Stiff extractor or thick rims?

[Ervin]

After loading a new batch of '06, I chambered some rounds to see if the bullets would depress farther back into the case during the force of the chambering. Answer to that = no not really. 0.02 of a milimeter in some cases.. which is not even 0.001 of an inch.

Anyways the 1903 rifle is known for it's smooth bolt. It is smooth when dry firing.
But when you try to rotate the bolt handle down on a full chamber, there is alot of resistance. Opening it up again also takes 3x the force.
Bullet seating depth has nothing to do with this. I tried bullets of drastically diff. lengths.
When I do eject the round, there are alot of scratch marks along the headstamp.

Its HXP 77 brass, thick rims perhaps? or do I need to loosen up the extractor piece.

 

[Ervin]

**Its definantly a difference in case length.


HXP 77 (what I used) is the live round, and HXP 66 is to the right of it.
Extractor groove is nearly 2x longer.

source: http://1919a4.com/showthread.php?17574-CMP-Greek



great...now I have to dedicate a spec. type of brass to one rifle, or start seperating HXP by year for bolt actions.

 

[big al hunter]

The extractor groove will not cause that to happen and should not cause the case to be longer. I do however agree that you have a case length problem. First, because the extractor groove is longer you will have a different case volume. So yes you will have to sort your brass to either bullet weight or particular loads.

Second, The 30-06 headspaces off the shoulder and that would make the bolt hard to close and open if the case is too long. Pull the bullets and run the brass through a full length resizing die, then trim the cases to within the spec. That should fix your problem. It is caused by either the shoulder or the case neck being too long.