Well early this spring I had my R700 MLR Lapua sent in to Phoenix Custom Rifles for a complete overhaul. I got the action trued, barrel installed, and so on.
The first time I shot the gun when I got it back was at the end of spring/very beginning of summer. I bought some cheap Herters 250gr SMK ammo from my local Cabelas to break in the gun a bit and get it sighted in. Well as the limited reviews suggested, this ammo was nothing to write home about. Although fairly accurate, the brass stuck almost every round. NOTE: the bolt lift is find, the straight back extraction is the problem. No swipe marks on the brass head.
After gritting my teeth through two boxes of that stuff I was going to attempt to reload the brass but was told to save my time and money and not bother. I set those aside.
In July I bought a box of sellior and bellot 300 gr to try. These were even worse and after taking a mallet to 3 rounds in a row to get then out of the chamber, I put the remainder on my shelf never to touch them again. Poor accuracy and crap reliability.
Next I tried Norma PH loaded with 300gr SMK. What a relief! Although the ammo is loaded so long it doesn't fit in a standard AI magazine (3.715), I single loaded it and shot an amazing .6 group at 100.
Well as much as I enjoyed shooting ammo at $5/rd I thought I would try some HSM ammo that I got in a trade. The reviews on the 250 gr loads on midwayUSA implied this ammo was garbage, so I grabbed the box of 300 gr and loaded 5 rounds into my mag. I brought it out to my range today and that ammo too is garbage. 1.5" out of a custom built rifle is junk in my opinion. On top of the fact that 4/5 round stuck in my chamber, the fifth one split the neck (this is HSM marked brass). I put in an email to HSM tonight since it was too late to call anymore. We will see what they do to remedy the problem.
I also tried my first test of hand loads with 300gr SMK in lapua brass. 3/5 of those stuck in the chamber. With this in mind I text Keith from Phoenix Custom. I am going to say now that Keith is hands down the best smith I have ever dealt with. He proceeded to text me right back and try to Help me solve the issue. We concluded that this many different kinds of brass shouldn't be sticking and he offered to pay the shipping to have me send in the gun to check it out. I told him I wanted to try another recipe before doing so, but as I was observing my gun I noticed that half of the extractor on my bolt had broken off. I can only assume this was a result of knocking out that stuck brass.
Tomorrow my rifle is going to keith so that he can check the whole rifle over and do some bolt work for me, even offering to fix the bolt for me. Just wanted to put my thanks out here so that people can see how prompt and willing Keith is to stand behind his work.
Any suggestions as to why I am having these issues would be greatly appreciated. The factory Norma ammo is so far the only brass that wouldn't stick and has awesome accuracy.
The first time I shot the gun when I got it back was at the end of spring/very beginning of summer. I bought some cheap Herters 250gr SMK ammo from my local Cabelas to break in the gun a bit and get it sighted in. Well as the limited reviews suggested, this ammo was nothing to write home about. Although fairly accurate, the brass stuck almost every round. NOTE: the bolt lift is find, the straight back extraction is the problem. No swipe marks on the brass head.
After gritting my teeth through two boxes of that stuff I was going to attempt to reload the brass but was told to save my time and money and not bother. I set those aside.
In July I bought a box of sellior and bellot 300 gr to try. These were even worse and after taking a mallet to 3 rounds in a row to get then out of the chamber, I put the remainder on my shelf never to touch them again. Poor accuracy and crap reliability.
Next I tried Norma PH loaded with 300gr SMK. What a relief! Although the ammo is loaded so long it doesn't fit in a standard AI magazine (3.715), I single loaded it and shot an amazing .6 group at 100.
Well as much as I enjoyed shooting ammo at $5/rd I thought I would try some HSM ammo that I got in a trade. The reviews on the 250 gr loads on midwayUSA implied this ammo was garbage, so I grabbed the box of 300 gr and loaded 5 rounds into my mag. I brought it out to my range today and that ammo too is garbage. 1.5" out of a custom built rifle is junk in my opinion. On top of the fact that 4/5 round stuck in my chamber, the fifth one split the neck (this is HSM marked brass). I put in an email to HSM tonight since it was too late to call anymore. We will see what they do to remedy the problem.
I also tried my first test of hand loads with 300gr SMK in lapua brass. 3/5 of those stuck in the chamber. With this in mind I text Keith from Phoenix Custom. I am going to say now that Keith is hands down the best smith I have ever dealt with. He proceeded to text me right back and try to Help me solve the issue. We concluded that this many different kinds of brass shouldn't be sticking and he offered to pay the shipping to have me send in the gun to check it out. I told him I wanted to try another recipe before doing so, but as I was observing my gun I noticed that half of the extractor on my bolt had broken off. I can only assume this was a result of knocking out that stuck brass.
Tomorrow my rifle is going to keith so that he can check the whole rifle over and do some bolt work for me, even offering to fix the bolt for me. Just wanted to put my thanks out here so that people can see how prompt and willing Keith is to stand behind his work.
Any suggestions as to why I am having these issues would be greatly appreciated. The factory Norma ammo is so far the only brass that wouldn't stick and has awesome accuracy.
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