Issues with Nosler

[Brad97]

Hey fellas. I decided to go with Nosler 165gr accubonds chambered in 30-06 for my AZ sheep hunt. I shoot a savage model 116, nothing fancy but it gets the job done every time.

I just got back from the range where I was having bolt lock issues. Every shot was locking my bolt up. Decided to try another brand and I had no problems. I’ve attached a picture of the primers.

Doing some research on the cause, I think it might have something to do with the overall length of the cartridge. I have multiple brands on hand and when I compared them all to the Nosler cartridge, the Nosler round was on average ~1/8” longer than the rest.

I can chamber and unchamber a live round with no problems.

Could the overall length be the issue or could something else be causing this?

My gunsmith is closed today but I’m going to give him a call tomorrow to get his opinion.

 

[fishing4sanity]

I'm guessing this is factory ammo? I've seen several Savages that are sensitive to faster/higher pressure ammo. I've seen it with Hornady Superformance a few times. I own several Savages and I'm not knocking the brand, but I've seen a few rough chamber jobs that contribute to the heavy bolt lift. Have your smith check the chamber job from the factory and consider testing other factory ammo as well. Good luck and please share your hunt with those of us that won't live long enough to ever sheep hunt!

 

[Brad97]

I'm guessing this is factory ammo? I've seen several Savages that are sensitive to faster/higher pressure ammo. I've seen it with Hornady Superformance a few times. I own several Savages and I'm not knocking the brand, but I've seen a few rough chamber jobs that contribute to the heavy bolt lift. Have your smith check the chamber job from the factory and consider testing other factory ammo as well. Good luck and please share your hunt with those of us that won't live long enough to ever sheep hunt!

Yup, all factory ammo. Hornady Superformance was the other brand I shot when I was first getting lock up with the Nosler and I had no issues. Might have to go back to it for this hunt.

 

[fishing4sanity]

I love Nosler AB bullets and you can get other factory ammo using their bullets. So, if you like the bullet see what other options are out there.

 

[antelopedundee]

If length was an issue you should have resistance when you close on the round and possibly rifling marks on the bullet as well. The primers look mildly flat and a little crated, but nothing excessive IMO. Neck diameter of the loaded round which you can measure with a dial caliper could be a possibility. If you had a borescope you could inspect the chamber yourself. Do the case surfaces look like they have abrasion on them?

 

[Sheltowee]

SAAMI COAL for the .30-06 is 3.340". Are these longer or shorter than that? If possible, I'd also be interested in measuring the length to ogive on the Noslers vs. the other rounds that were chambering easily.

 

[cahunter805]

If you can chamber and unchamber a live round with no issues I wouldn’t suspect OAL or the lands to be an issue.
Do the fired cases have rub marks on them? If so at what location on the brass?
It could also be the loaded rounds are just to hot for your rifles chamber.

 

[antelopedundee]

I would think that a modern CF rifle should be able to handle the pressures associated with most modern commercial loaded ammo. I don't know if it's possible to load a round to a specific pressure and use that to determine difficulty with bolt lift or failure to extract the fired case.

I currently have at least one more and probably 2 more Rem RR series stainless actions that have the bolt handle misplaced such that there is little to no primary extraction of the fired case. If the load gets a little too hot the bolt handle needs to be tapped to open the action. Too much more and the fired case sticks in the chamber and must be tapped out with a cleaning rod. The loads weren't intended to be hot, but the situation ended up with them being that way. The case heads sorta look somewhat similar to yours.

I don't know about Savage, but the rough chamber thing may be right. It would be helpful to know if there are other Savage owners in your area who could fire a couple of the problem rounds to see if they experience the same issue. The good thing is that you can load around it, but the resulting load may not be ideal in terms of velocity or in producing small groups. I know that before I went on a hunt I'd test several boxes of ammo to make sure that I wouldn't have problems.

 

[Farmerj]

~1/8” difference in length of brass ????

Something isn’t right there.

I’m mean in the reloading world that’s an entirely different state away in distance.

 

[antelopedundee]

~1/8” difference in length of brass ????

Something isn’t right there.

I’m mean in the reloading world that’s an entirely different state away in distance.

The 1/8 difference was COL overall length and not case length. He also said that he could chamber a loaded round with no resistance.