Alright, I'm turning to the expertise of this forum again!
I finally went out and shot my new rifle today. It was a 7mm08 that I converted to a 6.5 Creedmoor via Lilja barrel. See my other thread regarding the rifle at
http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=257805
It shoots great and has very little recoil, however, I had issues extracting 18 out of 20 cartridges. For the barrel break-in, I'm shooting factory Hornady ammo, 129 grain SST superformance to be exact. It is so tight after firing that I have to really get into it to get the bolt up (literally feels STUCK!). It is even scraping the lettering off of the brass as you can see in the picture at the bottom. It's not really hard to slide the bolt back after I uncock it, only the 60 degree bolt throw seems to be difficult.
I originally thought it was the ejector pin that was doing this and took it to the gunsmith. He thinks the load may be too hot and that may be the issue, as he had another customer with a 338 that had Hornady issues and other manufacturers were fine. He thought I should try a different manufacturer or a handload. I have the materials, just need to get my reloading equipment set up, or try some Nosler $50/box ammo.
I'm not having any issues chambering a loaded cartridge, but I did notice a couple of loaded cases were slightly more difficult to load. I cleaned the bolt face up and chambered a spent cartridge and cocked and uncocked the bolt a few times and noticed that the brass was wearing off on the face and not the ejector pin. I think the chamber might be too tight or the head space is slightly off. It's possible the Hornady loads are too hot but the primers look fine and aren't popping out. Regardless, I would think a custom rifle should be able to handle these "factory" loads.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
I finally went out and shot my new rifle today. It was a 7mm08 that I converted to a 6.5 Creedmoor via Lilja barrel. See my other thread regarding the rifle at
http://onyourownadventures.com/hunttalk/showthread.php?t=257805
It shoots great and has very little recoil, however, I had issues extracting 18 out of 20 cartridges. For the barrel break-in, I'm shooting factory Hornady ammo, 129 grain SST superformance to be exact. It is so tight after firing that I have to really get into it to get the bolt up (literally feels STUCK!). It is even scraping the lettering off of the brass as you can see in the picture at the bottom. It's not really hard to slide the bolt back after I uncock it, only the 60 degree bolt throw seems to be difficult.
I originally thought it was the ejector pin that was doing this and took it to the gunsmith. He thinks the load may be too hot and that may be the issue, as he had another customer with a 338 that had Hornady issues and other manufacturers were fine. He thought I should try a different manufacturer or a handload. I have the materials, just need to get my reloading equipment set up, or try some Nosler $50/box ammo.
I'm not having any issues chambering a loaded cartridge, but I did notice a couple of loaded cases were slightly more difficult to load. I cleaned the bolt face up and chambered a spent cartridge and cocked and uncocked the bolt a few times and noticed that the brass was wearing off on the face and not the ejector pin. I think the chamber might be too tight or the head space is slightly off. It's possible the Hornady loads are too hot but the primers look fine and aren't popping out. Regardless, I would think a custom rifle should be able to handle these "factory" loads.
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!
