The Accurate Reloading Forums
Heavy boltlift after firing ?
06 October 2001, 02:28
<J�rgen>Heavy boltlift after firing ?
I use the same load for years now .Mauser 98 action,Lothar Walther barrel in .308 Win.
with a fairly tight chamber.The gun shoots
absolutely great even with this heavy bolt lift(sometimes i`ll have to tap it open!!)
No signs of pressure anywhere !Years ago I
squeezed the cases with my seaterdie in the
shoulder area , I couldn`t get them in , of
course , but what the hell makes them locking up my action after the shot ???
06 October 2001, 02:40
<DuaneinND>Heavy bolt lift is a classical sign of too much pressure. Did you get a new can of powder, different box of bullets, different primers? Any component change can change the pressure level, and if the load was on the warm side to start with you will have trouble. Is the barrel clean, and free of copper? Need more information.
06 October 2001, 03:15
<Gary Rihn>quote:
Originally posted by J�rgen:
The gun shoots absolutely great even with this heavy bolt lift(sometimes i`ll have to tap it open!!)
No signs of pressure anywhere !
I'd say you have your sign of excess pressure right there.
06 October 2001, 06:03
GatehouseHeavy bolt lift almost always indicates excessive pressure...even I know that!
06 October 2001, 14:48
<holtz>In spit of what everyone is saying above, heavy bolt lift = excessive pressure. Period.
Steve
06 October 2001, 18:26
ricciardelliDid you mention anything about cases being deformed? If not, pressure is your problem.
06 October 2001, 19:24
Bill LeeperOccasionally you will see a Mauser on which the lugs have set back. The ridge left in the upper lug seat by the ejector cut causes heavy bolt lift. That's scenario #1.
In scenario #2 the cocking cam has been softened from heat of the bolt handle being altered. The surface galls and it is difficult to recock the rifle.
Or as previously mentioned your load generates too much pressure. Regards, Bill.
07 October 2001, 13:48
RalphI experienced a similar problem with a .375H&H although not quite so bad. The chamber was cut slightly undersize and my gunsmith ran a reamer in it and the problem disappeared. Since yours just started this it is probably more pressure related.
Ralph
08 October 2001, 02:06
<Reloader66>Classic high pressure warning signal from your rifle. Keep firing that load and your rifle will have a catastrophic failure. Do yourself and your rifle a favor and start over. Any rifle you feed a steady diet of max or over max loads will in the end fail. I always opt for the best accuracy with a mild to moderate load in all my rifles. I have seen rifles let go and shooting after that experience is never the same for the shooter.
08 October 2001, 07:51
<Gary Rihn>quote:
Originally posted by holtz:
In spit of what everyone is saying above, heavy bolt lift = excessive pressure. Period.Steve
"In spite of"? I thought we all said the same thing already...
08 October 2001, 11:43
<holtz>Gary,
My apologies. It didn't dawn on me that anyone would miss the tongue-in-cheek thing. Some day I got to learn how to use those smilies.
Steve
08 October 2001, 23:54
<J�rgen>Hey guys , thanks for your answers!!
The load is 42gr of N140 with a 168gr bullet
CCI BR primer . Bullets are molycoated.
I used this for almost 5 years now , even with a different powder lot there`s quite a
bit of safety left over and the primers look
good too ! But I`ll take your suggestions
for real and will cut down the powder to
40gr and try it again.I thought that the cases might be too old (reloaded about 15 times)and bought new ones last week , I`ll
take 10 of them and reload them as often as
possible , to see if the problems return ?
09 October 2001, 00:30
1894Actualy some cases can be difficult to extract with patently no pressure especialy if you have a tight custom chamber.
You can take a tight chambered 6.5x55 with factory new Norma cases and fire a start load with 100gr ballistic tips,bolt lift easy. Neck size only and reload to exactly same spec and fire - result = very hard bolt lift.
If you have dies which are on the large side of production tolerances or are neck sizing or partial full length resizing then you can get the cases to a state where on firing the brass will not shrink back the required amount for easy extraction because it started out to close to the chamber in the first place. A clue is if there is slight resistance on chambering. It may be that the work hardening that 15 firings would give would exacerbate this as the brass would be more reluctant to spring back as it becomes less elastic? Or is it the other way round that because it is harder it springs back more?
Because heavy bolt lift is also a sign of excessive pressures you must as others have said assume you have excessive pressures and act accordingly - however it is not the only cause.
[This message has been edited by 1894 (edited 10-08-2001).]
09 October 2001, 14:30
<Jeff S>Jurgen,
You crazy German! Pass Auf! Vorsicht... When you reload a .308 case funfzehn times (!!!) lots of bad things can happen. The brass can flow forward making your necks thicker AND longer. So turning and trimming is necessary. A thick neck will also cause high pressure in otherwise normal loads.
Unwahrscheinliche! Buy some new brass...
10 October 2001, 05:05
<J�rgen>To Jeff S and 1894 , thanks for your kind
words and concerns ! I used a Redding neck
die with a .333 carbidering in it , with
excellent results (all 100m groups between
1/4 and 1/2 moa.) I think brass flow or
hardening of the brass could be the case !
Thats why I will reload the same 10 new cases
as often as possible to see if the problem
returns after a while .
10 October 2001, 12:41
GatehouseJurgen
Your brass might also need to be full length re sized, if you are only neck sizing. If you full length re-size, and trim and turn the necks, and still have heavy bolt lift, your load is over pressure. (Unless there is a mechanical problem with your rifle)
This is just a common sense idea- I'm no expert- but I think you will learn if your load is too hot.
11 October 2001, 10:27
AtkinsonJust for the record it does not take a steady diet of shots to create headspace, it takes only one shot and shes ruined....its just that todays rifles are very strong and can take a lot.
15 times loaded, thats pretty good, try some new brass before you kill yourself...
------------------
Ray Atkinson
ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com
12 October 2001, 06:57
<Gary Rihn>Steve-
Not a problem bud. I read it a few times, then just had to ask. Agreed, the computer takes the "emotion" or "expression" out of things, sometimes changing the interpretation.
As for smilies, I've mastered exactly three... 
Beyond that, I'm lost too!
quote:
Originally posted by holtz:
Gary,My apologies. It didn't dawn on me that anyone would miss the tongue-in-cheek thing. Some day I got to learn how to use those smilies.
Steve
19 October 2001, 23:44
<J�rgen>Thanks for all the good advice !!I totally
prepared 50 new cases and will start from
scratch with my components.Just to be in the
top row again , I`ll place another Topic as
soon as I have any results , see you there .
Good shooting , J�rgen
20 October 2001, 01:19
Terry BlauwkampHard bolt lift can be caused by the lugs being set back in the receiver.
The lugs are pushed back into he receiver, and the case pushes back to fill the space.
Now when you open the bolt, you must cam the case forward to get the lugs out of their recess. Hence the hard bolt lift.