first off, i'm not going to name the company that i have rec'd this barrell from (since i'm still working with him to get this problem fixed).

but -

i recently purchased a custom 6.5 x 284 barrell for my encore (with some beautiful woodwork to go with it)

upon loading up some cartridges for it, i found that while the cartridges would chamber easily, the action would not open all the way (at least not easily) and the unfired cartridge would only come out partway (unless some force was applied to the barrell).

i contacted the gunsmith that i bought the barrell from, and he directed me to completely full length resize my brass, indicating that this should clear up the problem (my dad's my reloader, and had already done so). we then measured our brass (using a dial caliper) and found it to be entirely within specs (from the hornady, barnes, and nosler reloading manuals). there was also a problem with the locking bolts on the barrell being of uneven size, so i sent the barrell back to him and asked him to correct the locking bolt problem, as well as to correct the problem with the bullets ejecting.

he sent it back to me with the locking bolts fixed, but it still wouldn't break open easily with a cartridge in the chamber. i called him an he said that "we shot it and it works just fine" so i asked him to send me some of his loaded cartridges to use as a guide.

i received two of his cartridges over the weekend, and put them in my barrell. they loaded and the gun opened just fine. so i then went back to the reloading bench with my dad, and we full-length sized our brass to the point where it was physically impossible to full length size them any more. we then loaded up some light loads using 46.5 gr of IMR 4350 (lightest load listed in nosler manual) pushing 125 gr nosler ballistic tips (cheapest bullets i had on hand) and fed 210 primers. these cartridges chambered and ejected almost as well as the ones the gunsmith sent me (still a little rough, and only "sticking" when i opened the breach really slowly). so we took them to the range.

we fired 3 of our cartridges, and each spent case was extremely difficult to extract from the chamber. the gun was difficult to break all the way open, and the spent brass was difficult to pull from the chamber. so i thought "we're still screwing this up - lets check one of the cartridges he sent us". so we fired one of his cartridges (a 120 gr NBT pushed by?) and it behaved EXACTLY like the ones that we had made - it, too, stuck in the chamber, and (remember, with this loaded cartridge in the chamber, the gun opened and closed just fine) the with the spent brass in chamber, the gun didn't 'want' to break open.

i have two other barrells from this gunmaker - a .260 rem barrell and a 22WMR barrell (for my contender) and they work just fine.

is this a problem with my dad's reloads? we're using brand new full-length sizing dies from redding. dad's reloaded for 30 years (.250 sav, 25-06, 7x57, 30-06, 260 rem, 30-30, 44 mag) and he can't explain it.

is it likely a problem with changes in the cartridge dimensions from its wildcat days to today (now that the 6.5 x 284 has been standardized by norma)?

or is it (as i suspect) a problem with construction? i.e. poor quality control

at this point, any insight would be appreciated.

if you don't want to post online, my email is alterna@flash.net

tcencore260

I don't know if this will help you or not, but it might be of some help for you. On the Single shot forum one of the guys a while ago mentioned that they had an Encore barrel that they had to polish the chamber because of it being too rough. After they polished it the problem was gone. Unfortunately I can't remember who it was. Other things to look at would be sizer die adjustment. Is your load too heavy & creating too much pressure? Also I've heard that oil in the chamber could cause the case to stick. It is just some things to check out. Good luck !
Rich Jake

There are some folks having "issues" with a recent lot of 6.5x284 Norma brass. Very, very soft, and primer pockets opening up with normal loads.

If your brass and that of the gunsmith are different headstamps, that's where I'd hang my hat. HTH, Dutch.

I'll just add some food for thought. This barrel has a new cut chamber and if the gunsmith cut the barrel to minimum headspace, it is very possible that your resizing die will not take your brass down to chamber size. It is also possible that when you shoot the cartridge, the chamber is so tight that what little "growing" the case does, causes the case mouth to lodge in the throat of the chamber. I just had a .308 finished reamed and the smith told me if my reloads didn't chamber properly to bring it back and he would take another .001 out of the chamber. I had him ream to minimum chamber spec.

Get a couple more rounds from the gunsmith. Measure them very carefully and compare these measurements with those of the cartridges YOU sized with your equipment. I'd say if the ammo the gunsmith furnished works OK and what you loaded doesn't, then there's something wrong with the ammo you loaded!!

Might try case lenght also. I know the .284 case doesn't grow that much but the chamber might be a little short and the case a little long... therefor jammed a little in the throat.

Don�t want to jump in, but I seem to remember there being Two different neck diam. available for the 284 x6.5. Also different brass thick nesses.. Could be you having a combination of stuff.
Later..

I like to have a cartridge loaded to MY specified length.Base at neck juction, lube grooves all in the neck since I'm a cast bullet shooter, and have the 'smith chamber it to fit MY loads, not his.

Call the customer service desk at Sinclair International...they are the best, non-biased source of reloading information around and they are great at solving problems.....plus they can sell you what you need. To me it sounds like you need what they call a "small-base" die.

Try reducing your load by 2 grains and try it again. Do the primers show any pressure signs?

to answer some fo the questions from above . . .

1) he and i are both using hornady brass

2) we're both using redding dies (although i think this may be the problem . . . maybe the 6.5x284 redding die is slightly different now that normal has standardized the round?)

3) i loaded 46.5 gr of IMR 4350 pushing 120 NBT, he loaded 50.5 gr of H4831 pushing 120 NBT - very slight primer flattening on both - not really different than primers that i shot in both my factory 260 and my wife's custom 260 barrell, neither of which had sticking problems

anyway, i sent the barrell back for work today. i think i've got two problems -

1) ? extractor is bent or too large or something

2) ? chamber dimensions and my reloading die are not precisely the same. i followed all of his instructions for FL sizing my brass, lubing case mouth, etc, and could not get brass from my die to fit perfectly in the chamber.

so i sent it back with the following:

1) brass FL sized, w/o neck expander in place
2) brass FL sized, case mouth lubed
3) loaded cartridges from my die, same as 2
4) 1 loaded cartridge he sent me, and 1 fired piece of brass that he sent me
5) my reloading dies

they ought to be able to figure out what's up from all of that.