So, had some serious bolt lift issues that caused me to stop shooting a match over the weekend. Started out clicking and ramped up to beating my bolt open. Was running a mild 34.0 varget with 109’s at 2950 ish. .020 off lands.
After checking measurements and making sure my sizing die was sizing all the way down the base, I took ejector out of my bolt and noticed it would not close with just gravity like it should with a jump.
Pulled bullet and it fell closed on brass (I size mine for a free fall without a small crush like some like). Seated bullet again and same thing. No drop.
Ended up having to seat bullet another .030 for a total of .050 jump for bolt to free fall.
I’m waiting on a new borescope this week, so the attached picture sucks. But it’s a very bad carbon ring that was turning my .020 jump into a jam. I was running mild enough pressure to not blow primers, but still swell the cases out and have hard extraction.
It took quite a while to brush it out (and still have some cleaning to do), and now all my .020 loaded ammo allows the bolt to fall. A few get hung at the very bottom, so there’s still a bit of a ring in there.
This was at 490 rnds without cleaning. I’m sure it’s not indicative of other 6gt barrels. Just sharing my experience.
This is what can happen if you only clean once “accuracy starts degrading.” The rifle was still shooting .3/.4moa and dope was lining up as expected.
View attachment 7257273