My son has a A-Bolt in .338 win mag and his loads need to be about 8% lower than mine or he gets pressure problems and my loads are below max. Yesterday 64 grains of H4350 and a 250 gr.Hornady SP and he had a hard time opening the bolt. Also 72 grs. of the same powder caused problems with a 185 TSX. I've used other powders and had the same situations arise. The cases are fine and we use Fed. 215 primers. Has anyone else ever had this situation. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Are you jamming the bullets into the lands by loading the too long? That is the first place I would look.

Hi Jason, I checked the OAL with a Stony Point guage and I'm about .060 short of the lands. The other strange thing about this is that he's running about 100-150 FPS slower than mine and he has a 2" longer barrel. Thanks for the reply. PaLuke

quote:

Originally posted by PaLuke:
My son has a A-Bolt in .338 win mag and his loads need to be about 8% lower than mine or he gets pressure problems and my loads are below max. Yesterday 64 grains of H4350 and a 250 gr.Hornady SP and he had a hard time opening the bolt. Also 72 grs. of the same powder caused problems with a 185 TSX. I've used other powders and had the same situations arise. The cases are fine and we use Fed. 215 primers. Has anyone else ever had this situation. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Take it in to a gs and have him check it out .A friend of mine purchased a 300wm Sako at a gunshow and when he was firing it after 6 to 9 rounds he was unable to open the bolt until the rifle cooled down.I told him to take it to a GS long story short it was a defective receiver that would tweak when hot locking up the bolt.My GS eventually solved the problem by ordering another sako barreled receiver.My friend took it to a local range and test fired it at 100 yards first 3 shots in a .308 hole

quote:

338WM BAR [light stock] Type I 24" made in 1969 in Belgium, 4X Redfield TV eyepiece, sling, Limbsaver large pad unground 9.5 pounds as tested
250 gr Nosler Gold Partion, moly 69 gr H4350, 3.34"
2594 fps miss target
2578 miss target
2588
2583
2578

I don't have pressure problems with 69 gr.

Thanks for the replies. Accuracy has been pretty bad but were still looking for the right combination.
I'm worried that maybe there isn't a good combo. scr83jp, How did the gs find the problem with the receiver? I don't know if this is what's wrong but it sounds similar. Thanksagain for the replies. PaLuke

My GS sent the receiver to Douglas to be rebarreled and when it was returned and fired it locked up the bolt again he said it wasn't in the barrel it was a defective receiver that tweaked when it got hot probably came that way from the factory & was sold to someone who had it happen then sold it to a resale dealer where my friend purchased it.It was clean & in perfect condition on the gunshow table.The new barreled receiver fit perfectly in the beded stock,my friend said it's a heavy rifle but extremely accurate and he won't ever sell it.Our GS who never advertised had requests for rifles and shotguns come in from around the world his speciality was pre 64 model 70's & Winchester mod 12's but he had a complete gunsmithing shop with milling maches,lathes,bluing tanks.I watched him repair win model 12's and make his own hardened heat treated replacement screws to fit model 12's.A group of hunters were at a lodge zeroing in their rifles when one noticed the groups a 78 yr old hunter was firing ,he asked if he could try the rifle,his group was far smaller then he asked the owner what store he bought it from, that's when he told him it was built by Mr Simon.When he returned home he called ellis and put in an order.

".....the action tweaked when it got hot...."
not exactly a definitive description. Could you explain that more in layman's terms. I've never heard a rifle malfunction described like that.