Craziest thing happened last week. I swapped scopes around between rifles and returned my Leupold VX-II 3-9x40 to my Ruger M77 MkII in .338 Win Mag. I had in the past shot the Winchester Supreme 225gr Accubond CT ammo. I recently bought 2 new boxes since I previously liked the performance in the rifle and in the kill (98% weight retention after spine shot vs moose).
I got to the range and boresighted the scope. After the first 3 rounds I started having trouble extracting the spent brass. New cartridge chambered smoothly. After discharge, the bolt would lift normally but then I would have to force the bolt back with excessive force to extract the brass. The nickel was scraped down to the brass above the belt several places all the way around the case. At the same time I was thinking that something was wrong with my scope as well because two shots were in a one inch circle and then there was one 12” to 4 o,clock and I didn’t pull it. After a few more rounds I stopped and packed it up and started reading to see what was up. A friend suggested looking at my brass. I found my primers flattened and flow around firing pin dimple. Dang! Afterwards he told me he thought I was talking about handloads! This factory ammo!
I started reading around and have not found anything related in the forums except with handloads. One post mentioned lube on the cases or oil in the chamber. Checked. No neither present. Finally one mentioned problems related to nickel plated brass. I went back to the range three different ammo brands and to my surprise ALL the problems were solved! Smooth insertion and extraction, back to my MOA groups and fired primers were normal.
Anyone else ever have this issue?
I got to the range and boresighted the scope. After the first 3 rounds I started having trouble extracting the spent brass. New cartridge chambered smoothly. After discharge, the bolt would lift normally but then I would have to force the bolt back with excessive force to extract the brass. The nickel was scraped down to the brass above the belt several places all the way around the case. At the same time I was thinking that something was wrong with my scope as well because two shots were in a one inch circle and then there was one 12” to 4 o,clock and I didn’t pull it. After a few more rounds I stopped and packed it up and started reading to see what was up. A friend suggested looking at my brass. I found my primers flattened and flow around firing pin dimple. Dang! Afterwards he told me he thought I was talking about handloads! This factory ammo!
I started reading around and have not found anything related in the forums except with handloads. One post mentioned lube on the cases or oil in the chamber. Checked. No neither present. Finally one mentioned problems related to nickel plated brass. I went back to the range three different ammo brands and to my surprise ALL the problems were solved! Smooth insertion and extraction, back to my MOA groups and fired primers were normal.
Anyone else ever have this issue?
