Hard extraction on a Remington 700 in 308

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KellyP

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Ok gentlemen, I have been reloading for awhile and I have an issue now. Went out this morning with my reloads.... Everything chambers fine, shoots great but when pulling the bolt back several of the casings were hard to get out.... I had to tap the bolt handle with a screwdriver handle several times.... I am using LC brass, there are no signs of over pressure, primer is in place, no powder burn marks anywhere, the bolt face is clean and no marks on it either. I did notice that some of the brass had a fine "score" mark on the shoulder. I cannot remember if I used my XL die for all the brass or if I did some with XL and some with FL dies in another sizing session. These are now 4th time fired brass. All brass was sized and trimmed to spec. (2.008") for an overall length loaded of 2.810". Like I mentioned several were hard to get out, the rest functioned properly with a flick of the finger the bolt came back and ejected the casings. I have segregated the casings from each other, if I can't find a solution then I toss the ones that were hard to extract. Anybody out there have any insight to this problem I am facing?
 
LC brass is U.S. milsurp that was usually fired out of an MG. Suspect that despite only 5 firings(1 by the U.S. and your 4) it might be tired. MG's are hard on brass. Just a WHAG without the load data though.
 
If the Lake City brass was fired in a machine gun it will be slightly larger in diameter than normal, and the brass will "spring back" after sizing.

Is some or all of the brass once fired LC brass?

Do you have a small base die?

The American M14 chamber is approximately .002 larger in diameter than a civilian SAAMI chamber, and a machine gun chamber is .003 to .004 larger in diameter.

I use a small base die on all one fired Lake City brass to bring the cases back to minimum dimensions. Then after the first sizing with a small base die a standard die can be used.

"IF" you are neck sizing only then its time to full length resize your cases.

After full length resizing the case diameter measured at several places should be at least .003 smaller in diameter and preferably .005 smaller than the fired size.
 
Last edited:
Load data

168 Bergers VLD Match
42.5 Grains of Benchmark
Brass trimmed with Lyman trimmer
LC Brass some FL sized some XL sized
WLR Primers
C.O.A.L 2.08"

I appreciate all the info gents, but the action screw being tight dont seem to be the issue as far as it has been checked. The different dies being used might be my issue in doing 2 different batches for sizing using different dies. I was unaware of the history of the LC brass being used on MG's, thanks for the insight. I will stick with the RP brass I have and see where it goes from there.

I know that 42.5 g of BM is slightly over the max load recommended but the rifle is cloverleafing the holes with that concoction. Nice tight groups and POI never changes....

Would the slight over max cause the "weaker" cases to become a hard extraction?
 
KellyP said:
Load data

168 Bergers VLD Match
42.5 Grains of Benchmark
Brass trimmed with Lyman trimmer
LC Brass some FL sized some XL sized
WLR Primers
C.O.A.L 2.08"

I appreciate all the info gents, but the action screw being tight dont seem to be the issue as far as it has been checked. The different dies being used might be my issue in doing 2 different batches for sizing using different dies. I was unaware of the history of the LC brass being used on MG's, thanks for the insight. I will stick with the RP brass I have and see where it goes from there.

I know that 42.5 g of BM is slightly over the max load recommended but the rifle is cloverleafing the holes with that concoction. Nice tight groups and POI never changes....

Would the slight over max cause the "weaker" cases to become a hard extraction?
Click to expand...

Slight over max in heavier military brass might be the issue. You should generally reduce loads 5% with thicker mil brass as there is reduced case capacity.
Weigh a few cases and compare them to your Remington or other commercial cases.
 
You have simply exceeded the elastic limit of the brass and it is now "stuck" at the larger size ie no more spring back so it sticks in the chamber.

Toss that lot of brass... it will all fail shortly.

to slow this down, you can move to a slower powder which will reduce the peak pressure the brass will experience. It will likely give you 2 to 5 more firings before the same thing happens.

The engineers of this brass were only concerned with the first firing....

Very nice stuff though.

If you need a replacement, let me know Thanks

Jerry
 
As it is only some of the cases that are difficult to extract it is not a rifle problem, nor is it a load problem, it is a brass problem. As indicated by bigedP51 you can likely get more use from this brass if you anneal it and run it through a small base die. LC brass is highly desirable brass and I suspect you can salvage it by doing this.
 
Annealing has solved the problem as of right now. Loaded up some rounds went to test the loads and everything extracted fine. I didnt notice any deviations in the casing from last time nor this time, I believe that the annealing process allowed the brass to be a bit softer and was able to retract away from the chamber walls which allowed for easy extraction. Having a difficult time working up the varget loads, which means I will go back to the old faithful benchmark for my 308.

Thanks for the advice gentlemen, another issue rectified by asking a simple question.

Happy hunting and safe shooting.
 
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