Tough to Extract spent Casing

[Polishrifleman]

I was up sighting in my hunting rifle of 20 years and have run into a problem.

The Bolt has suddenly gotten very tough to pull back after firing.
Gun: Weatherby Mark V Alaskan (electroplated nickel)
Caliber: 270 Weatherby Mag

It has been my go to hunting rifle forever and have never had this issue before.
Cycles unspent cartridges just fine.
Tried firing two different factory rounds and it did the same thing.
I put sharpie on a spent round and rechambered to see if it would denote a burr or something in the chamber and nothing apparent.
Bore still looks great, chamber looks good too. Have not scoped to look for any copper fouling.

Any ideas or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Clean the chamber?
Clean the bolt face and especially beneath the extractor?
Headspace check time (you have to remove the extractor)?

 

[Col. Harrumph]

Sounds like excessive pressure. REALLY exessive. Check the throat area, if there's some sort of buildup there, it could be the brass is prevented from expanding enough to release the bullet. Pressure can skyrocket.

 

[Slamfire]

Sure sounds like excessive pressure.

So, you have had the rifle forever, how long have you had that ammunition? Is it factory, or is it reloads?. If reloads, how old is the gunpowder, and when did you load the ammunition.

If you can't find rust in the chamber, then this is an ammunition problem.

I would recommend you pull a bullet on that ammunition, and if you see green corrosion, like this:




then you are very lucky the gun stayed in one piece. Old deteriorated gunpowder has, and will blow up firearms.

the gunpowder that caused the corrosion at the bottom of these bullets was around 20 years old, and it caused case neck cracking. And I am certain, would have caused more problems if I had just kept on using it.



think gunpowder lasts forever?, some lots fail sooner than others.

 

[Polishrifleman]

Thaks for the replies. All factory loads, don't know age of the rounds but not more then 5yrs but carried, bounced around, exposed to hunting conditions etc... so I will take a look. I just degreased and cleaned the chamber really well. Won't make it back out to shoot again till this weekend. Keep the ideas coming and I will keep you posted on results.