A buddy of mine wants to check out reloading and I agreed to "get his feet wet" by helping reload some 1x fired factory shells from a 742 30-06. I cleaned up 40 of them and was looking them over and found that the bottom base of the brass is pulled downward on about 1/2 the brass. They won't even sit flat on the table so I'm sure they won't be very good "reloads" cause they won't set flat with the bolt face.
Do you think this is just a possible "dirty chamber" that's making the ejector work that hard.
I don't have small base dies so I'm wondering if reloads will eject from this gun if factory stuff is having so much trouble.
ANY ADVICE BESIDES "Don't reload for friends autoloaders". Thanks for any help. I don't have any chamber brushes--any other ideas on how to get in there and clean the chamber?

Hey Don, I'd say his chamber his probably dirty, from the sounds of it, I've never had to use small base dies for the 4 Rem. autos I've reloaded for, but have your buddy clean his chamber out with that brush that comes with the 742s or have a 'smith' over there in Medford check it out with a bore scope, might be a pitted chamber also, are the cases nice and smooth like? They must be or else you would've mentioned that, Jay

Jay--do any of your rems show a little "pull" on the edge of the brass. I spent some more time looking things over and culled 15 out of 40. I checked headspace on the brass and find some with .006" diff so the brass came from at least 2 different guns. It's not always fun being the nice guy and helping people get started but I guess I should quit whining and get after it!!!
When you can buy a bag of 50 new win brass for just $10 I shouldn't be spending an hour looking this stuff over and checking headspace etc!!
Thanks for your input--we'll have to have a beer someday soon!! D kraky

PSS--also checked runnout on the fired brass and found much of it had about .005"--this sure doesn't "jive" with the fired cases out of a bolt action--is the "ejection" bending 'em a little or could he have an out of round chamber?? (I had trued the case mouth with a lyman "m" die before checking.)

If it's the case's extractor groove that's getting pulled down, it may be due to using a powder incompatible with the rifle's gas system.

If the cases are smooth and otherwise appear normal, I'll bet your powder's too slow and the bolt's trying to unlock and extract the brass while it's still obturated and adhering to the chamber walls.

Try a faster powder (4895, 4064 or 3031) and I bet it goes away.

Redial

[ 09-25-2003, 05:39: Message edited by: redial ]

This was factory rem ammo. Knowing the guy with the gun I'd be surprised if its dirty but I have a borelight that may get down there enough. I did notice a few light extractor circles on the base of the brass when looking it over. Every now and then you read of people getting pretty hot velocity out of rem factory loads. HMMM--those bags of 50 new win brass at $10 ea is starting to sound more and more inviting.

Don, I just looked at some 6mmRem brass from the 7400 I sold to one of the guys I hunt with and except for a little ding on the shoulder from the ejection port no doubt, the brass looks perfect, I used IMR4350 with that and my dad's 6mm 742 and it worked just fine, 1moa with 100gr Hornadys, but like I said in your other post, I'd try RE15 now that I've discovered it's such a versatile powder, and I called Alliant yesterday, and the Tech said thats an ideal powder for a 30-06 auto, but Don, stay away from max loads with the autos, I'd probably go 2 grs. down from max with the RE15, Hornady has 51.7 for the max with the 150, and Alliant has a max of 53.6 for the same bullet, start at 48 and work your way up to 51.5grs., I'd go no further than that, you can tell when the action starts moving a little too fast, I could with the 6mm I had, Later, Jay

Thanks guys--I'll find something to get into there and get it swabbed out. AN old 44 mag brush on a cleaning rod IS MY TOOL of choice for all my bolt actions just like you described. I was kind of bored last night and spent more time looking at things than I probably should have.
One last note of a little interest. As I mentioned about some of the brass had the light round imprint of the extractor. The interesting thing is none of these brass had the "bent rim". Every one of the bent rim brass had no signs of pressure. Go figure!!

One more thought...the gas port could be eroded or otherwise too big. This will really put the yank on the bolt with any powder as well as factory ammo.

Just an update--we did the reloading last night and he brought his gun over so we could check chambering etc. His gun was like new and very clean. The interesting thing was I couldn't believe how little effort it took to resize his brass. My goodness you'd of thought the brass was expanded so little that he had a custom built chamber. I told him to watch our reloads for damage to the rim and we'll see what happens. Chalk it up to another interesting experience I guess.

I agree with REDIAL!!
I had an old Rem M740 in 30-06 and reloaded for it and the extractor actually tore off a good section of the rim!
Talking with fellow reloaders, it was decided that this was a "timing thing"! The bullet needs to be well past the gas port, before the action operates to extract the spent cartridge! I changed the type of powder and it fixed the problem! But that was a long time ago and I can't remember what way I went! I think it was to a slightly faster powder, BUT I AM NOT SURE!
Chuck

What were the original loads that caused the damage? It sounds to me like the breech is opening too soon, before the chamber pressures have dropped enough for the case to become "unstuck" from the chamber walls. This is caused by powders that are too slow for the semi-auto action, resulting in too-high pressures at the gasport, premature breech opening, and violent cycling of the action. Ammo like "Fed. Hi-Energy" and Horn. "light Magnum" stuff can cause such results.

That's what I just said!

A "timing thing" powders that are too fast or too slow have everything to do with timing!
Timing has to do with where the bullet is in the barrel, relative to the gas port and what the action is doing at the time.

Chuck

This was just plain run of the mill factory rem corelock 165 ammo. A interesting reminder--the 15 out of 40 that were bent up had no extractor circles on them but the ones that were good had some light signs of the extractor circle. Almost like the hotter ammo was best. Anyhow we got him reloaded and will see what happens now. Thanks for all your troubles and comments--especially JaY!!!

A dirty or rough chamber. They make a bore brush just for cleaning 742's. If its a new rifle, take it to a smith and have him polish the chamber.
If its just the reloads its tearing the rims off, then the load is too hot. Not too hot as a 30-06 load but too hot for the action. I guess that's another way of saying its a timing thing.

I have two 742's 06,and,.243.The .243 is ok on the rims,,,but the 06 is brutal,,,I don't even bother looking for the brass.Loads that do fine in my garand will tear the rims off through my 742.

I have a Remington 740 in .30-06 that for various reasons I was 'burning up' some 155gr bullets w/ some H414 that I had on hand. I went w/ what was listed as a minimum charge in the loading manual for that powder for that bullet, and proceeded to wreck about half the brass that I shot. The gun is hard as heck on brass to begin w/, to the point I have to take the nose of a needle-nose pliers to round up the case mouth cuz it gets beat up pretty bad. But in this case, it looked like it was bending the extractor groove on the ejected cases on some rounds. Of course, as luck would have it, I didn't check the cases until *after* I had shot all of them up! The gun is so hard on brass, and it shoots the el-cheapo PMC .30-06 w/ 180gr spitzer better than almost anything else, so I'm not sure handloading for it is a winning proposition.

Monte

Try VARGET powder, i use it in my 742 and BAR with excellent results....next best IMR 4895 or 4064. your port pressure too high reason your brass is getting damaged

30-06
VARGET @ 47.0
180 Nosler Part
Fed Prem Brass
CCI BR-2 Primers

Crimp using Lee factory Crimp Die