Random 8
Member
Today I stepped out into the yard to confirm zero on my hunting rifle. Had a wet gun event (wife left the window open by my gun cabinet and it blew drizzle in all day) so I did a full teardown clean of the rifle which was previously zeroed and put away until hunting season.
This is my .280 Remington, and to my knowledge, all brass I had in stock had been previously fired in this rifle. I was wrong. In loading a box of 20 with my standard hunting load, apparently I had glommed onto some brass somewhere along the way which had been fired in a different rifle. The short sizing I usually do did not size the brass properly to fit this chamber, and the bolt locked up on chambering a live round. I was unable to unlock the bolt, but was able to lock and fire the round and drive the brass out with a range rod. This would have been a very bad situation if I'd walked a mile out into the bush to my deer stand opening morning and been unable to load my rifle.
I have another 20 loaded that were virgin ammo and fired in this gun so I'm good to go. Just a cautionary tale to check your stuff.
This is my .280 Remington, and to my knowledge, all brass I had in stock had been previously fired in this rifle. I was wrong. In loading a box of 20 with my standard hunting load, apparently I had glommed onto some brass somewhere along the way which had been fired in a different rifle. The short sizing I usually do did not size the brass properly to fit this chamber, and the bolt locked up on chambering a live round. I was unable to unlock the bolt, but was able to lock and fire the round and drive the brass out with a range rod. This would have been a very bad situation if I'd walked a mile out into the bush to my deer stand opening morning and been unable to load my rifle.
I have another 20 loaded that were virgin ammo and fired in this gun so I'm good to go. Just a cautionary tale to check your stuff.
