A little background on the rifle. It is a Remington 700 SPS Tactical in .308, 20" barrel, mostly all stock. It is bedded into a B&C Stock with Badger Bottom metal and currently has about 1400 rounds through it. This rifle has treated me awesome for not being anything special. It has performed awesome, never gave an issue, and in general as long as I do my part it does its part. I have run it up and down ranges from under 100 yards out past 1000 without it giving a hiccup ever.
The handloads are a basic recipe of Winchester brass, Varget, and 175gr SMK's developed using the OCW method resulting in 45gr of powder being the magic number. The brass questioned was only on its 3rd firing at the most. Most of it was on its second. All the ammo was loaded in the same batch and has never given me an issue. Muzzle velocity is about 2600 fps.
I shot a match back in January or February in which the rifle performed great and I did rather well. One of my best finishes ever and no complaints about anything. It went in the safe and wasn't fired again until 2 weeks ago when I shot it in the Steel Challenge in Kettle Falls put on by Quarter Circle 42 and that is where the problems began.
The rifle was unchanged in any way over the last year at least. Nothing was touched, nothing needed to be, the rifle always worked. The night before the match I cleaned it in the hotel room using the same patches, brush, and everything as I always do but did not use my regular one piece rod. I used a gunslick coated 3 piece rod and was keeping that in mind so put an extra bit of care in to how I did things. I also did not have my bore guide and fear that may end up being a huge mistake.
Match day was average temps, in the 70's. Location was at an elevation and environment that was near identical to where most the rounds fired through my rifle had been. Nothing out of the normal that I can think of.
For starters, I did not do well at the match and as the day began I put it all on myself as the rifle had never let me down. Even shots that felt good, delivered good, were hits in my eye, were off. I'm not a master long range shooter but I know I have good verified dope and tend to be pretty sharp. If I miss I generally understand why and have no problem admitting that it is me but shots that should have been good were off. Halfway through the day, I'm doing not so hot but having a good time, not getting down about it, and start examining my brass. I am finding a lot of split case necks. Something I've never experienced before. I went through and checked the last couple hundred brass fired prior and not a single split.
Out of the 70ish brass recovered at the match I have about 15-20 that are split. Most look like a combination of the 3 on the right but several look like the 2 on the left. I believe there is even one that has a combo of all of them.
My first instinct was to scrub the rifle clean and try again but instead I let it sit in the safe for a couple weeks until I had time to work on it.
Tonight I went to the local range and sat at the 100 yard range, something I rarely do, but wanted to start at the basics. I put 3 rounds at target #1 and was a bit shocked at the POI difference from what it should be but no neck splits. (The top hole was me pulling the shot slightly)
I then did my normal cleaning process, bore guide, solvent, brass brush, patches, etc. and fired 3 more rounds at target #2. Still had the POI as previous which now had me concerned. I've shot this rifle in comps at 100 yards and below at small targets with great success. Earlier this year we did eggs at about 90 yards, at this same range, no problems. With what I had going on tonight they would not have been hits. Also, the second round in this string of 3 had a slight split but obviously was placed nicely.
After seeing that minor split I realized that the cleaning I had just done didn't resolve much of anything and gave it one more cleaning just for good measure. I then pulled my bore guide and using just the brass bore brush I ran in just into the neck and such where the bore guide normally would protect it. Cleaned that area a bit just to make sure.
Put 3 rounds at target #3 with no issues, no splits.
Adjust my windage and put 3 more rounds at target #4. As noted on the target the upper hole was a split neck. It was the third shot in the string of 3. It was a good shot and I don't believe it was thrown. I call it a good shot.
Didn't change anything, put 3 rounds at target #5 with no issues and then adjusted my elevation and put 3 more at target #6 again with no issues. Just for peace of mind and such I put one round at #7, again no issues.
So in the end I fired 19 rounds, had one minor split and one major split. I have some ideas on things to try but wanted to bounce this off others for ideas.
One thing I want to do is put another 20 rounds or so through it with a chrono to see what the split cases are doing. Not sure what that will tell me but I'm sure it would clue something to someone.
I'm also considering firing 20 factory rounds through my rifle to see if they split as well as having a friend with a similar rifle fire 20 of my handloads to see if they split in his rifle.
Someone at the range tossed the possibility to me that the barrel is cracked. I imagine it could be possible but not sure. Could the throat be toasted already at less than 1500 rounds?
Aside from all that I'm at a loss. If I messed up the barrel I'm fine with replacing it but just can't put this matter to rest until I know what caused or is causing it. If anyone has any ideas throw them at me. Even if they are basic newbie type possibilities throw them my way. I'm not offended at my own mistake if I made one no matter how simple or complex. I just want to know whats going on so I know for my own piece of mind.
Thanks in advance.
The handloads are a basic recipe of Winchester brass, Varget, and 175gr SMK's developed using the OCW method resulting in 45gr of powder being the magic number. The brass questioned was only on its 3rd firing at the most. Most of it was on its second. All the ammo was loaded in the same batch and has never given me an issue. Muzzle velocity is about 2600 fps.
I shot a match back in January or February in which the rifle performed great and I did rather well. One of my best finishes ever and no complaints about anything. It went in the safe and wasn't fired again until 2 weeks ago when I shot it in the Steel Challenge in Kettle Falls put on by Quarter Circle 42 and that is where the problems began.
The rifle was unchanged in any way over the last year at least. Nothing was touched, nothing needed to be, the rifle always worked. The night before the match I cleaned it in the hotel room using the same patches, brush, and everything as I always do but did not use my regular one piece rod. I used a gunslick coated 3 piece rod and was keeping that in mind so put an extra bit of care in to how I did things. I also did not have my bore guide and fear that may end up being a huge mistake.
Match day was average temps, in the 70's. Location was at an elevation and environment that was near identical to where most the rounds fired through my rifle had been. Nothing out of the normal that I can think of.
For starters, I did not do well at the match and as the day began I put it all on myself as the rifle had never let me down. Even shots that felt good, delivered good, were hits in my eye, were off. I'm not a master long range shooter but I know I have good verified dope and tend to be pretty sharp. If I miss I generally understand why and have no problem admitting that it is me but shots that should have been good were off. Halfway through the day, I'm doing not so hot but having a good time, not getting down about it, and start examining my brass. I am finding a lot of split case necks. Something I've never experienced before. I went through and checked the last couple hundred brass fired prior and not a single split.
Out of the 70ish brass recovered at the match I have about 15-20 that are split. Most look like a combination of the 3 on the right but several look like the 2 on the left. I believe there is even one that has a combo of all of them.
My first instinct was to scrub the rifle clean and try again but instead I let it sit in the safe for a couple weeks until I had time to work on it.
Tonight I went to the local range and sat at the 100 yard range, something I rarely do, but wanted to start at the basics. I put 3 rounds at target #1 and was a bit shocked at the POI difference from what it should be but no neck splits. (The top hole was me pulling the shot slightly)
I then did my normal cleaning process, bore guide, solvent, brass brush, patches, etc. and fired 3 more rounds at target #2. Still had the POI as previous which now had me concerned. I've shot this rifle in comps at 100 yards and below at small targets with great success. Earlier this year we did eggs at about 90 yards, at this same range, no problems. With what I had going on tonight they would not have been hits. Also, the second round in this string of 3 had a slight split but obviously was placed nicely.
After seeing that minor split I realized that the cleaning I had just done didn't resolve much of anything and gave it one more cleaning just for good measure. I then pulled my bore guide and using just the brass bore brush I ran in just into the neck and such where the bore guide normally would protect it. Cleaned that area a bit just to make sure.
Put 3 rounds at target #3 with no issues, no splits.
Adjust my windage and put 3 more rounds at target #4. As noted on the target the upper hole was a split neck. It was the third shot in the string of 3. It was a good shot and I don't believe it was thrown. I call it a good shot.
Didn't change anything, put 3 rounds at target #5 with no issues and then adjusted my elevation and put 3 more at target #6 again with no issues. Just for peace of mind and such I put one round at #7, again no issues.
So in the end I fired 19 rounds, had one minor split and one major split. I have some ideas on things to try but wanted to bounce this off others for ideas.
One thing I want to do is put another 20 rounds or so through it with a chrono to see what the split cases are doing. Not sure what that will tell me but I'm sure it would clue something to someone.
I'm also considering firing 20 factory rounds through my rifle to see if they split as well as having a friend with a similar rifle fire 20 of my handloads to see if they split in his rifle.
Someone at the range tossed the possibility to me that the barrel is cracked. I imagine it could be possible but not sure. Could the throat be toasted already at less than 1500 rounds?
Aside from all that I'm at a loss. If I messed up the barrel I'm fine with replacing it but just can't put this matter to rest until I know what caused or is causing it. If anyone has any ideas throw them at me. Even if they are basic newbie type possibilities throw them my way. I'm not offended at my own mistake if I made one no matter how simple or complex. I just want to know whats going on so I know for my own piece of mind.
Thanks in advance.
