Sticking cases

Mykey · 10-30-2003, 09:08 AM

I have a question for you guys. I have a friend who has a Weatherby Vanguard in 30.06 and after he fires a round he has to force the bolt up by striking it with the palm of his hand to get it to open and afterwards the case is stuck and has to be removed by putting a rod down the barrel from the muzzle to force it out. The case has marks on the rim where the bolt is trying to eject it out but can' t. He said it use to do it every once in a while but now it happens on every shot. He is shooting factory bullets and said they it doesn' t matter what manufacturer he' s tried it still does it. I made a handloaded dummy round just to try and it also stuck. I love to tinker but i' m no gunsmith so i suggested that he take it to one. I' ve never had one to do this so i don' t really have a clue as to whats going on unless there' s maybe something wrong with the chamber. If you guys have any suggestions before hand that i could pass along to him i' m sure he would appreciate it and so would i. Thanks!

Danny45 · 10-30-2003, 09:14 AM

Well, a number of things could have been wrong if it was only doing it with fired rounds. But if it' s doing it with the dummy reload you created, I' d say the specs were off on the chamber and it' s too tight. I' d send it back to the factory rather than pay a ' smith a lot of money to rechamber it.

That' s my best guess.

James B · 10-30-2003, 09:27 AM

It sounds like excessive headspacing. In any rate its not normal and should be returned or checked out by a good gunsmith. It could be dangerous for sure. I had one do that but it was only after some high pressure handloads. In my case it was underloads of slow burning powder. I had to send the gun in and have it checked out and re- headspaced. I ended up having it reballeled.

Vapodog · 10-30-2003, 09:35 AM

Quit shooting the gun and return it to the manufacturer. Clearly something is wrong in the barrel/chamber area.

lance0623 · 10-30-2003, 11:01 AM

I had that happen once with my Weatherby Vanguard. I took it to a gunsmith, and they took a steel brush, similar to what you would use to clean a shotgun, stuck in on an electic drill, and used that to clean/shave off a hair in the chamber. Haven' t had the same problem since. The spent casing had scratches running the length of it when they got it out. Hope this helps.

Lance

propmahn · 10-30-2003, 01:44 PM

im no expert but it sounds like a burr in the chamber. id do what lance0623 did or just send it back to the factory

Briman · 10-30-2003, 05:29 PM

send it back, its either a dangerous headspace issue or the chamber is pitted- either way, I would have the manufacturer correct it.

jimcanada · 10-30-2003, 07:05 PM

it could also be an excess amount of oil in the chamber. the same as a stuck case in a loadindg die.

Goodguy · 10-30-2003, 08:59 PM

Pardon my ignorance but I don' t see how this could be a head space problem when it occurrs with a dummy round. You didn' t say how old the rifle is. Is it within the warranty period? If so send it back. Otherwise have a smith look at it for sure. It is strange that the problem which used to occur only periodically now happens regularly. I had a model 70 that behaved this way when new. The ejected casing had noticeable gouges in it. Mine was cured by polishing the chamber. gg.