I have a Remington SPS tactical in .308. It recently out of the blue began to shoot like crap. I have been reloading federal brass with varget powder 43.5 gr and 175 smk bullets. I have been using this formula for a few years and never had a problem. All of a sudden after cleaning the rifle using bore guide, dewey rod never pulling back through the bore blaa blaa. I noticed the bolt was hard to open upon ejection and worse than that my groups were over an inch at 100 yards and normally this was .5 moa on a bad day. I don't get it and would appreciate some help. Oh I should add I replaced scope, tightened all scope mounts and retorqued stock. none of which was loose. Thanks BTW this started halfway through a box of reloads that were all loaded at the same time.
- Thread starter abadrs
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What other pressure signs are you seeing? If there's excessive ejector marks on the case, you may have too much lube in the chamber, causing the case to push into the bolt face with more force. As a rule of thumb, always dry out your chamber as much as possible.
I had a rifle have hard bolt lift but there was no pressure. Ended up the brass needed to be trimmed a bit shorter.
^^^^This is one thing to look at.^^^^ Might be a carbon buildup in the throat. Round count?
OFG
Brass could be long. Brass could be work hardened and need annealed. You could have a problem in your loading process.
Definitely check case size trim if needed if you really feel its your rifle take to a smith bore scope it check the throat. Also what's the round count?
Check your cartridge OAL. What primers are u useing???, U might also reduce your powder charge too around 42.5 if you r getting pressure signs and see what it does.
Try different brass.
Tag for later at home.
How many rounds through it?
My sps tact was done at 1500ish rounds with 175's and 45gr varget. This thing was a tack driver, held its own amongst all the match rifles around me. All of a sudden wouldn't shoot good. Throwing rounds. Split necks on brass. We tried many things and finally just decided the barrel was done. It is now a trued .260 with Krieger barrel.
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How many rounds through it?
My sps tact was done at 1500ish rounds with 175's and 45gr varget. This thing was a tack driver, held its own amongst all the match rifles around me. All of a sudden wouldn't shoot good. Throwing rounds. Split necks on brass. We tried many things and finally just decided the barrel was done. It is now a trued .260 with Krieger barrel.
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Agreed on brass quality, also, do yourself a quick favor and make sure the back of the bolt lugs are greased as they tend to gall when the bolt has alot of pressure on it opening and closing on rounds. May not have anything to do with the pressure, but a definate problem can come from it.
total round count I would guess to be at least 1000. cases are trimmed each time with lee hand trimmer. I have had brass get to hard before and I suppose that could be that problem. But just kind of weird this all started after a normal cleaning and 30 or so rounds into a batch of reloads. The biggest problem to me is the poor accuracy. The only other signs of over pressure are the crater of the primer but since the factory ammo primer looks the same im thinking the carbon in the chamber sounds at least worth looking into. Now for the dumb question how would you safely remove the carbon without damaging chamber ?
Long story short, my rifle was same as yours, similar loads, using Win brass. Rifle was a tack driver, always did awesome, went to Kettle Falls last year, cleaned my rifle in the hotel room the night before, the next day I couldn't hit shit. Figured it was just me having a bad day since it is a difficult match. That night in the hotel was looking over my brass and noticing quite a few split necks. Started associating that with the thrown rounds, after lots of trial of things and such I learned that annealing the brass (3 times fired) was eliminating the split necks. Problem was I could not get the rifle to shoot as good, it was still throwing rounds everywhere.
Shot a local match in February that I tend to do decent at, I have like 3 or 4 2nd place finishes over the last 5 of these matches. I was struggling so bad, at my "home" range, missing golf balls, etc. etc. The last stage I shot was a KYL of sorts, I always go big on it and do decent. I was struggling so tried to get some points at a 10" plate at less than 300 yards, the round missed by a foot. The next day I stripped the rifle and started searching for a barrel and gunsmith, haven't looked back sense.
I have also had cratered primers since day one and obviously still do with it as a .260. I hope you find a simpler answer than what I did but figured I'd share.
Shot a local match in February that I tend to do decent at, I have like 3 or 4 2nd place finishes over the last 5 of these matches. I was struggling so bad, at my "home" range, missing golf balls, etc. etc. The last stage I shot was a KYL of sorts, I always go big on it and do decent. I was struggling so tried to get some points at a 10" plate at less than 300 yards, the round missed by a foot. The next day I stripped the rifle and started searching for a barrel and gunsmith, haven't looked back sense.
I have also had cratered primers since day one and obviously still do with it as a .260. I hope you find a simpler answer than what I did but figured I'd share.
hey kinda off topic but what matches do you go to? (where in oregon)
I had a similar issue in a PSS 300WM, went from shooting great to crazy pressure and accuracy fell with it. It ended up being a nasty carbon ring right in front of the chamber, which would make pressure climb. Blown primer pockets, split cases, hard extraction, all with the same load that worked great previously. The good news is accuracy was restored after a thorough cleaning, bad part is carbon is a bitch to get out.
Kirk R
Kirk R
Was the carbon ring visible with bore light looking into chamber ? And what did you use to get it out ?
Get yourself a chamber brush, I use a AR15 brush with a patch wrapped about it. That will clean both the chamber and bolt recess. Don't worry about the cratered primers on a Remington, that is due to the bevel Remington puts on the firing pin hole of the bolt. Instead watch the radius of the primers edge where it meets the brass as well as bolt lift for pressure. Were your primers flattened with squared edges, indicating high pressure? If not and the bolt lift was hard I am thinking this is either a brass issue or debris in the chamber/bolt lug area or both.
Not really, you would need a bore scope to see it. I used JB bore paste on a tight patch and worked only the area right in front of the chamber, about the first inch or two. You could feel when it was gone, with a tight patch down the bore there would be more resistance when you hit the carbon.
I'm shooting a sps tactical 20 in .. Lupa brass..175 smk..44 gn varget.. reloaded that brass 6 times and have not trimmed the case. plan to this time. I have shot to 1200 yrds in competition.. it holds its own. Just seems slow.. 45 moa to 1000 yards.
Well I called Remington and was ready to ship rifle out when I thought let me try the chamber brush I kept getting black patch after black patch. I took it to the range and again was shooting smaller than dime size 3 shot groups at a hundred. Thanks for the idea and bolt is no longer tight to raise
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Could loctite have gotten in your chamber while you were fiddling with the scope mount? This happened to a friend of mine who used to much loctite and it ran down into the chamber
Good to hear that you found & solved the problem. Time to get out the Bore Tech C4 and clean mine. Just might help the 223 with 1600 rnds on it.
OFG
That's exactly what it was ...Thanks a ton. Would have never thought of it. Using a cheap bore guide had crap/carbon built up right where bore guide ended
