An acquaintance...not real gun savvy..bought a new Montana Rifles, .300 WSM and a box of Federal Vital Shock ammo with 180 gr. X bullets. He fired the 20 rounds, sticky bolt with all, and 7 or 8 rounds had punctured primers that fell out of the case when ejected. From my experience, this is a rare occurrence with factory ammo. What do you all think?

Phil

The WSM and SAUM cartridges are loaded HOT from the factory, pushing 65k and max on the pressure limits.

My Remington M7 AWR in 7mm SAUM, firing 160gr. Remington Premium 160gr. Partition loads are HOT. Sticky bolt, flat primers, and a nasty sharp report. That stuff clocks 2950 in my 22" bbl.

My own personal reloads are lower pressure - pushing a 160 at 2850, 150's at 2925 and 140's at 3050.

So, Is it "normal"? Maybe for the WSM's and SAUM's. But do I like it?

Heck. No.

I bought a case of the 160 partition stuff mostly because I found it for $18 a box. I've fired two boxes of it and have been reloading the brass ever since. I have no need to redline a cartridge that hard.

Some years ago at the Rio Salado Range in Mesa, AZ, a friend brought out his two new Weatherby Mk V rifles, one in .270 WM and the other in .340 WM. Both rifles had muzzle brakes and he had a box of Weatherby factory loads for each rifle. We fired both boxes.
In the .270 WM, bolt lift was difficult in 11 rounds, and seven cases had popped their primers.
In the .340 WM, bolt lift was difficult with six of the rounds and four cases had blown their primers.
The owner never did find the source of the problem. He took both rifles back for a refund and, of course, Weatherby never got back to him.
It wasn't a particularly hot day. Neither of us could even guess the odds of both new rifles with factory ammo doing this at the same time.

Had this same thing happen with Hornady Superformance 35Whelen.
Only shot four rounds though and then pulled the rest to load to my normal lower speed with RN bullets.
In this case, I thought that the bullet's design with the sharp shoulder to a more or less cylindrical bullet body may have been causing a pressure spike. Stupid looking bullet anyway... like a dull pencil.

Your experience with .300 WSM factory ammunition is similar to my experience -- and it is not limited to Federal brand ammunition. It is a myth that there is some kind of "free" velocity just because the case is short and wide. The WSM series achieves velocities similar to larger magnum cases the old fashioned way: More pressure.

Whereas an ammunition company will refuse to load something like a .30-06 to such pressures due to its being chambered in a myriad of actions of varying strength, they know that the WSMs are found only in late model bolt actions and they make the case head of WSMs thicker, harder, or both in order to withstand higher pressures.

You won't get a factory WSM load which "blows up" your gun, but you will frequently get a batch which will make your bolt difficult to work and the fired case is ready for the trash bin after a single firing. Just one more reason (among several) not to fall for the advertising hype and stick with established cartridges which are known to work well.

I bought a Winchester Coyote lite in 25wssm the year they came out on a fluke, the gun was stupid accurate with grey box 120 gr PEP's and was just hell on SW GA whitetails.they would do a little rodeo buck or hunch up but all went down right there or no more than 10 yards, had 5 bucks come out and nailed 2 before short shucking and hanging up #3. long story short I bought a box of black box 85 or 87 gr ammo to handle a buzzard problem, some black headed ones were pecking eyes out of calves hanging half way out their Moma and damn if I was gonna live with it, called law and game and fish.The damn stuff was loaded so hot that I had to take a wood hammer handle to bump bolt open, it was early summer ,late spring. Winter time was not so bad.... very hot s#*t for factory loaded ammo!