Brass question for the experts..........

C

Captain Ahab

New member
Just had a 204 Ruger chambered for a walking varmint rifle. I was breaking in the barrel and shot a box of Winchester factory ammo with no problems. I switched to Hornady factory and immediately had the following problem.........brass would extract but not eject, just layed in the action. At first I thought I must have an ejection problem but if I rechamber the fired winchester brass it ejects with no problem. I managed to slip a RP 223 case over the extractor and partially chamber it and again no ejection problem. I'm a bit stumped, Hornady has issued a call tag for the ammo. Firearm was a late 90's vintage 700, action was trued, chambered and barreled by PacNor.
 
Captain...

Is the headspace OK....... ?

Probably is ok... But sometimes excessive head space leads to all kinda chambering issues...
Hummmm....

Well I have found that the 204 Hornady factory loaded rounds, the rim on the brass is just a .001 ish "thinner" rim thickness than the Winchester 204 brass.....

This may be what's give'n you the erratic eject.... Falling off the extractor claw as you cycle the bolt back...

I have a brand spanking new Shilen SM in 204 rug on a Savage Mod 12 action........... LOVE IT....!
But... The Factory Hornady brass tends to "fall off" the extractor claw IF I cycle the bolt to fast... The Win brass doesn't care,
it ejects no matter what....

Though accuracy wise......... I have found my barrel really likes this lot of hornady brass... SERIOUSLY!

Oh.... H BLC-2 really works in the 204.......! AA2460 and H or IMR 4895 too.....

I have not tried Rem or Nosler 204 brass either.
cale
 
caroby said:
Captain...

Is the headspace OK....... ?

Probably is ok... But sometimes excessive head space leads to all kinda chambering issues...
Hummmm....

Well I have found that the 204 Hornady factory loaded rounds, the rim on the brass is just a .001 ish "thinner" rim thickness than the Winchester 204 brass.....

This may be what's give'n you the erratic eject.... Falling off the extractor claw as you cycle the bolt back...

I have a brand spanking new Shilen SM in 204 rug on a Savage Mod 12 action........... LOVE IT....!
But... The Factory Hornady brass tends to "fall off" the extractor claw IF I cycle the bolt to fast... The Win brass doesn't care,
it ejects no matter what....

Though accuracy wise......... I have found my barrel really likes this lot of hornady brass... SERIOUSLY!

Oh.... H BLC-2 really works in the 204.......! AA2460 and H or IMR 4895 too.....

I have not tried Rem or Nosler 204 brass either.
cale
Click to expand...

I was thinking along the same lines as you about rim thickness being the root cause of my problem. I talked with Hornady and they issued a call tag for the ammo so they could take a look at it.....also have an email out to PacNor to see what kind of brass they used for proof test. It's almost like the ejector spring was tweaked so it wouldn't throw brass, but I've owned the gun since it was new and that's not the case.
 
I had the same problem with a 308 that pac nor chambered for me,plus i had to load at least 4 to 5 grains off max load.or i would have to hammer the bolt open.but the gun shoots good.
 
Noth Fork, I don't see the similarity between your situation and The Whale Hunter's.....

He's not hammering his bolt open, extraction is fine. His problem is simply that the ejection process isn't kicking the shell out, it's a mechanical problem not a mismatch of reloading components problem..

al
 
Is it possible that a light cut was taken on the bolt face when the action was trued, and that this has contributed to the problem? Just for a test, pull the striker assembly and test an unfired round (if there is headspace room, with a piece of scotch tape covering the head of the case (trimmed to fit), and let us know what happens. I can see it now, you busily taping the heads of your loaded rounds, so that the brass will eject ;-)
 
ALINWA my gun did the same thing as his gun. when i got the gun back from PAC NOR i put a brand new lapua unfired case in the gun and tried to eject it the brass would just lay there.it would not eject it. The reloading part with this gun is i have to load at least 5 grains of powder below maximum from the hodgdon reloading Manuel.
 
PacNor replied to my email and stated that they function test with Winchester ammo, rifle was originally chambered in 223 Remington...nominal SAMMI rim thickness for 223 and 222 should be .041", and the 204 rim is @.045". I just checked function with a 221 Fireball brass and it worked ok also. The ammo is on it's way to Hornady as we speak, if Hornady won't work.......so be it. This is a rig to hunt PA groundhogs with and I just got lazy and ordered Hornady loaded ammo to get me through the season. Hey Boyd, perhaps I could use some of the little ring binder reinforcement things, they already have a hole for the firing pin!!! As to North Fork's dilemma, I'm just not sure how to frame a response............
 
Just got a call from Hornady QC..........brass is out of spec. They offered me replacement ammo, but I settled on components.......VMax slugs. Told the tech I had already purchased WW brass.
 
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