Overpressure issues?

Fisher86

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St Walburg, SK
So I have been messing around with a 350 Rem Mag for a bit now, the rifle was shooting the now extinct Remington factory's just fine, but on all of my ladder tests, with a variety of bullets and powders I am getting a sticky bolt/hard extractions. These loads are all WELL below book max and very lethargic velocity's.

Any thoughts/input would be appreciated.
 
Color a fired case with a black felt marker then chamber the case, extract and look for rub marks.

Chambers, dies and cartridge cases can vary in size and some cases can expand more just above the belt.

Meaning a small diameter case fired in a larger diameter chamber with a thinner case body above the belt.

And the problem is the sizing dies do not size down to the top of the belt.

You can also have a "skinny" chamber and a "fat" die that is not reducing the case diameter enough.

Meaning the case body diameter is not reduced in diameter enough to spring back from the chamber walls

And you will not have your answer until color the case and check for rub marks.

The most common problem is the case is not being sized just above the belt.
 
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Lots of things come to mind.

Check the cases. In particular, do the once/many fired cases, that were sticky to extract after firing, chamber and extract freely after the resizing process? Check before priming or charging! If the EMPTY but resized case is sticky to insert, or difficult to close the bolt or extract, then it isn't sized properly in some manner. If everything is smooth, then seat a bullet in the EMPTY but resized case and try it out again. If it is sticky now, could be the bullets are being jammed into the lands as they are not seated properly. Did you measure where the lands are in relation to the case base, and the top of the belt? Did you check the CBTO of a reload?

As Ed says, maybe cases are not being resized properly, especially just above the belt. Read this:
larrywillis.com/answers.html I use one of his dies from time to time on my 300WM.

Could be the shoulder needs to be pushed back. Yeah, yeah, I know, it is supposed to headspace off the belt, blah, blah, blah, BUT you really should be headspacing off of the shoulder just like any other bottleneck cartridge. If the shoulder is too far forward, it will be headspacing off of it and if it is longer than the belt to shoulder or the base to shoulder, the case will be under compression as the bolt is closed.

There are others but you haven't given near enough info. Exactly what is your procedure for checking/measuring/resizing//trimming?
 
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