Gun Malfunction: Chambered Rounds stuck

A little background, this rifle is a Savage Axis in .308. It has a 26'' Light Varmint Contour barrel pulled from a new Savage 12FV. It resides in a Boyd's Pro Varmint Stock and has the factory trigger. I built this rifle for myself and it has about 180 rounds down the tube, and up till today the gun has worked flawlessly without issue. I do not reload and have shot only factory loaded 168gr FGMM.

Here is the issue, earlier today while shooting at the range maybe 35 or so rounds in, I chambered a round and it felt really tight when I locked the bolt. So decided to take a look thinking maybe the round had problem, but when I went to pull the bolt back it was stuck. Ended up having to beat back with my hand and this separated the case from the bullet which was now residing in the barrel throat. After using some Kroil and .17 cal cleaning rod I was able to knock it out.

Powder was all over the bolt recess/throat area and I wasn't sure if anything was damaged, so packed it up and went home.
At home, I took the air compressor and blew all the gunk out and took a look down the bore and didn't see any obstructions and the rifling looked good. Next, checked the headspace with the go and no-go gauge and they worked fine. Chambered an empty round and it extracted/ejected no problem. So me being the the gunsmiting genius I decided maybe this was some sort of one off issue and loaded up a round. Guess what!! Stuck again and had to beat it open with hammer and the bullet was stuck in the chamber with crap all over. Rinse, wash repeat...

This is what I have done so far..

1.) Removed extractor ball bearing and re-inserted
2.) Used a different bolt from another 7mm-08 Axis that I have (firing pins removed)
3.) Cleaned and scrubbed the barrel and checked for tightness during this process their was none with either patches or nylon brush
4.) Checked and rechecked the headspace and they work correctly each time

After all this the only difference is that if I load a round the bolt will still stick, but when I knock it open the amount of pressure that is required is slightly less and I can get the round out without it separating.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Sounds to me like your factory rounds are jamming into the lands of the rifling which is a fairly common problem I have read about with the 168 FGMM. DO you still have these issues with other brands of factory ammo?

I have only shot the federal ammunition through this particular rifle so I'm going to have to go to Cabelas and pick up something else to test.

It can happen especially when using ammo that has been fired in another gun and reloaded without proper precautions.
Very recently a good friend beat the bolt handle off on a Hall custom action trying to remove a stuck case.
In this case he was trying to reclaim cases that had been fired in another of his guns.

Some times a carbon ring forms in the neck that you can't see without a bore scope. Wrap some 4-0 steel wool around a brush and give the neck a good scrubbing. It works for me.

Went and got some Federal 150gr Power Shok and will see what happens with those.

@Arky thanks I have some 1000gr Steel wool that I can use will give that a try.

From what you describe, this almost has to be a result of the bullets not being seated deeply enough in the cases. Rare in factory ammo, but I have encountered it twice in about 40 years.

sure sounds like those rounds had an oal yer chamber, leade and rifling didn't like.

if ya don't mind and on a related tack, y'all really need to roll yer own. there are no down sides, only positive. it only takes a minimal investment in tooling and materials to easily load safe, very accurate rounds; better than the commercial stuff. been doing so for over 5 decades, when last i bought commercial ammo. i'm no loading guru, but i get the job done, enjoy the hands-on process, and have won matches with the rounds i've built. anyone can pm or email me to learn more, happy to help and pass it on forward.

Stopped by Cabela's and bought a box of the Federal 150gr Power Shok. Dropped one into the gun, the bolt didn't need 8000lbs of force to close, and it extracted no problem. Took some quick measurements with the caliper and the FGMM came in at 2.87 while the Power Shok was at only 2.66. SAAMI has the COAL for .308 at 2.800 so clearly it exceeds that number, but don't know if these are exceedingly long or not. All I can say for sure is they are bad juju for my gun.


Time to move onto some different ammo!!

Don't get me wrong I am fan of reloading, and hope one day I can wrap my head around it all, but it is not in the cards till at least next year. Then I can come visit the reloading forum and tell you about how my bullets are separating from the case and I need help!! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arky 223

Some times a carbon ring forms in the neck that you can't see without a bore scope. Wrap some 4-0 steel wool around a brush and give the neck a good scrubbing. It works for me.

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:o Well now does it? Maybe try some bronze wool but steel...?

Iosso or JB for carbon unless you want to ruin the throat/leade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rosco

Don't get me wrong I am fan of reloading, and hope one day I can wrap my head around it all, but it is not in the cards till at least next year. Then I can come visit the reloading forum and tell you about how my bullets are separating from the case and I need help!! :)

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I've been loading on a Lee Anniversary kit with a few additions to my set up for a little more than a year now. A tumbler, Lee kit, and rcbs trimmer with the 3 in 1 cutter, along with whatever dies you need will reload very accurate ammo. You could even adjust the seating depth on all the factory ammo you have that's to long!

I prefer RCBS FL and seating dies in conjunction with a Lee Collette die for neck sizing. You don't need thousands of dollars of reloading equipment to start. Couple hundred bucks and a few upgrades as you go. I'm shooting just as well as the guys using lab scales and the other 9yards of equipment on their tables, but I'm also about due for a rebarrel on my 243.

yep, having a press and dies would fix up the too long oal on those factory rounds.

for super cheap, using a lee breech lock hand press, a pair of locking breech locks, and a set of lee rgb dies is a fine way to start. add in a tube of brass sizing lube, cheap digitial scale and digital calipers, and ya have all the basic tooling. for components, range brass is free, just add in the cost of powder, primers and bullets.

Ha! Don't let them fool ya. It's (handloading) a social disease. Spread through the interwebs far worse and more expensive than any worm.

Then comes casting followed by swage jackets. You find yourself thinking of how to source free lead, tin, antimony and wonder if adding a little Cu and powder coating will bring you up to j-word perfomance.

I had this happen to my brand new axis 223 heavy barrel and when I talked with a reloading guy he said the throat of the rifle was short and the bullet was getting stuck.

also if your using wolf, tul, or anything like that ammo stop now as they are longer than regular say fmj ammo and also cases covered in laqure for rust prevention and it will gun up the rifle.

Thanks all!! I went to Cabela's and bought some Federal 150 Power Shok and those did not cause any issues. From what I can tell the FGMM are simply seated out to long. Someone on another forum stated his FGMM measured 2.805 so it looks to be a manufacture defect.

Reloading is in my future, just no sure when , and I agree with sixone. Everyone makes it sounds sooooo... easy but you end up spending just as much time learning and loading as you do shooting.

Well i disagree with much about what is said about whats necessary to have in order to produce accurate loads.
50 years ago i knew people who were very good target shooters, just as capable as most of those shooting today.
Yet much of the equiptment (necessary) today didnt exist then. As for benchrest, custom dies and arbor presses
certainly arent new inventions. Same goes for good powder measures and accurate scales.
Good used presses can be bought on ebay for peanuts. Same goes for good used dies, scales and powder measures.
A tea spoon and a trickler along with a good old balance scale will be as accurate as any modern equiptment for accurate charges.
And its faster than most might think it is. Besides, i dont think anybody here is good enough to detect a tenth or 2 difference anyway.
I know and knew guys who held world records for 1000 yd 10 shot groups who never annealed a case.
Mind you i didnt say they didnt sort cases. So its very easy for some new shooter to be a little edgy about starting to load when listening
to all the talk on sites like this. A decent used bike is all you might ever want or need. Same goes for loading, just buy some basics and start.

it takes knowledge to build an extremely accurate cartridge, and lots depends on the type of cartridge. cartridges for bpcr, benchrest, hunting, plinking, all can be quite diff'rent in concept and build. some loaders are satisfied with "plinking accuracy" rounds and others want ALL their rounds to be capable of the most accuracy that can be built into them (ME!).

for white powder centerfire cartridges for rifle and pistol, you DO require a press for sizing, expanding and seating - and the required dies. since neck compression is important, case mouth annealing is pretty much mandatory ... unless plinking grade ammo is desired. :)

for bpcr black powder loads, i only use a press for the powder compression - the alloy bullet is finger seated with zero neck compression. the brass never gets annealed and lasts literally forever.

for all my cartridge loading i long ago gave up analog scales in favor of digital, with accuracy to +/- .02 grains. just waaay faster than a balance beam.