So I went out to the local 100m range on Monday to run some rounds through the 20” .308 POF I just picked up last week and had all sorts of issues. It started by having feed issues which I just chalked up to it being new, tight and not run in. I had two different kinds of mag and the both acted the same. The more I shot the worse it got and at about the 40th round it stuck a case in the chamber HARD! The extractor was doing its best to get it out. Even to the point where it ripped part of the lip off so I highly doubt it had anything to do with the extractor. The range officer (RO) had a brass rod that I used to push the case out. Then we started looking at the spent brass. About 30% of them had the primers blown out! And every one had clearly been tugged on real hard by the extractor. The RO said he has been loading his own stuff for years and recommended I didn’t run that round anymore because it was “over pressuring”. So I switched to a different round. And that one was giving me fits also. Now I’m thinking it’s the rifle not the round. Then I ran a lighter 3rd kind of round I had with me and it didn’t give me any issues (10 rounds) but the cases were beat up pretty good. At that point the range was closing so we packed up and left.
On the way home I called POF and their tech guy told me that they do some sort of salt based process on the barrels/chambers and if they don’t clean them out PERFECTLY they will get “buildup” which could cause what I was experiencing. And the buildup is hard enough (crystalline in nature) so that a chamber brush will not get it out. They were more than helpful and offered to have me ship the rifle out to them ASAP at their cost but I told him I would take a look at it in the shop before I did that.
I tore the rifle down this morning on the bench and after getting a light shined down in the chamber good I could see that it looked like there may be some “stuff” between the lugs and the actual chamber which could have possibly kept the bolt from going all the way into battery (were talking thousands here). I took a shot at it with a chamber brush, no joy. So I got out my trusty “twisted tip” SnapOn pick out and took a few tentative pokes at it. To my surprise I got some pretty big chunks of black “crystalline” crap that was running all around the OD out of it out. It wasn’t too hard to get it with the pick and it looks to have cleaned up real good with the chamber brush and some brakekleen after that. I cleaned up the BCG and the inside of the upper and lower receivers, put a real light coating of lube on and put it all back together. It cycles by hand just fine and doesn’t seem to have any issues at all. But I have not been able to put more rounds through it yet and I won’t be able to till Thursday at the earliest.
I figured that I would run this past the POF guys and see if any one else has ever experienced this? What you did to fix it? Should I be looking for anything else? Etc.
Any insight would be appreciated. I don’t want to go to the range just to work on the gun. Or worse have an aborted attempt. I would rather “detail” anything anyone can think of while it’s on the bench.
Thanks a lot
On the way home I called POF and their tech guy told me that they do some sort of salt based process on the barrels/chambers and if they don’t clean them out PERFECTLY they will get “buildup” which could cause what I was experiencing. And the buildup is hard enough (crystalline in nature) so that a chamber brush will not get it out. They were more than helpful and offered to have me ship the rifle out to them ASAP at their cost but I told him I would take a look at it in the shop before I did that.
I tore the rifle down this morning on the bench and after getting a light shined down in the chamber good I could see that it looked like there may be some “stuff” between the lugs and the actual chamber which could have possibly kept the bolt from going all the way into battery (were talking thousands here). I took a shot at it with a chamber brush, no joy. So I got out my trusty “twisted tip” SnapOn pick out and took a few tentative pokes at it. To my surprise I got some pretty big chunks of black “crystalline” crap that was running all around the OD out of it out. It wasn’t too hard to get it with the pick and it looks to have cleaned up real good with the chamber brush and some brakekleen after that. I cleaned up the BCG and the inside of the upper and lower receivers, put a real light coating of lube on and put it all back together. It cycles by hand just fine and doesn’t seem to have any issues at all. But I have not been able to put more rounds through it yet and I won’t be able to till Thursday at the earliest.
I figured that I would run this past the POF guys and see if any one else has ever experienced this? What you did to fix it? Should I be looking for anything else? Etc.
Any insight would be appreciated. I don’t want to go to the range just to work on the gun. Or worse have an aborted attempt. I would rather “detail” anything anyone can think of while it’s on the bench.
Thanks a lot
