I have a fairly new mod#25 in .204 that has been nothing but a pain in the side. the gun shot factory hornady 40gr vmax's just fine. took the gun to nebraska for a pdog shoot and when i used my buddy's handloads 27gr AA2520 CCI primers 40 gr vmax the primers would spit out a tiny piece of metal into the bolt head making the gun inoperable. cases showed no signs of bulging, cracking, etc. only thing was that where the firing pin struck the primer a small circular piece of the primer spit back in the firing pin opening. when i finally cleaned it there where several small pieces in the bolt head. using the same loads with different primers-no problems at all.
so i shyed away from CCI primers and had no problems for a while. took the gun out before xmas to shoot and now it will not extract spent cases! i have to use a cleaning rod to extract shot cases from the gun.
what gives? do i just have a lemon? and boy it sure is hard to work the bolt after every shot. i have probably shot 6-700 rounds through the gun. i am not a cleaning fanatic but i do clean the gun at least once every day it is shot.
Sounds like you figured out the primer issue. As for extraction, the hard bolt lift should be a hint - your loads are suddenly too hot for your gun. If it's the same load you've been shooting for awhile then I would do a thorough cleaning of the chamber/neck area and also look/feel for a carbon ring just forward of the chamber. Carbon (or sizing wax) buildup in the chamber can make extraction harder, and a carbon ring in the bore can cause an increase in pressure.
"Life' is tough. It's even tougher if you're stupid." ~ John Wayne
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+1 on the cleaning-Originally Posted by MrFurious
Also, check for excessive case length.
I had the same problem with winchester primers, i have not had a problem since i switched to cci mag, my issue with the hard bolt lift, here is what i found. I usually just neck size with my wilson dies, but i have hade the issue with the bolt lift , and in my case it is the shoulder on the brass. Either my body die or fl size with my redding fl sizer clears that issue up for me. also the bplt on the 25 is not a super stout one, when i get the speed up close to 4000, i get pressure sighns. All in all, my gun shoots in the high 2s so no complaints on the accuracy. Smitty
I have a Winchester model 70 in 243WSSM that had the same hard bolt operation problem. It was relieved by setting my sizing dies to slightly cam over which bumps the shoulder back slightly. It's worth a try.
here is a problem I have. After fl sizing brass or new brass, i shoot it and fire form it, i neck size with wilson dies, shoot the fire formed brass and that is all i can get out of my brass befor i have to push the shoulder back. My bolt is sticky, after shooting the fireformed brass. Iam not at max with my loads, iam at high middle of road for powder charges. I am using rl10x. Iam not against shooting fl sized brass, but i do prefer the fire formed brass. Any one else run into this problem??????
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