Sticky bolt/hard to extract.

[yourotherleft]

Hi gents,
I'd like to hear your expert opinion on this sticky bolt issue I have. The rifle is Steyr Scout Elite in 308Win. I have no issue lifting the bolt, but have a hard time extracting bolt to the back. Brass was shot twice before. Brass is never full length resized, not even shoulder bumped, just half of the neck. The reason I did this is because the cartridge has no trouble chambering before, even now. I reload with 44.6gr of Varget (According to Lyman, the range is 41-45.7gr), CCI #200 primer, 168gr SMK, 0.02" off land. Grouping is decent at just under 1" at 100 yards. I shot about 20 of them before decide to quit it. I do not use or have Chrono, so I do not know its muzzle velocity.
Looking at the pictures below, do you think:
1. This is a case of over pressure? Is primer look flattened or normal?
2. If it is, is the spent brass safe to be reused again?
3. If it's not an over pressure, do you think brass just need to be full length resized?
4. Invest in Chrono?

Thank you.

 

[Maxduty]

FL size them and see if it goes away.

 

[Fursniper]

Headstamp/primer look fine. Adjust Fl sizer for two thousandths shoulder bump, problem solved....Your case has no room for normal spring back with the half a neck size thing you're doing.

 

[yourotherleft]

Thanks for the reply. It’s a big relief. I will do as advised and update if bolt still sticks. But is the rest of the ammo still safe to shoot in this rifle or other rifles? Thanks

 

[Fursniper]

The brass should be safe as far as that goes. It's gonna be pretty hard on your extractor though if you have to beat the bolt back on every round of the ammo you still have loaded. PPU isn't exactly premium brass, if it was me I'd either pull the bullets & deprime what you had loaded (and then properly resize of course) or just toss it & chalk it up to a learning experience. Much better than beating the hell out of your bolt.

 

[Afkirby]

Sounds like the rifle doesn’t have much primary extraction too

 

[whatsupdoc]

Sounds like the rifle doesn’t have much primary extraction too

^^^
What he said is a good possibility as your bolt lift is easy but pulling the bolt back is hard.

 

[Sogan]

Sounds like the rifle doesn’t have much primary extraction too

What does this mean? Weak extractor spring?

 

[Afkirby]

What does this mean? Weak extractor spring?

When you lift the bolt on most actions the bolt slides backwards a little bit and helps pop the empty case out of the chamber. If the gun doesn’t do this then you have to overcome the stickiness of the fired case by pulling back on the bolt harder than normal.

 

[Afkirby]

If you google “primary extraction rifle” there are plenty of good articles and videos that describe it. I know some guns are designed with primary extraction in mind but aren’t timed right from the factory. A gunsmith can fix it.

 

[whatsupdoc]

It is a cam on the bolt handle that contacts the receiver starting the pulling the fired round out of the chamber.
I am not familiar with your steyr. The video below will give you an idea.

 

[yourotherleft]

Wow. Learn new thing everyday. Thank you for your comments and advice.

 

[Gil P.]

Have you tried a different brand of cases? My Remington has poor primary extraction, and I experienced the same problem with new/ never fired PPU brass.

 

[Don Briere]

Thanks for posting that informative and interesting video.

BR

 

[Lucky Se7en]

Interesting to see this thread with PPU brass, I've been having a lot of trouble with mine lately. My problems had to do more with a sticky bolt lift with a mild load. Like you I was neck sizing and unfortunately FL sizing didn't help, actually made it worse. I'm at a loss for what's going on, PPU brass must only be good for 1 or 2 reloads for me. Every other kind of brass I've tried in my bolt gun did fine although I haven't had any problems with PPU in my gas gun which may be more of a result of me not being able to feel the bolt cycle. I'm interested to see how your brass behaves.

 

[the m700 project]

I have this rifle in 223 and it seems to be ok on primary extraction. I think the big issue is not enough shoulder bump in sizing. Also Im not sure of the accuracy difference between the 2 rifles but a round I picked in my first load box got me just under a 3/8" group at 100 with sierra GK's off a range bag.

Another thing to note my steyr takes anything, if it wont fit in an AR the steyr will chew it up. I know this because I got in a rythm and prepped, primed, and loaded 1000 cases and hadnt realized size die slipped till after necks where too high for any of my ARs but fed fine in Steyr

 

[yourotherleft]

Have you tried a different brand of cases? My Remington has poor primary extraction, and I experienced the same problem with new/ never fired PPU brass.

Hi Gil, yes I have. It has no issue on first and second time I shot it. Bolt starts to stick third time around (second reloads).