tight chamber?

[chungus]

I am working up some loads for a new rifle (22GT) and the chamber seems a bit tight. I am using a hornady OAL gauge like I always do to figure out what length to load at. I have done this on dozens of rifles and never experienced this before. While I can fit the modified case (that I bought from Alpha) or my new Alpha brass in the chamber all the way by hand it takes a lot of force and is fairly difficult to pull out. It can be inserted and removed by hand but barely. After trying this numerous times I can see the wear marks on the brass and it is uniform across the body. It iis not the neck or shoulder. Is this anything to be concerned about?

 

[supercorndogs]

Size a peice with your die and see if it fits. If it still extracts hard, it's proabaly gonna be a problem.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Have you cleaned the chamber and wiped it dry?

 

[Dolomite]

Call the smith and let them know the virgin brass is a hard extract. Maybe their reamer is a bit small from many uses which is causing a tight chamber.

 

[Marine52]

Call the smith and let them know the virgin brass is a hard extract. Maybe their reamer is a bit small from many uses which is causing a tight chamber.

This is good advice but it is doubtful that a gunsmith is going to admit his reamer is crap and volunteer to chamber a new barrel for you at his expense unless it is a GAP rifle. George Farmer would fix it.

The 22GT is not a recognized SAAMI cartridge and reamers and headspace gauges for this cartridge are not as readily available as say for a 308. GAP worked with PTG to build their initial reamer for the 22GT. PTG or GAP may have a headspace gauge for the 22GT. Since the 22GT is based on the 6mm GT necked down to 22cal, a 6 mm GT headspace gauge will work for checking your rifle headspace and they are easier to find. I would get a good 6mm GT headspace go-gauge and make sure your chamber is in spec.

This is what you need (make sure it’s a go-gauge):

6MM GT | Manson Precision Reamers

mansonreamers.com

 

[chungus]

Thanks for the replies. I have thoroughly cleaned the chamber with no change. Sizing the brass makes no difference. I do have Manson Go / No go gauges for it on order and they have shipped but are not here yet.

Using the bolt inserting the brass and extracting it seems to function normally. The fit is just tight enough that is possible but difficult by hand but seems easy with the bolt.

I am not sure who the smith is that did the barrel. I bought it used.

I am leaning towards it being ok. I chucked my modified case in a drill and sanded the body down a tiny bit so that I could easily insert and remove it. I was having difficulty measuring the OAL with so much force being required. Now it drops right in.

 

[ShtrRdy]

Thanks for the update.

 

[918v]

If the case doesn’t fall out of the chamber on its own you’ll have problems.

 

[chungus]

I loaded up some ammo and tested it out today. It shot great and no issues extracting the fired rounds.