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

Dude,
When you do get the spent casing out is it scratched up? There is a chance that your chamber could be rough. Do me a favor and measure the diameter of a couple each of your resized, new and difficult to extract brass just above the rim. let us know what those dimesions are. Also with the barrel off of the frame push the extractor out of the way and drop a resized piece of brass into the chamber. Does it protrude any or is it flush?
I am about to have a 26" 6.5-284 built for my Encore...I doesnt seem to me that its a problem with your brass but perhaps with your locking lugs and our your transfer safety bar...but I'm no expert by any stretch. Have you had other barrels on this frame and any problems?
Dave

i haven't had any problems with this frame at all - i've shot factory .260 and factory .44 mag off of for a couple of years now. i have not fired my wife's custom .260 off of this frame, but it opens and closes just fine (i.e. good working order, mechanically speaking). when i put the 6.5 x 284 barrell on my wifes brand new frame, the problem is identical - so its either a problem with the barrell or the reloads.

off the top of my head, though i can say that unfired ammo drops right in, no problems near as i can tell (the gun is at home right now, i'm at work) . . . fired brass seems difficult to get into the chamber though, but i haven't tried it with the extractor out of the way.

tcencore260---

It sounds to me you have an out of square breech face or a firing pin return spring that's not strong enough.

Clean the chamber with alcohol and lube the breech face with DriSlide or any dry lube. (Auto parts store for door locks)

It could be a bad pivot pin, it could be a bad chamber, it could be several other things.

The first thing I'd do is take the extractor out and shoot a low pressure load to see if it still hangs up. The second thing is to fire it and check to see if the firing pin is stuck forward. The third would be a chamber cast...and so on.

I'd try another lot of new brass with very moderate loads. Dave was dead on about a rough chamber being the leading candidate, but there are some other possibilities.

A tight barrel running pressures up is one. Could make a moderately hot load a little too hot for that rifle.

I have had a similar problem in two rifles. Their chambers were a little tight. Brass that had been fired in other rifles with chambers on the large size could be resized to fit the tighter chamber, but stuck when fired. Changing to new brass dedicated to the rifle with problems worked both time.

it seems 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 today 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.