So where I left off was a new custom 375 H&H with some serious problems. Sticky bolt lift with loads that worked well in numerous 375's in the past and loads I use for two of my other rifles.
Things I do know now:
1) the chamber appears tight
2) only one lug is making contact
3) the bolt face was never trued and is rough
4) factory loaded 300gr. soft points from
Winchester do fire and extract with similar
resistance as my reloaded rounds do
5) the older brass that I was reloading, once
extracted, will not chamber in the gun(after it was fired in it) without a great deal of effort
6) new and full length resized brass with the additional step of using the Belted magnum collet resizing die will feed and extract easily but fired cases will not
It was way too windy to put up the chronograph today, I will chronograph the loads this week.
QUESTIONS;
1) after you shoot a round in a rifle, new or reloaded, should you be able to re chamber the spent round and extract it from the chamber without a great deal of resistance?
2)will lapping the lugs take the pressure of the one lug enough to make it extract evenly and easily
3) what is my next step
4) is there someone out there that will let me call them real time to help me sort the damn thing out. I wanted to take this rifle to Africa in a couple of months.

My suggestion to you is to send the rifle back to the guy who "custom made" it for you and tell him to do the job right!

Brass fired in a rifle should easily rechamber in that rifle.

I am not a gunsmith, but my guess is that with only one lug locking up, your brass is allowed to expand more than it should.

I had a Mod 70 300 Win mag that sounds like yours. Bolt face was rough (lathe marks) and lockup was about 65% on right lug and 10-15% on left. I lapped the lugs to get 100% on right and about 85% on left. This increases headspace, but on my rifle, was still (barely) within specs.

With your time constraints, I would get the rifle to a good smith and see if this is, indeed the problem, and if so (or not), can it be fixed quickly.

Good luck.
hm

PS Just noted your location. You have two good smiths very close by (In Weslaco, Tx). One is John Stokes....he is fast and I have been very happy with all his work (956) 968-1142. Buddy Ault (not sure of spelling of last name). I have never had any work done by Buddy, but he comes highly recommended by a close friend who has had work done by Buddy. Buddy is one or two doors east of John.

John set back a worn out match rifle barrel for me several years ago and I have bee extremely pleased.

[ 05-05-2003, 18:11: Message edited by: hm1996 ]

If I faced a deadline like you are go out today and buy at least one more new rifle. It's only a couple more G's but it's the fastest way to be sure you will have a rifle.

Get some rifle that you will enjoy later anyway.

It seems that if a custom rifle was made up it should work better than that one and thats where the responsibility is. I am not sure of this as I don't recall the orginal thread. But if it goes back to the smith that did it he may need a lot of time and also may never get it right.

Consider a Ruger M77 Mk11 Express Rifle. A friend has a new M70 Classic in .375 and he has had it to Africa twice. It's his favorite rifle.

Lb404--You are going to have to lap the lugs
no matter what.And smooth bolt face.What does your
reloaded brass measure above the belt after regularresizing without collet.What does your reloaded and factory
brass measure above belt after firing.Does your
fired brass when set upright on a smooth surface
and turned, have a wobble.If you need to phone
it's my help to you 1-877-551-2605.Ed.

With only one lug bearing, you are probably getting bent case heads-they are no longer at a 90 degree angle with the centerline of the case. So you'd have to put them back in the chamer in exactly the same position they were in when fired for the bolt to close easily, which it SHOULD DO on cases fired in the same gun!! Send it back to the guy who built it. Don't lap the lugs yourself UNLESS YOU HAVE A NO-GO headspace gauge, because headspace may increase, making it necessary to set the barrel back and recut the chamber after the action has been trued up!