06-22-2024, 07:45 PM
So the mystery continues. I pulled the rifle apart, beveled the point between the feed ramps, polished all of the leading edges around the feed ramp and put it back together. it ran perfectly for 50 rounds of load work up, netting me a load for the Berger 109s that worked. So today I showed up for the next 1/4 mile match, full of confidence, and on the fourth round it jammed again. WTF again? I have 200+ rounds through this gun at this point and this jamb only happens during a match? I tried easing in a round and closing the bolt using the forward assist and two shots later it jammed again. So I was frustrated, but got going, single loading from the Bobsled and finished the first string. The jammed brass looks the same as last time, so I'm thinking it has to be hitting the back of one of the barrel extension lugs at the top of the chamber. Between strings I took a marker and put a line on every cartridge. I shot the next two strings by standing up and loading each cartridge while carefully turning the line to the top so I could tell which lug was causing the issue. Of course they all fed perfectly after that. Problem being somewhere along the way messing around with getting the cartridges aligned I miscounted a string and only fired 9 shots, (instead of 10). I'd like to blame my second place finish on that alone, but I was down 14 points in the final score so even if the shot I dropped was in the 10 ring, it wouldn't have quite made the difference. So now I guess I'm pulling it apart one more time to look closely at the back side of the rest of those lugs. Although I can probably polish those without removing the barrel as I don't have to worry about buggering up the aluminum ramps in the lower this time. The bright side is that I stumbled onto a load with the 105 grain Bergers after the match. So the day was not all bad.