No that ain't it. Need to read in this case.

Sounds like a simple problem. Chamber seems to have been finish reamed with a slightly worn reamer if that is possible with a (assumed) factory chamber. Measure a new brass at the shoulder and base before & after you chamber it. A few thousandths shy on a match chamber will cause issues like this. If that appears to be the case, , set your sizing die a quarter turn past spec. and check your progress.

quote:

Originally posted by Austin Hunter:
I am doing some load development for a friends Rem 700 Sendero in 338 WM.

Shoots great, making good progress here.

However, the chamber is tight - to tight. You really have to close hard on the cartridge, to hard.

Does the same thing on just the case as well, so it's not the bullets hitting the lands (and besides, I measure all of this already and they are set back sufficiently).

What could cause this? Short chambering? Headspace? I could probably trim the brass shorter (2.4895 still doesn't solve it), but wondering if that is just treating the symptoms and not fixing it properly.

Could something be wrong with the bolt face?

After chambering an empty case, dry firing, opening the bolt and pulling back a bit and then closing again (making sure the case never left the bolt face), the resistance isn't there when closing.

I had the same issue with chambering an empty 350 Rem Mag case - so that rules out anything at the shoulder/mouth end.

Went by my gunsmith today - that I trust.

Notes:
1. He doesn't like Remington mag extractors.

2. I actually had it functioning a bit better last week after getting behind the extractor and cleaning it out/soaking.

Everything was concentric. He actually said he'd seen bolts with less relief behind the extractor than mine.

He likes the PTG bolts, but for the money, he prefers starting clients would 700 clones versus making a Remington better (namely the magnums). He always does M-16 extractor conversions and uses a bushing on the face.

He checked the headspace with belted magnum gauges that set in the bolt face. It closed on a No-Go. So that, combined with the Remington extractor was causing the issue.

He put a piece of masking tape (cut to size) on the bottom and it wouldn't close with the No-Go.

Net, he's seen them worse. Since it was my buddy's rifle, up to him on whether he tunes the bolt or keeps as is. We also discussed headspacing off of the shoulder. So I might try that tomorrow and see how it feels.

BTW - I have one Rem 700 in my collection made sometime in the early 1960's. It's now a 280AI with the finest tuned Rem factory trigger ever - done by the same smith. I do have three 600s.

PS: The rifle shoots well!

Glad it worked out for you!

It is always a pain not knowing!

Hip

Pretty sure we told you to headspace off the shoulder from the start. Never trust belted mag belts or chambers. Always headspace just like a standard bottlenecked case.
Those are firm rules.

The belt (as is well known) was apparenty first used by H&H for their 300/375 since the shoulder is far too sloped to be reliable.

So....with the tighter tolerances of the belt, I see no reason not to use them when chambering (never have run across shoulder based gages for belted magnums anyway.)

Now..when reloading, makes plenty of sense to utilize the shoulder..again, don't think that would work as well on the H&H's

Wrong?

Sort of; here is the story; there were belted cases in the mid 1800s in Germany, called double rimmed cases. But the first one as we now know them to be patented was the 400/375 H&H, in 1905, way before the 300 and 375 we use now.
And yes, when you fit a barrel, you can use a minimum belt clearance, but the problem you run into is that SAAMI allows .018 tolerance between minimum brass and maximum chambers, so, some makes and runs of brass might not fit. And for a factory chamber like the op has, he is scewed; it was made on the high side of the tolerance. For most hunters, they don't know or care. NO factory rifle maker wants you to reload.
Yes, there are generous tolerances at the shoulders; by design. I load a lot for 300 H&H, but my rifles have tight belt to bolt face tolerances (I fitted them that way), and my brass seems to be very uniform. I don't push the shoulder back too much.
So, the only solution is to tell everyone to ignore the belt. Unless I can inspect each rifle and each piece of brass, that is the only reliable way to prevent case separations.

I just neck size a belted case until its a bit less than snug..brass sure lasts a lot longer, basically Im ignoring the belt..

I have a (0) tolerance chamber in my 6x45, I think I can fire a case without resizing but have not tried, RCBS made me a custom set of dies to fit. Its been working for years I do have to resize 223 cases and then trim the necks back to the shoulder its a bench rest chamber basically..Lot of extra work, and plan to pass it down to my grand son, probably better punch it out to a std 6x45 and a new set of dies..

No such thing as a zero tolerance chamber for an idiot reloader. He or she will find a way to obviate that.
Want to know why the belt was invented in the first place? It was developed right in the Rimmed cartridge era, and at the start of the bolt action era; In order to gain the advantage of the rim, for positive case seating in the chamber, and yet, to retain the manufacturing ease of not having to machine a slot for the extractor, they came up with the design of two rims. One for headspace, and one for the extractor.

Can't gage shoulder dimension in belted magnums because gages for that don't exist. So...this thread is mostly a discussion about handloads

I build hunting hunting rifles and I know full well one CAN crush back the shoulder (within rason) in an emergency, but try that with a underized chamber at the belt and it's a whole new ball game and could put a DG hunter in jeopardy.

I set up all hunting rifles so that the bolt will easily close on a "GO" and of course, will not close on "NO G0"

The objective is to make sure the hunter can easily get that round in the chamber, which is a feeding issue and once in the chamber can easily close the bolt on that round...which is a chamber issue.

I test fire factory ammo unless there is none av ailable ...an unusual and rare circumstance.

If the cusomer wants to use handloads...OK by me. Rarely will I shoot his handloads. but will happily make them feed as long as they are within CIP or SAAMI dimensonal specs