I just had a strange thing happen to me. I have reloaded My 338-06 brass and find it chambers easily. Fires no problem, and extracts easily.

However, When I go to unload a chambered round, I can lift the bolt but the bolt will not slide rearward. If I work the bolt handle I will eventually get the bolt to open. Upon looking at the case I can see no deformation.

Any ideas?

longwalker

Wow...There many reasons for that...Not triming to the proper length. Not full sized. Over charged with powder (too hot of a load). At this point I would ask you the list of components, powder weights Bullet and primer. Does the round chamber with little or no resistence? Or is it just when you wish to extract the fired case...Without looking you might reduce your powder charge. also are you jaming the bullet into the lands?

Reading your post again. Are you saying that the unfired case is hard to extract or the bolt is hard to lift on an unfired round? If so at a guess the case needs to be trimmed or the bullet is being jammed into the rifling (lands). I'm just guessing at this point, but these are the things I would look at...

Fired rounds are extracted and new unfired rounds smoothly loaded in to the chamber. There is never any difficulty removing fired cases. It is when an unfired round is being removed that the bolt become difficult to pull rearward. The bolt handle rises as one would expect. Simple finger pressure raises it. Pulling the bolt and the unfired cartridge from the chamber is the problem.

As you suggest the case length may be long.

longwalker

SO..... once you've pulled the bolt back an 1/8 th of an inch or so it opens OK then ........?

Case is probably too long and needs to be trimmed or you need to set the bullet back a bit as it may be engaging the lands to deeply...

Sounds to me like you are right Bushy.

Why thank you 1895ss...Good evening to you...It's 10:40 PM and time to go to bed...Some of us have to work for a living...

It's 12:40 here and you're welcome.........

longwalker....... let us know how you make out and what the problem is for sure..... Thanks

Oh my dont let the word get out that Bushy was/is right ..
Oh brother ,,
Jack

Jack??? Jack who??

It sounds as if the consensus (and Bushy) is right on: either an overly long cartridge case, or a bullet not seated deeply enough. Maybe a combination of the two? A tightly compressed load with max. seating length could be enough to force the bullet forward.

Cartridge cases are easy: just size, trim & chamfer.

Can you look at the sides of the bullet and see engraving marks on it, just behind the ogive, that match the rifling?

They are tricky little devils to spot, until you have done it once, are spaced evenly around the circumference of the bullet, and look square, or slightly rectangular, and contrast with the bullet's polished appearance.

If you can see those, it means your bullet is being forced into the rifling, and more seating depth is indicated.

Try this: Using a caliper, measure the length of the marks. They're little, and eyestrain is guaranteed. Do more than one, and average them. Then, measure the overall length of your round. Subtract the length of the marks from the round length, which will give you ~ the cartridge length with the bullet just touching the rifling, then shorten that by whatever bullet to rifling gap is best for your rifle. .020 is a good place to start. Adjust your seating die, and Fear Not! Then go shooting, you've earned it.

Don't be afraid of seating the bullet with the base well into the powder space. It may be necessary for safe operation of your gun, and the velocity lost by doing that is not enough to worry about. Or use a shorter (lighter) bullet .

Good luck with your search.

My guess is the same as the other folks: bullets seated too far out.
To diagnose it, try this: Take one of your reloads that you have not tried to chamber yet. Get a Sharpie pen (black), and color the bullet black- color everything that sticks out of the case neck. Give it a minute to dry, then put the round directly into the chamber and slowly close the bolt. Close the bolt all the way.
Now, extract the cartridge. If you look at the bullet, just ahead of the case neck (usually) I betcha you'll see marks evenly spaced around the bullet where the black has been scraped off as the bullet is jammed into the rifling.
If you see those marks, you need to seat the bullets deeper, until that test shows no marks.
If you see no marks the first time you do this test, then take a very good look at your case length- it's likely too long.