and b rounds of 308 at the range 2 weeks ago. The bolt was hard to cycle after firing. Extracted ok and chambered ok But sometimes required a bit of force. Range officer thought it might be a head space issue. Anyone had experience with this? It's an m 98 mauser if that helps

Cheers.

Usually factory is well below max load, so headspace maybe an issue. I have had that issue with max loads or above, but never factory loads.

Have you any of the spent cases about?
Might be worth looking at the base/primer etc

On an empty chamber close the bolt. Pull triggeer and then open the bolt. If it fells gritty it maybe the cocking notch or cocking piece. Try it and let me know how you got on.

A mate gave me some .308 S&B ammo left over after he sold his .308 and got a .243 (yeah I know but what are you gonna do...)

Anyway I tried the S&B ammo in my Remington 700, an old BDL with original factory barrel. Bolt was hard to lift after firing just like when shooting ex-military 7.62x51mm in that rifle.

we have some s&b .308 brass here and its horrid crap. seems to expand at the web quite a bit...eg when resizing you get pronouced mark at web area and moving the press handle is a major effort. we chuck it after firing now (and Im a real tight wad) no issues at all with any other brass through same rifle.

Does it do it with other brands ?
If not, its the brass
If it does, more investigation needed.

It did it with PMC FMJ stuff too. I have some ppu rounds that I'll try next general practice

I will check the brass and the bolt when I get home from work.

Cheers..

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My 308 Mauser is stiff to chamber and extract ppu. It is fine once it's been trimmed and full length sized though

Tried the firing pin thing. Felt normal. I have taken some pics which I'll upload

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Need a nice clear photo of the bottom of case to check stamping and primer bro

Close, grab a case out of the box, one that looks like it has a shinny stamp on the edge or a primer strike with raised edges of the crater, then get a close up of that, end on to camera
maybe that second from bottom on right

Some of those primers look quite flat too

Originally Posted by Micky Duck

we have some s&b .308 brass here and its horrid crap. seems to expand at the web quite a bit...eg when resizing you get pronouced mark at web area and moving the press handle is a major effort. we chuck it after firing now (and Im a real tight wad) no issues at all with any other brass through same rifle.

I've noticed the extra force needed when re-sizing S&B too, not just .308, but 8x57 and 7.62x39 too If I remember, they seem to be a bit hotter than most because the primers are a bit flatter after firing than you'd expect from factory ammo