Bolt action got very hard to open

[Robb]

Went shooting yesterday to check zeros. My A-Bolt .300 win became VERY hard to open after 6 rounds of factory Hornady ammo.
The bolt lifts fine but became VERY difficult to pull back, I had to resort to hammering on it with my fist. Yup, my hand hurts today.

Factory ammo is clean as is the rifle. Spent brass appears okay but you can see rub marks on the brass approximately mid body of the case.
The bore is/was clean but is my chamber dirty or sticky? I hadn't thought about it until now.
The bolt lifts and pulls back easily on an empty chamber. I don't want to try it on a live round in my basement in case I have issues.

I guess I'll give the chamber a good scrub and see it that's the issue.

Any other thoughts?

[C Ward]

If it opens and cycles normally empty its more than likely a chamber issue . Post pictures of the brass both the body and case head .

[denphillips2]

Yes pictures would be helpful. It does sound like a chamber issue. Dirty, rough/rusted, or bulged.

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[Spdu4ia]

Does it happen with other ammo or just that kind

[Robb]

The Hornady ammo is all I had. No other brands at home either. I'll get some pics of the spent brass tonight and also try and take a good look at the chamber.
I clean the bore but don't make an effort to clean the chamber, that's probably my issue.

[Robb]

Stuck a small light in the chamber. appears good to the naked eye. Tried to clean it with a shotgun brush. Doesn't appear to be any buildup, etc.
Ran some empty brass through the gun, All Hornady I thought, but some was Frontier brass and some headstamped Hornady. It's the Frontier that I had/have problems with. I took a caliper to them and can't measure any difference tho.

[denphillips2]

Fired brass really isn't very good for checking that. Was it all fired in this gun? Can you take a couple good pics of the brass that was hard to extract? Where are you located?

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[Robb]

Yup, all fired in the same gun. I'm sure all are Hornady packaged ammo, just the problem pieces were Frontier brass.
I'll try and get some pics. You can tell where it was tight right above the belt at the bottom of the case. Primer looks fine.

[Spdu4ia]

In the first post you said it was hornady ammo you had issues with , I'm confused

[Robb]

It's all Hornady ammo. It's all I buy only because I'm zeroed with that 180gr load. But sometimes I've noticed they use Hornady stamped brass and sometimes it's Frontier stamped brass.
I've noticed the Frontier brass appears more tarnished and the Hornady is usually highly polished. I took a caliper to both but couldn't notice any difference.

[Robb]

61779 61780

Okay, here are a couple pics of the problem pieces of brass. These were factory Hornady - Frontier brass.
You can see a pronounced ring almost in the middle of each piece of brass. No idea why that's there, and you can tell the brass was pretty shined up right above the belt as if extraction was a little hard on the brass in that area.

Primers all look normal. I took a good look at the chamber and it looks good, clean and smooth.

I'll make sure and have a couple of different boxes of ammo next time to see if it's just a brass dimensional issue. I've never had this difficult extraction issue with this gun before.

[denphillips2]

The marks in the middle tell me there is definitely something going on in the chamber. Looks like reamer marks. Now it is possible they have always been there and this brass is softer and flowing into the chamber more and you are just noticing it. All real hard to tell over a forum... If you are near Parker, I can take a look at it for you.

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