Gunsmithing Double click on bolt lift

[jsthntn247]

What causes a double click on bolting after firing a round. It does it at low and high charges and not every time at the same charge. This is brand new brass that was trimmed and neck sized before firing. The brass chambers and ejects fine before firing. No signs of pressure and pockets are still tight. It leaves this mark on the case about 1/2" above the belt and the fired brass will not chamber without fl resizing.

 

[cmh2007]

you getting an ejector mark?

 

[jsthntn247]

No pressure signs at all on the case head.

 

[okiefired]

What do you mean by "double click"? Is this a new poblem on a rifle that has been performing well or a problem you've always had with it?

okie

 

[LRI]

Get a piece of reasonably stiff wire and bend it into an "L". Run it lightly down the length of your chamber. If you feel it "stick" or catch on something it'll likely indicate that you've got a ring or two in your chamber.

This will certainly result in sticky extraction.

I say this based on your photo. The little rings towards the case head aren't what's concerning me. It's the anomaly up by your thumb. The photo appears to show a raised feature around the periphery. It might be a stain from being in an ammo box, but it looks a lot like a grooved chamber too.

Good luck.

C.

 

[jsthntn247]

This is a rifle that was just built off a trued Remington action. It's thad 35 rounds fired through it so far. I see the mark you are referring to Chad, if something is sticking in the chamber how can it be fixed? Also, I just finished fl resizing these cases and loading them and now they are hard to chamber. I can stick my finger at the rim of the case when it's in the chamber and feel that it is not going all the way in. I have to slam the bolt on the round to get it to close, but the downward stroke when bolting is not hard like it's in a bind. It appears to me that there is a slight bump right in front of the belt that doesn't allow the case to go completely in the chamber. Do I have two different things going on here?

 

[MikeeBooshay]

This is a rifle that was just built off a trued Remington action. It's thad 35 rounds fired through it so far. I see the mark you are referring to Chad, if something is sticking in the chamber how can it be fixed? Also, I just finished fl resizing these cases and loading them and now they are hard to chamber. I can stick my finger at the rim of the case when it's in the chamber and feel that it is not going all the way in. I have to slam the bolt on the round to get it to close, but the downward stroke when bolting is not hard like it's in a bind. It appears to me that there is a slight bump right in front of the belt that doesn't allow the case to go completely in the chamber. Do I have two different things going on here?

I suspect you do have two different things going on there - first do as Chad suggests and check the chamber for grooves. Sometimes that click is also indicative of extraction issues, timing of the bolt handle. If the stock action was trued, that is likely part of it.

Since you indicate the hard chambering is only with reloaded rounds, that is a secondary issue. A lot of times, usually with hot loads, or approaching hot loads, full length resizing is not enough to get a belted mag to chamber again. There is a die, a collet die is what it is called, that squeezes the case, just forward of the belt, that will fix the tight bolt close. You know, that you need to marry the brass to the rifle, after you get your dies set, or you are going to be seeing pretty short brass life, from constant big resizing moves. The perfect resize, is just enough to allow chambering, without moving the shoulder any more than is necessary.

You might also think about changing the chamber, such that the shoulder, rather than the belt, is setting the headspace. Not SAAMI compliant, but since you reload you could do it easily. Some guys think it makes the rifle shoot a bit better, me, I am not as convinced.

 

[jsthntn247]

I have thought about getting that Willis collet die for a while now, might as well go on and do it. Also, in the first pic, the wide mark down near the case head is where the fired case is binding. I can stick the case back in immediately after firing and ejecting and try to chamber it again and it will not close at all, the harder I try and close the bolt, the more pronounced that wide mark gets. I will try the wire trick this afternoon and let yall know what it does. I am assuming a bent close hanger will work for this.

 

[Sniper Uncle]

I have thought about getting that Willis collet die for a while now, might as well go on and do it. Also, in the first pic, the wide mark down near the case head is where the fired case is binding. I can stick the case back in immediately after firing and ejecting and try to chamber it again and it will not close at all, the harder I try and close the bolt, the more pronounced that wide mark gets. I will try the wire trick this afternoon and let yall know what it does. I am assuming a bent close hanger will work for this.

You might be better off using a large paperclip. You can unfold the clip, bend a right angle into it close to the tip, and file the tip a little sharp like a pin. This will pick up very fine scratches, grooves or rough spots in the chamber as you apply gentle pressure while dragging the clip towards you down the chamber wall. A clothes hanger might be a little thick, but would probably work if you sharpen the end of it. If you have large paperclips, I'd use one of them first.

 

[okiefired]

I think you're gonna just conferm what you already know with the paper clip.....you've got a rough chamber near the case head. I see whats been mentioned near your thumb but I see no abnormality in the case wall, dosn't mean its not there though. If the fired case feeds smoothly untill it reaches that rough area near the case head, thats more than likely your trouble spot and will have to be delt with in the chamber I'd think. I'll let others sugest how's best to do that.

okie

 

[SVG308]

Bolt clicks are often caused by tight chambers near case head. Might need to polish out rear area of chamber or try a different die.

 

[jsthntn247]

Gonna sound like a dumbass here but does the barrel have to be taken off the action to polish the chamber? I sure hope not because I have a mighty expensive paint job on both of them now.

 

[jsthntn247]

Get a piece of reasonably stiff wire and bend it into an "L". Run it lightly down the length of your chamber. If you feel it "stick" or catch on something it'll likely indicate that you've got a ring or two in your chamber.

This will certainly result in sticky extraction.

I say this based on your photo. The little rings towards the case head aren't what's concerning me. It's the anomaly up by your thumb. The photo appears to show a raised feature around the periphery. It might be a stain from being in an ammo box, but it looks a lot like a grooved chamber too.

Good luck.

C.

I have spent the last hour easing paper clip in this chamber and can't feel anything. If the chamber does need polishing is there any way to get the barrel off and do that without jacking up the 200$ paint job?

 

[deadly0311]

Not that it really matters, but if you end up having to take the barrel off to polish the chamber, and in fact mess up the paint. Depending on how crazy the paint job is, if you would like, I would be more than happy to re Cerakote the barreled action to make everything look good again at no charge to you with a 3 day turn around.

 

[jsthntn247]

I've never heard of this before, but it turns out my brass was too hard from the factory. I'm using RWS brass which is allot thicker than Win. The brass is harder(because its undoubtedly not annealed at the factory), therefor having too much spring back which causes it to can't the case head when fired for the first time. The "crooked" case is what was causing my bolt lift problems and the reason for the chamber marks. I annealed a few pieces of new brass, loaded them with the same load, and shot them with no problems. The fired annealed cases chamber fine while the others that wern't annealed will not chamber without FL resizing. It's good to know some older folks with years of experience cause I never would have even considered that on my own. This is the 3 shot group with the annealed brass, and I actually had a witness for these. I can live with that.

 

[Sniper Uncle]

I've never heard of this before, but it turns out my brass was too hard from the factory. I'm using RWS brass which is allot thicker than Win. The brass is harder(because its undoubtedly not annealed at the factory), therefor having too much spring back which causes it to can't the case head when fired for the first time. The "crooked" case is what was causing my bolt lift problems and the reason for the chamber marks. I annealed a few pieces of new brass, loaded them with the same load, and shot them with no problems. The fired annealed cases chamber fine while the others that wern't annealed will not chamber without FL resizing. It's good to know some older folks with years of experience cause I never would have even considered that on my own. This is the 3 shot group with the annealed brass, and I actually had a witness for these. I can live with that.

This is extremely interesting. Thank you for sharing.