I have a early 2000 era model 12 bvss action I put a new apache barrel on. I Headspaced it and started shooting with no issues. I have a couple of cases of winchester .308 match lying around, so I did the break in with that. Then I started experimenting with some stouter hunting bullets in case the wife draws a tag this year. I first had troubles feeding trophy bonded tips. The bolt was really difficult to close like my headspace was off. I had to slam the bolt close. Then I tried some nosler partitions and that was worse. I started thinking nickel cases were the problem, but I wasn't sure why. Then I tried some accubonds with brass cases and same issue. I figured my headspace must of slipped some how and I took the gun apart and checked my gauges and my headspace was fine. I even backed the barrel out at one point where with my no go gauge I could close the bolt, but if I inserted a cartridge in the bolt it wouldn't close without palm slamming the bolt.
I only have about 50 rounds through the new barrel. I have been cleaning barrel and bolt face meticulously during break in. I'm getting ready to take the new barrel off and put on my heavy Pacnor to see if I'm still having a feed issue. Any suggestions? Right now the barrel is backed off enough that my no go gauge allows me to get the bolt about half way down and I feel like I could force it if I wanted to. The actual bullets do not let me close the handle more than a few degrees. Even fired cartridges are hard to chamber. However, usually once I force chamber a cartridge then it is easy to repeatedly close the bolt with that cartridge.
By the way, this is all factory ammo.
Probably unrelated, but shell ejection seems unusually weak. If I try to eject a live bullet while the barrel is pointing downward, the bullet will not clear the receiver and I have to manually extract it. Sometimes fired cases will not clear the receiver. With the bolt out of the gun I see no issues with the plunger or the extractor and I can manually engage bullets to the bolt face with no problem and I can feel the plunger spring tension wanting to angle the cartridge out of the bolt face.
What am I missing here that is probably right in my face, but I can't see it??
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