Thread: New rifle problem

My son Deereman who lives in Canada recently sold several rifles and bought a new Christensen Arms Ridgeline rifle in 300 Rum. Since it arrived he has had it to the range a couple of times, the first time out he broke the barrel in trying different loads which all shot well , an inch or smaller.
Today he messaged me saying he found a real accurate load ( one enlarged hole, sorry can't get picture off phone) but the problem is he has a major effort to get the shells out of the chamber.

Bolt lift is fine, but he has to all but hammer the bolt back to remove the fired shell. Primers look ok on fired shell. Load is 90 grains of H1000 or AR 2217 with the 212 gr Hornady ELDX, according to book .5 grain under book max.
He also tried some 190 gr LRAB he had loaded up from the first range visit which went off without a hitch but when he tried the same load today they were hard to extract. Rifle has had about 50 rounds through it and the first 40 odd on the first range outing went off without a problem.

I suggested the brass was getting old so he is going to load up some new shells and try them but he thinks the ones that were sticking had only been fired twice. He fired some old Nickel plated brass that has been loaded upwards of 7 times and these ( 2 ) extracted fine.
Temp today in Pentiction where he lives was 12 deg so temp should be an issue.

Does anyone have any ideas what it could be, strange why it started doing this on this outing. If it was a chamber problem it should do it all the time ? Any help, suggestions would be much appreciated.

try factory ammo sounds like he needs to check his cases does he have a case gauge get it all the time with pistols reloading use a case gauge even then doest get them all got to individually check them in the barrel

Maybe a carbon ring has formed and the barrel needs a good clean

No primary extraction?


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Originally Posted by carlhurley

try factory ammo sounds like he needs to check his cases does he have a case gauge get it all the time with pistols reloading use a case gauge even then doest get them all got to individually check them in the barrel

He has fired factory 220 gr ELDX as well as his handloads which are all trimmed to length. The problem isn't with the loaded rounds going into chamber and closing the bolt on them its after firing, Bolt lift is normal but extracting the fired shell from chamber has become a problem, didn't happen on his first outing only this time.

Originally Posted by wsm junkie

Maybe a carbon ring has formed and the barrel needs a good clean

Would that happen in 40 odd rounds? I know he is pretty particular with his gear so it would be cleaned after use.

Originally Posted by MSL

No primary extraction?


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What do you mean by primary extraction, not sure what that is?

Originally Posted by Mooseman

What do you mean by primary extraction, not sure what that is?

The first bit of case extraction is performed by lifting the bolt hence primary extraction and uses a camming action to start the case rearwards.
Rem 700s are bad for this not being set up properly from factory.
If the extractor has moved or come loose that could be enough to stop it primary extracting.

The only time I ever had "hard case extraction problems" was with overpressure loads.
The worst-case scenario would be that he has a ringed chamber and that his loads are hot enough to leave brass protruding into the ring, which happens only half the time due to external environmental temperatures. To check for that, look for a shiny ring on cases where they were scuffed during extraction.

2nd - I've twice run into manual starting loads that were already at maximum for the rifle I was using it in. One was a .25-06 load from a Nosler manual. Always start with the starting load, which should be 10% below the maximum stated pressure. He stated his loads are .5 grain below max listed but he is probably overpressure for his rifle.

3rd - The cases were not overloaded or above max loads, but the OAL for a particular bullet profile set the bullet into the lands and caused the overpressure. In general, if you are loading a bullet in contact with the lands, the pressure will be about 20% higher than when the bullet is 0.020" to 0.050" back of the lands (depending on the shape of the ogive).
This can be avoided by using a Case length gauge and finding the Max OAL for a particular bullet in the rifle concerned instead of just taking some book reference.

does he full lenght size or neck size?? Can you rechamber a fired case and extract again easily

Primary extraction is when the 2 camming faces (usually on the bolt handle / rear bridge meet when you lift the bolt pulling the fired case slightly rearward

Thats a bugger, hopefully its a simple easy fix. I hear quite a few bad stories about the CA rifles unfortunately.

Originally Posted by mikee

does he full lenght size or neck size?? Can you rechamber a fired case and extract again easily

Primary extraction is when the 2 camming faces (usually on the bolt handle / rear bridge meet when you lift the bolt pulling the fired case slightly rearward

Does it do it with factory ammo

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

The first bit of case extraction is performed by lifting the bolt hence primary extraction and uses a camming action to start the case rearwards.
Rem 700s are bad for this not being set up properly from factory.
If the extractor has moved or come loose that could be enough to stop it primary extracting.

Thanks for that your never to old to learn something new.

Originally Posted by mikee

does he full lenght size or neck size?? Can you rechamber a fired case and extract again easily

Primary extraction is when the 2 camming faces (usually on the bolt handle / rear bridge meet when you lift the bolt pulling the fired case slightly rearward

Full length sizes all his brass, not sure about rechambering a fired case, will get him to try that.

Originally Posted by mikee

Does it do it with factory ammo

No , he has only tried 220 gr ELDX and I think they were ok these were shot on his first trip to range, but then so did his handloads on the first trip, problem only appeared today on his second go with rifle.