Brass question 500S&W Mag

[Cheesemaker]

I have yet to start reloading 500S&W. I have reloaded 44Mag, 454Casull, 460S&W, 50 AE and others for many years.
I was at the range on Saturday morning, my second range trip with the 500. I loaded up 5 Federal Fusion 325gr rounds and proceeded to bang some steel. These are considered relatively mild-medium loads at 1517 ft/lbs (on the box).
I go to eject the spent cases and the ejector moves them about 1/2" to 5/8" and then it sticks. I pull out 3 cases no issue. The remaining 2 (in the pic below) needed some help pushing from the front and pulling from the back. Quite a bit of help actually. I could not pull them out with my fingers alone.

I then loaded up 5 Hornady 300gr and they shot and ejected fine. Followed this with another 5 Hornady 500gr which also shot and ejected fine.
I did clean the revolver and chambers after my first trip to the range. I shot 15 rounds the first trip and 15 again on the second trip. I always pull through the bore and chambers before going to the range.

Any ideas what could've caused this? Could the brass be suspect? They moved easily for the first 1/2" when ejecting then they stuck. These were on adjacent chambers and the scratch marks are all around the cases. The chambers look fine. Live round shown in the middle.

 

[MEHavey]

That looks like rough/choked boring at those points in those cylinders.
Just enough that it hits you over a certain pressure.

See if someone has some pin gauges to check for that (choked) condition.

 

[243winxb]

I would guess its coming from the ejector. Chamber being larger. Or the brass is not springing back after firing. My guess.

 

[FROGO207]

The big question is if you do it again with the same loads will the same two cylinders stick brass? I would mark them with a marker and repeat. If so then there is a problem with those two chambers not being correct and S&W should be notified to fix this. I think MEHarvey has the right idea about the problem but I think that the chamber is overbored/expanded in the section where the marks are and the scratches are made when the swollen brass is pulled through the first part of the chamber. I have not experienced this with my 500 at all.

 

[243winxb]

5 Federal Fusion 325gr rounds

Brass spring back- High pressure will cause brass to stick to a chamber, even factory loads. The lower power loading,( "relatively mild-medium loads") may use faster burning powers, working at a higher pressure level. High pressure will not let brass spring back, it sticks to the cylinder wall.

I just run into this type of problem working up a new load in a very old M28 357 mag. The ejector star marked the brass on ejection. A little work on the ejector area fixed my problem.

Yours may be a different problem? Or just an ammo problem, as other ammo don't seem to do it??

 

[Cheesemaker]

Thanks for the replies.
I have put a total of 30 rounds thru this revolver. 15 on the first range visit, 15 on the second. Both trips were 5x 325gr Federal Fusion, 5x Hornady 300gr and the 5x Hornady 500gr.
The only sticking was on "batch" 16-20 (1st chamber load on visit #2).
I do not think the ejector is the issue, it moved freely and the markings are all around the cases.
Also, had zero issues with the first 5 Federals and no issues at all with Hornady.
I have some new Starline cases. I will load some of them up this week and head back to the range on Saturday (time permitting).

 

[Cheesemaker]

Just got back from the range and all went well.
Before I went I did polish up the chambers a bit with a 28 bore brush wrapped in a cleaning patch and attached to my drill. This likely helped even though I cleaned them before the prior range trip.

I shot another 5 Federal Fusion and then 30 reloads (20 new Starline and 10 new Hornady cases), using H110, AA#9 and LilGun. No issues with sticking cases. I ran all of these through my chronny - the factory Federal's fps was right on with what they said on the box.
Shot some 50AE and 44Mag reloads thru my Desert Eagle too - all cycled flawlessly.
All in all a fun morning.

Thanks again for the input.

 

[Demi-human]

Ahh. The smell of H one ten in the morning.

 

[WiTom]

Shooting a S&W 500, and AE50 and 44mag through a Desert Eagle... I like your taste. Glad your troubles are gone for now, as it make the range trip so enjoyable.