Thread: Keyholing and stiff bolt lift

Originally Posted by Frogfeatures

My son has a new toy, 1900 Spanish Mauser rebarrelled by their military to 7.62-51 in 1950.
Bore and crown look ok. So he bought some Greek surplus ammo for it and off we went to the range yesterday
First 3 shots went ok, but the bolt got progressively harder to lift. Last 2 the projectiles went sideways and really
Hard to eject. Ejection marks on cases. Too hot obviously
My question is - Why did it get progressively worse ?
Why didn’t the first projectiles tumble ?
I’ve loaded up some nice soft loads with Sierra 150 gr spitzers to try next range day.

Greetings @Frogfeatures,
The problem was most likely the crap ammo. My experience with the Greek .303 ammo is that some is excellent and some absolute rubbish. Likely due to poor storage.
Regards Grandpamac.