At the range today a buddy is shooting his custom 260 Savage. Up until now it has been very consistent 1/2 MOA gun. Lately He has been getting some flyers and also when he would chamber a round which seemed to stick in the chamber, he couldn't eject it. But he could fire the round then the brass would eject ok. A few he managed to eject and there was a circular scrape mark all around the bullet just above the rim of the neck about a 1/8 in. This does not look like rifling marks as those are spaced apart and usually number 4 or 5. I was thinking a carbon ring so I had him scrub and brush[plastic] the first couple inches. Well that worked for about ten rounds then the problem continued.
He keep telling me there was a black streak down the bore which I thought was just a carbon mark of sort. When I looked there was a stream of kernels laying on the bottom of the bore like unburnt powder.
We tipped the barrel to get them out. Tried a few more rounds and got more kernels. Since I don't have a bore scope I can't tell what is causing the ring of whatever that is hanging up the bullet.
He did tell me he had recently started on a new keg of IMR 4831. Without any prior knowledge of the kind of problem it would seem he's got a bad batch of powder although I have never heard of such a problem. We tried to light off a bit of it, would not ignite. The kernels felt gritty like sand.
So any ideas?
He keep telling me there was a black streak down the bore which I thought was just a carbon mark of sort. When I looked there was a stream of kernels laying on the bottom of the bore like unburnt powder.
We tipped the barrel to get them out. Tried a few more rounds and got more kernels. Since I don't have a bore scope I can't tell what is causing the ring of whatever that is hanging up the bullet.
He did tell me he had recently started on a new keg of IMR 4831. Without any prior knowledge of the kind of problem it would seem he's got a bad batch of powder although I have never heard of such a problem. We tried to light off a bit of it, would not ignite. The kernels felt gritty like sand.
So any ideas?