I recently inhereted a sporterized 1903a3 30-06. At first glance it looked allright except the bolt is a little sticky when all the way open. I bought some Federal 150gr factory loads and went to the range. To my surprise the bolt became jamed closed after firing the first round. I actually had to pry the bolt open. Upon inspecting the case I found a concentric ring around the base of the case. It was about 1/4" above the rim groove and looks like it had been cut into the brass. I also noticed the mouth of the case was larger than other 06 brass fired from other rifles. There were no other deformities to the fired brass. My first guess is that someone had tried to ream the chamber and failed. What do you think? Is there a fix short of rebarreling? Is the sticky action a warning sign of action failure?

I'm just guessing here, but could it have been rechambered for a 300 Win Mag? Sounds like you need to make a cast of the chamber here. Do you have a micrometer to measure the rest of the case?

Oops just noticed that it sounds like a groove in the brass and not a bulge...

Sounds like you have a 35 Whelen or 338-06. As for the ring on the brass, sounds like the pressure ring. Is it a bright ring?? Might also be incepiant seperation??? Could you have an improved 30-06 of some kind? If you brass is visually different from unfired cartridge, you do not have a 30-06. . The sticky part is probably due to a rough/ rusty chamber or caliber other than 30-06. Since you are needing to ask, sounds like you need a gunsmith.

it could be a 35 whelen but the barrel is marked 30-06 so it would have had to be rebored for that. the groove in th case is sharp like it was cut. besides that the case is the same size as any other 30-06 case.

That ring is insipeint headspace, so toss the cases you shot in it..slug the bore and find out what caliber it is, obviously it is a 338-06 or a 35 Whelen (I bet on the whelen).....Take it to a gunsmith before you blow your head off...He can take a cerrosafe chamber cast and tell you all you need to know plus whatever else shows up...

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Ray Atkinson

ray@atkinsonhunting.com
atkinsonhunting.com