Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing 22-250 Mauser

I bought a 22-250 Mauser last year that had been rebarreled. I had a good friend here on the fire take the gun apart as I wanted it all bead blasted to a matted finish and re-blued. The matted finish a bluing turned out great. The gun shoots extremely well but there is problem. You can chamber a round eaisly an eject that loaded round with ease. When you fire the gun it takes an extreme amount of pressure to open the bolt and eject the spent cartridge. The fired cartridges show no damage or scratches. There is no rust in the chamber that can be see. My gunsmith friend is moving in the next week or so and I will need to have someone else look at it. Just trying to get an idea of what the problem could be. Any help would be appreciated.

Bolt lug set back?

I don' know what you mean.

Bolt Lug setback is basically dents made in the softer action by the harder bolt being shoved backwards. High pressure, poor surface hardening etc.

I assume your rifle is a cock on open version. Was the ramp on the rear of the bolt the cocking piece slides up or even the cocking piece itself bead blasted? If so you no longer have two nice harded smooth surfaces working together.

Take the fired case rechamber and fire. See if the action is still hard to open and cock.

Thank you for your response. I believe I performed the action that you suggested but will try it again when I return from out of town work. To my knowledge the bolt face was not bead blasted but I will ask.

First need to know whether you have a LR98 action or an SR96.
Each can have it's own cause for your problem. Cock on open conversion on a 96 will further complicate it.

Post pics of your action to include the bottom of the bolt at the cocking piece area, rear of the bolt with striker assembly removed, front of the bolt handle root and front of the cocking piece.

I was not talking about the front of the bolt being blasted I was talking about the notch on the rear of the bolt that the cocking piece rides up. Also the ramp on the cocking piece itself.

The cocking piece notch was not blasted(I blasted it for wingnut) It is a Large ring 98 and it is cock on close.

I don't have the gun with me. That is just what I am remembering.

We took it out and put about 40-50 rounds down the tube(after bluing) and it worked just fine.

Now, There is this tight bolt after each shot. It is really cratering primers in factory ammo as well. No handloads as of yet.

Large Ring 98 that is cock on close???

If the primers are cratered then I wonder if the chamber happens to be short and you are crimping the heck out of the bullet or the bullet is jammed into the lands. Wrong bore size?

My bad, I just finished an email about a 1917 Enfield. The Mauser is not cock on close. Sorry!

No scarring on the bullet, as I remember. Douglas BBL stamped 22-250 by the guy who installed it.

Wingnut, take it to Mario and have him check the chamber and the throat.

Longshot3,
Are you saying you fired it 40-50 times with no issue. THEN he started having problems. Or hard bolt lift during the 40-50 shots?

Yes. That is whats got me scratching my head. The gun was purchased, my buddy Wingnut gave it to me for refinishing before ever shooting it. I blasted it and sent it out for blueing. We got it back, took it out and shot it with no extraction or bolt issues .

Wingnut decides to sell it to a buddy of ours and when he took it out with Rem and Winchester Factory ammo, the problems started.

Wingnut is a stand up guy and took the rifle back when the other guy had problems with it.

I can see why you are scratching your head. At the moment I'm out of ideas.

I suspect that the cocking cam was softened when the bolt handle was altered. After shooting for a while, the cocking piece is galling on the cam. The fix is to repolish that cam and then reharden it. The cam is the notch on the rear of the bolt body.

Clemson

I'm sleep deprived today and the coffee isn't helping so forgive me, have we ruled out bolt lug setback? The .22-250 runs pretty hot compared to 8mm and if it's a military action that hasn't been re-heat treated it could batter the receiver into submission over a number of shots. Case depth varied a lot particularly in wartime production. Would give you a little more headspace too.

Had one that opened hard, the cocking cam had managed to get galled. But you'd notice that dry firing.

I am out of town right now and will make all the checks that have been suggested. Longshot 3 has put many rounds down range since we last shot. Upon firing the bolt was always a little stiff but never to the point that experienced by the individual that I took the gun back from. I never experienced crated primers from any rounds fired. When I get home I will cycle both fired and unfired cartridges to refresh my memory but I believe the action will cycle without issue. Thank you everyone for your help.

If the bolt is the culprit, you could also replace the bolt and recheck headspace.

So, have the cartridges been measured to determine whether in fact they are the problem rather than something mechanical after firing.

By the way, was the barrel removed during the reblue process.