Originally Posted by Razorsharp123
Hello everyone who has given some advice, I appreciate it!

I have cleaned the gun and the bolt handle is still hard to lower with this ammo.

R_H_Clark, could you tell me a little more about marking the ammo? I would like to try that to see what it shows but I am unsure of the process (as in where to mark and what to look for!).

Any additional advice is appreciated!

Do you guys think these would be safe to shoot as is or should I check them with a marker and toss them?



OK buddy
Take a magic marker and color the bullet,neck,and shoulder area. It won't matter if you get some on the body of the case but what you are trying to do is to use the marker to be able to see where your contact is coming from when you chamber the rounds. Chamber your colored round and look to see if you can tell if any mark has been removed. If it hasn't been removed the first time you chamber your colored round,,chamber it several times making sure to completely close the bolt every time.

I suspect you are getting a tighter headspace off the shoulder area. If that's the case,it's not really a big deal as long as the ammo isn't really difficult to chamber. For instance,you might not want to shoot it if you basically had to hammer the bolt closed. If it's just a little hard to close no big deal,and might even be good.

If however you can see marks on the bullet,then you are jammed up in the lands. I doubt that's the case because if it were ,you would have likely already seen some mark on the bullet with it being hard to close. I would suspect that chambering it would just seat the bullet deeper. Bullets really jammed into the lands can cause higher pressure and have to be worked up from minimum charges when up in the lands. Not knowing how heavy a load that factory load is,I wouldn't shoot it if the bullet is jammed up in there.

Last edited by R_H_Clark; 04/19/18 07:47 PM.