The last two trips to the rifle range, I started having trouble extracting the cases from my Lija barreled Remington in 25/06. Checked the cases for length and they were fine. I took it to my gunsmith who checked it out and he can't find anything wrong. He said it had a" sticky" chamber and he's going to polish the chamber. Has anyone ever heard of this ? The barrel has about 150 rounds thru it, and it's always been a bit of an effort to extract the cases, but it's gotten to the point where I would have to pound on the bolt handle to extract them now. Any body else ever have this problem.
Thanks,

Handloads or factory? unfired cases are fine? No effort required closing the bolt?
Could be a gunk up chamber, seen it a few times. A good scrubbing will tell.

These are hand loads. Winchester brass. I tried putting a fired case in the chamber, closed the bolt, and still have a very hard time opening it. I'm going to try a different brand of brass. I have some Nosler brass that I plan on trying.
Thanks for the reply.

Wait until your gunsmith polishes the chamber. A polish can cure a multitude of sins.

Polish and maybe try backing off the load a grain or two, see if condition improves.

Mike, by chance have you just had your rifle reblued? Sometimes the bluing can get into the chamber and cause problems like your describing. A simple chamber polishing solves the problem.

The headspace is short if it is not closing on a new case, unless there is gunk in the chamber.

2 things come to mind, are your brass expanding at the .200 line and not getting sized from your dies to match your chamber? If you can scope your chamber and see if you have some rings in there could be the brass is grabbing those I saw this on a Cooper recently that after was rebarreled and no rings extracted just fine.

I have seen a few rifles that would hold onto nickeled brass but were fine with regular brass. One was a Stainless barreled 7MM Mag with a chamber polished to a high sheen, and yet it still would "grab" nickeled brass. I am at a loss to enplane it in all honesty.

I thought I'd just mention it and then ask if your "sticky loads" are made with nickel plated brass?

Clean the bore and chamber and especially the throat area and see if that helps.

No, it's a S.S. barrel.

No.---Plain old Winchester brass.

We did scope it, and found very minor tools marks at the base end of the chamber.

Yeah, I've heard of it and experienced it. I think your Gun Smith is on the right track. I would chuck 0000 steal wool, saturate it with oil and spin it in the chamber.

What load are you shooting and hot high is the temperature there? Best bet is to have your smith polish it out, however depending on the time frame, etc, I'd try backing off a grain or two and seeing what happens.

Your dies aren't the issue if it closes fine after loading, it's just after the round is fired correct? The brass may be grabbing the rings, again lightening the load may answer all your questions and pointing you in the direction of polishing the chamber.

It's could be another case of poor primary extraction. Close the bolt on an empty chamber and see how much space there is in between the front side of the bolt handle and the receiver. Use a feeler gauge to get an accurate number.

"It's could be another case of poor primary extraction. Close the bolt on an empty chamber and see how much space there is in between the front side of the bolt handle and the receiver. Use a feeler gauge to get an accurate number"


There is an echo in here.

Interesting timing here... I have a customer I built a rifle for who's having similar issues.. He sent the rifle and the three types of ammo he was using, saying they all stick a bit except one that simply will not extract... I checked everything from front to back.. Headspace - correct. Chamber clean/polished - correct. Of the 3 he sent, one batch made by Sellior and Bellot simply does NOT like this rifle.. Every case stuck and had to be tapped out. The rest, including three other makers of ammo I had on hand here + my own reloads worked perfectly.. Only thing I can think of is the S&G brass is a bit too hard and does not want to 'collapse' back in order to extract.. I know he's frustrated, but I cannot fix what I cannot find to be wrong.. I even tried that S&G stuff in another, factory 6.5X55 Win. FWT and found it to be plenty sticky to extract in that rifle - but it did finally come out. I just think he got a batch of bad ammo.. It happens.. I've had it happen here with a brand-new box of .260 Rem ammo... They would NOT chamber.. Finally I closely examined the shells and noticed slightly crushed shoulders..

Called Rem - they wanted it back and gave me a new box. Those worked properly.


You might not know that all blued rifles are blued all the way through; chamber, rifling, action etc.. Bluing does bupkis.. But "coatings" can cause issues if the chamber's not properly plugged to prevent entry.



That can/will happen at any time.. Every barrel I chamber gets polished with 400 grit wet/dry paper to ensure a smooth, mark-free chamber..

Same, with the same solution. If it has more than just minor tool marks, I'll gently lap the chamber with a piece of fired brass from that barrel, using fine lapping compound on the case body (not the shoulder, that changes headspace). Then finish off with the 0000 steel wool to burnish it.

BangPop-
Moving the handle closer to the aft end of the receiver. is only one aspect of the five part equation to bolt/handle TIMING.

OP-
Burnish the tool marks from the chamber with a fired piece of brass w/ 400 grit lapping compound.

Yeah Dan I know. This discussion was so far away from the “whole picture” of extraction it wasn’t worth the effort to go through the rest of it.

Thanks to all who replied. I think SHERM 61 was on the money with his solution. I guess I failed to mention that I was using Lee collet neck sizing dies, I've used them for a long time, and I frequently check the case length, and trim when necessary. I full length resized the same cases and had no trouble at all with the extraction. My theory is the cases were swelling some at the case head, which the neck die wouldn't touch, and with the camming power of the bolt, I couldn't feel much resistance when I chambered a round. Anyhow the problem is solved.

Thanks