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Old January 31, 2016, 07:11 PM   #1
dakota.potts
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Saw an interesting CETME malfunction at the range today

Went to the public range for some stress relief today. Everybody on the line was shooting an AR-15 when I pulled up (myself included) but when I looked to my right, a gentleman next to me was uncasing a Century CETME. Since I'm currently building one (it's at least a couple of months away from completion) and had never fired one, I asked him if he might let me put a couple rounds through it in exchange for shooting my VZ-58.

He was shooting Perfecta .308 soft point ammo. Every 3rd shot or so, he would have a malfunction. The round would fail to eject completely and would try to load another, resulting in something like a double feed.

The ejected cases from these jams looked horrendous. Not just typical flutes and dents from CETME ejection, but completely smashed and torn case mouths. He ejected one loaded cartridge that tried to feed, and found it had smashed the case mouth so badly that the bullet wiggled in the case and probably could have been pulled out completely by light hand pressure. Per the owner, it was normally fed white box 7.62 NATO (presumably XM80C) which had no issues.

Anybody seen something like this with these rifles?

On another note, I did get to shoot it a couple of times before it malfunctioned on me. Talk about a rifle to get your heart pumping. I thought my VZ 58 with a muzzle brake was pretty adrenalizing. Can't wait until mine is completed.
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Old January 31, 2016, 07:24 PM   #2
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HK/CETME rifles with their fluted chambers, like NATO spec loads with thicker brass.
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Old January 31, 2016, 07:35 PM   #3
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The Century builds are known to kind of suck.

My PTR-91 is an AWESOME beast, and runs like a tops. They are FUN FUN FUN to run at the range, and would make excellent short stops for home defense or LE use when you need to put down the threat RIGHT NOW and also need something to "reach out and touch someone" at ranges of 900 meters and beyond.
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Old January 31, 2016, 07:38 PM   #4
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Sounds like your fellow rangegoer found the achillies heel of the Hk/CETME design. The extractor spring is the weakest link on the design and when damaged or weakened will cause malfunctions like you describe, sometimes it only takes one or two failures to feed to ruin the spring if it hits the extractor just right.
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Old January 31, 2016, 07:49 PM   #5
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I was aware of their proclivity for NATO brass or steel cased ammunition, but always though that was for stuck chambers so they didn't rip. These cases weren't being beat up so bad on extraction, it was the sheer energy of the bolt carrier slamming home into a round that didn't feed that destroyed it. Wish I had taken some pictures.

When I get mine, I plan to feed it Silver Bear zinc plated steel (I've had the best luck out of Barnaul ammo) and 7.62 NATO only.
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Old January 31, 2016, 08:43 PM   #6
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He was shooting Perfecta .308 soft point ammo.
I don't know that particular load. I shall assume it was regular .308 WIN soft point hunting ammo, yes??

Despite the dimensions being the same and SOME loads being the same not all .308 Win ammo is suitable for rifles made to shoot the 7.62mm NATO (7.62x51mm).

Sporting ammo, hunting ammo in .308 WIN is generally hotter than GI ammo, and often with a much different pressure curve. Great in bolt guns, pumps, lever, and civilian .308 semis.

Maybe ok in some military semis, maybe not. Commercial .308 can be a couple hundred fps faster than GI ball.

I had an HK 91, which was flawless with European milsurp ammo. IT had issues with USGI ball ammo. And I was never foolish enough to try commercial .308 hunting ammo in it.
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Old January 31, 2016, 08:55 PM   #7
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Perfecta is carried by Walmart and is imported by somebody else - ZQI if I remember correctly. It is standard commercial .308 Win, and for some reason I'm thinking that it was 150 grain. It's hard to find information on it or how hot it's loaded.
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Old January 31, 2016, 09:01 PM   #8
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After reading your post again and paying a little more attention, your right, probably not much to do with the extractor. Its hard to imagine simply the ammo would cause such issues though.
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Old January 31, 2016, 09:17 PM   #9
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I had two HK91's back in the late 90's, early 2000's. They ate everything I ever fed them, with the bulk being Euro surplus, USGI, and my reloads loaded to basically USGI specs. I never had any feeding issues with any of them. The only real issues with them ammo wise, was they were harder on the brass than most, especially if you didnt have a port buffer on the gun. Even with it, 6-8 loads was about all you would get out of the brass.

Ive had a number of different "kit" guns over the years, and for the most part, all were problematical. FAL's, AK's, AR's, I never had very good luck with them, and they pretty much turned me off of things not put together by the people who make them for the militaries that use them, especially when it comes to the foreign guns.

I was never real impressed with any of the CETME's I saw. Some looked better than others, some worked better than others. They certainly werent HK's.
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Old February 1, 2016, 12:03 AM   #10
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Quote:
The ejected cases from these jams looked horrendous. Not just typical flutes and dents from CETME ejection, but completely smashed and torn case mouths. He ejected one loaded cartridge that tried to feed, and found it had smashed the case mouth so badly that the bullet wiggled in the case and probably could have been pulled out completely by light hand pressure. Per the owner, it was normally fed white box 7.62 NATO (presumably XM80C) which had no issues.
Not with my PTR91. It runs perfectly. I have no confidence in Century Arms builds and it could very well be a Century Arms problem.
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Old February 1, 2016, 12:48 AM   #11
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I bought an M1A last summer, I know, it`s not the same as a CETME, but the slamfire literature included with the rifle said not to use lead soft point ammo...as it causes the bolt to slow down on chambering...The soft point is actually dragging or rubbing the top of the receiver/chamber...

When I went back to GI FMJ, I had no more chambering problems...Not saying that`s whats causing the problems, but It may be something to look at.

Plastic tip ammo was problem free in my rifle.
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Old February 1, 2016, 08:02 AM   #12
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Century rifles can have problems with not enough bolt gap and ground bolt heads. That couples with shooting factory .308 there could be more than one issue going on. I had a Century CETME and it is the only fire arm I have sold. I fed it about 300 rounds of Radway green and South African 7.62× 51. The rifle had a bolt gap of .08 which is on the low side. The last time I fired it the projectiles exited the barrel but the mag blew up like a balloon. All the rounds stayed in the mag but all jumbled around. These rifles have to be tuned/built right. If not they are dangerous IMHO
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Old February 1, 2016, 08:21 AM   #13
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Sounds like a combination of soft brass and over driving the rifle's operating system.
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Old February 1, 2016, 10:04 AM   #14
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Quote:
The last time I fired it the projectiles exited the barrel but the mag blew up like a balloon
Surplus ammunition was discarded by the owning military because some ammunition technician went through the stuff and determined that it was too unsafe to issue, and too unsafe to store. One issue with old ammunition is that gunpowder deterioration causes combustion pressures to increase. While I am no fan of Century Arm's cobbled together firearms, your problem may have been due to the high pressure created by deteriorated surplus ammunition.
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Old February 1, 2016, 12:50 PM   #15
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Surplus ammunition was discarded by the owning military because some ammunition technician went through the stuff and determined that it was too unsafe to issue, and too unsafe to store.
Maybe.

In some cases, certainly. But "surplus" ammo also includes perfectly good ammo that is surplused simply because it is past a "use by" date, without actual testing, and surplus also includes contract overruns, and ammo that is still "issuable" but surplus to needs.

Surplus ammo MAY be crap, even some lots of stuff only 30 years old have gone bad (usually due to poor storage,) but its not all bad ammo, automatically.
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Old February 1, 2016, 01:19 PM   #16
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Quote:
Every 3rd shot or so, he would have a malfunction. The round would fail to eject completely and would try to load another, resulting in something like a double feed.
Sounds like the ejector could be missing the spent case as the bolt extracts it.

Since the ejector pivots in triggerbox, which, in turn, is housed in the gripframe, any excess vertical play can be problematic.

If the gripframe has been converted to a clip-on style poorly it could allow the front of the gripframe to move up/down excessively, which can cause the ejector to miss the spent brass. This can be an intermittent problem, because if the gripframe is pushed forward/up on firing, no problem, but if it's pulled down, that little movement can pull the ejector down and away from the bottom of the bolt

This is something to look for when you "clip and pin" your CETME lower.
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Old February 1, 2016, 02:07 PM   #17
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Quote:
Quote:
Surplus ammunition was discarded by the owning military because some ammunition technician went through the stuff and determined that it was too unsafe to issue, and too unsafe to store.
Maybe.

In some cases, certainly. But "surplus" ammo also includes perfectly good ammo that is surplused simply because it is past a "use by" date, without actual testing, and surplus also includes contract overruns, and ammo that is still "issuable" but surplus to needs.

Surplus ammo MAY be crap, even some lots of stuff only 30 years old have gone bad (usually due to poor storage,) but its not all bad ammo, automatically.
I will bet Jack said something like this when he came back after trading his cow for a handful of "magic beans".

A bud of mine worked on gaging at GOCO US Army ammunition plants. If the contractor has completed the military requirements they can use the factory to produce new ammunition and sell it on the commercial market. This is why people see new "surplus" ammunition. This is factory new and not out on the market because it was evaluated to be too old to safely issue or too old to store.

When shooters buy military surplus ammunition, ammunition that was in military inventory, till it was inspected and rejected, shooters should understand the process and the implications. Militaries have budgets, just like all of us. While there is massive incompetence in Ordnance Departments, particularly the US Army Ordnance Department, at the lower level, there are good guys trying to do the right thing and remove old ammunition before it hurts one of their troopers. They also know about the issues of gunpowder auto ignition, and even though Depots still go Kaboom, nobody wants that to happen. These guys are pretty good at getting old and dangerous ammunition out of the system just when it becomes old and dangerous. This is not something the shooting community wants to hear. Instead, shooters are want to believe that they got new magic beans, that they got their new magic beans at a great price, and that their new, cheap magic beans are gonna last forever.

If wishes were fishes we'd all be throwing nets. If wishes were horses we'd all be riding.

There are risks to old ammunition, some of the stuff has, and will, blow up guns. I have written extensively on this subject, because the denial is massive, and because confirmation bias is so high on this subject. For all of those who claim that their old ammunition is as good as new, well, what tests did you conduct? Go look up Mil Std 286 and tell me which of the propellant tests you used in your evaluation. Or, tell me what tests the ammunition inspector used on your particular lot and why it failed those tests. And what was the previous life history of your old surplus ammunition? I'll bet you think it was stored in a nice climatically controlled environment, like your house. Complete with heating and air conditioning. Well, it probably was not.
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Old February 1, 2016, 08:31 PM   #18
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Perfecta Ammo

" It's hard to find information on it or how hot it's loaded."

Have you ever heard of "Google" or doing a "Search"?

Found the below info. on the first line of a "Google Search"...

"Perfecta Line Ammo - Fiocchi United Kingdom Inc.
http://www.fiocchiuk.com/site/index....erfecta%20Line
Check out the Fiocchi line of Perfecta Line ammo Sport ammunition. Fiocchi ammunition, high quality Made in Italy."

Come on, NOT HARD at all!

T.
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Old February 1, 2016, 09:17 PM   #19
amd6547
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I've shot surplus ammo for about 40yrs, in many different common and uncommon calibers. In some cases, surplus ammo was all that was available.
Never a problem, and some of that ammo, I sure wish I could find again.

Plenty of Century CETMEs had problems...I read all about them on the old cetmerifles site. But the one I bought worked great, and was pretty accurate.
All I shot in it was South African surplus NATO ammo, and it was great stuff. Back then, I think it was $35/200, in a battle pack.

So, you just go ahead and stay away from milsurp ammo. I'll buy all I can afford.
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Old February 1, 2016, 10:49 PM   #20
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Ive had pretty good luck with surplus over the years, but there were a few times we had issues. Some lots were recalled due to guns coming apart, some were very corrosive, some had powder degradation issues.

If youre sitting on older surplus that you bought back years ago, you had best be checking on it. Same goes for reloads. In the past couple of years, Ive had issues with both, and it was powder degradation that was the problem.
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Old February 2, 2016, 10:04 AM   #21
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Surplus ammunition is cheap for a reason. I would recommend to anyone who owns a machine gun not to risk the catastrophic destruction that would follow if an overpressure round of surplus ammunition blew up in the chamber.
The US Government decided to limit the number of machine guns in civilian hands, the population will not increase, and if you blow up your $20,000 to $100,000 dollar machine gun shooting crappy surplus ammunition, you won't get it back. If a machine gunner loses the registered part in a blow up, the BATF is not going to give him another back. The gun is lost forever, as intended.

Now shooters with $800 firearms, if the thing blows up in their face due to cheap ammunition, the loss of the firearm is not too great of a financial burden. Though if the shooter loses a hand or eye, the future will not be so great.

Surplus ammunition was evaluated by the owning military and removed from service because it was too unsafe to issue and too unsafe to store. If after this warning your firearm blows all to heck with an overpressure surplus cartridge, please be man enough to post your experience so we can all learn from it. It may not be the first round, but fire enough, and there will be a last round.


HK Blown up with Brazilian Surplus

http://www.jerzeedevil.com/forums/sh...5-Gun-Blown-up
Quote:
Hello gang i was just wondering if any of you guys have ever blown up a gun while shooting. I had the unfortunate luck of blowing up an HK-91 back around 1989. Me and a buddy of mine were buying cases of mil surplus from a company in ohio at the time in 1000 rd. cases. We had gotten a few cases from said company and never had any issues. Well the last case we got from them was from brazil cbc i believe it was. He called me and said he was having jamming issues with this ammo in his sar-48 bush gun. I told him well i'll go out with you and run some through my 91 it'll eat anything. Well the third round out of the 91 "BOOM" pretty scary it was.
I think you can have or get a bad round or lot of ammo with any manufacturer. That being said the ammo that blew my 91 up was military surplus from brazil. Thats the problem with mil surplus its put onto the market because its deemed not worthy of use for the military of said country.
So you get some good some bad you take your chances. But when your setting off small explosions with each trigger pull in your weapon anything can happen at any time with any manufacturers product.
Just be sure to wear eye and e
ar protection and good gloves are'nt a bad idea either. "-CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED- HAPPENS" you know, don't you just love that saying.
Be safe and have a great weekend.
http://www.usrifleteams.com/forums/i...howtopic=21886
Posted 17 July 2012 - 01:29 PM

'Tailgunner', on 17 Jul 2012 - 13:16, said:

Quote:
I picked up some surplus ammo a couple of years ago and had a couple of hang fires. The hammer would drop and a second later the rifle would discharge.
After that happened a couple of times, I decided I wasn't going to shoot that stuff any more. So I took the ammo apart, thinking I'd at least salvage the brass. After I'd pulled all of the bullets and dumped the powder, I tried chucking the primed cases in a vice and then hit the primers with a pin punch and a hammer. I found that some of the primers would "pop" but others would just sizzle and smoke. I'm pretty sure those were my hang fires. It was an interesting experiment.

The last surplus ammo I had looked so bad that I never fired any of it. Like you, I took it apart. The powder was clumped together. The base of the bullet was green with corrosion. I decapped all the brass, burned the primers and powder outside when burning rubbish, and sold the brass and bullets to a scrap company. Recouped a very small amount of initial price. That was the last time I got fooled on surplus ammo crap.

My guess is that most of the foreign countries that are selling surplus goods to the USA, don't care much about how they handle or store the items, as long as it gets on the shipping container and they pocket the purchase price, they are happy. Caveat emptor is Latin for "Let the buyer beware." It especially applies to surplus goods that have a shelf life. Where was it stored? How was it stored? What temperature? Subjected to water or salt air? Exposed to a structure fire? How was it transported? Etc. etc...too many unanswered questions. A deal that is too good to be true, usually is too good to be true.

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost....80&postcount=6
Quote:
Although it's remotely possible that a defective load (very unlikely if factory ammo) or poorly stored ammo that had deterioated. I had some H450 go bad and an "accuracy" load from a .30/06 w/180gr bullet locked up the bolt and removed case looked like a belted magnum...... but gun was unharmed.... primer was blown however and pitted the bolt face...... I pulled down the rest of the ammo and powder "stunk" like vinegar and inside of cases were turning green from acid corrosion..... Ammo had only been loaded 6mos earlier... and powder looked and smelled "ok" then.


Garand Blowup with WWII ball

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost....3&postcount=13

Quote:
I have an old shooting buddy who some years ago was shooting some WWII ball (don’t know whose) but his M-1 was disassembled in a rather rapid fashion. He was lucky only his pride was hurt. He said he took a round apart and found rust looking dust along with the powder. Bad powder. Just sayin…..The op rod can be rebuilt which might be a good way to go. Op Rods are getting harder to find and when you find one a premium price is required so it seems. Garands require grease. I’m not sure if you are aware of this. If you are, please no offence taken.

Garand Blowup with old US ammunition.

http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?p=1344088

Quote:
There was a thread on another forum titeled “What’s in your ammo can” and many guys had old surpluss ammo so I told this story. Ty (arizonaguide) asked that I come put it here also so here it is boys, draw your own conclutions.

Back in the mid 80s my Dad and a bunch of us went shooting in Arizona. Dad had a couple thousand rounds of WWII surplus .30M1 (30-06) ammo that looked great on the outside cut his M1 in half in his hands. He was kneeling with elbow on knee when the first round of this ammo went BOOM! We were all pelted with sand and M1 shrapnel.

When the dust cleared Dad was rolling around on his back with buttstock in one hand, for stock in the other, barrel and receiver hanging by the sling around his arm trying to yell “mortar” thinking he was back on Okinawa in battle. The blast had removed his ear muffs, hat, glasses, and broke the headlight in my truck 15 feet away but Dad was only shook up and scratched a bit once he got his wits back. It sheared off the bolt lugs, blew open the receiver front ring, pushed all the guts out the bottom of the magazine, and turned the middle of the stock to splinters.

After a couple hours of picking up M1 shrapnel we headed to the loading bench and started pulling bullets. Some of the powder was fine, some was stuck together in clumps, and some had to be dug out with a stick. It didn’t smell and was not dusty like powder usuley is when it’s gone bad. Put it in a pie tin and light it and it seemed a tad fast but not so you would think it could do that, wasent like lighting a pistol powder even. He had 2000 rounds of this stuff and nun of us were in any mood to play with it much after what we watched so it all went onto a very entertaining desert bon fire. I got the M1 splinters when Dad died last year and will post pix here below for your parousal and entertainment.

Anyway, I no longer play with any ammo I am not 100% sure has always been stored properly . . . cheap shooting ain’t worth the risk to me anymore! I still buy surpluss if the price in right but I unload and reload it with powder I am sure of or just use the brass.

She was a good shooting servasable Winchester M1 before this.










[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v479/SlamFire/Blowups/M1%20Blowup%20WWII%20Am


Catastrophic Failure
http://www.jouster.com/forums/showth...rophic-Failure

Quote:
Had a bad experience a week ago. Went to the range to test fire some handloads through a Springfield M1 and ultimately it blew up.

Details: Rifle - M1 Garand, Springfield manufacture receiver (1942) rebarreled in1947.
Ammo: 3-rounds. Reloaded - full-length sized once fired Federal brass, 163 grain mechanically pulled surplus bullet, Winchester Large Rifle primers, 46.5 grains of IMR4895 powder. Powder was dispensed/weighed using RCBS Chargemaster system calibrated immediately before use. Brass was checked for OA length and was within specs. prior to loading. Bullets were seated to crimping groove but not crimped.

Third round fired and rifle disintegrated through magazine well area.

Later analysis of rifle indicates bolt face fracture and case head failure. Lower front of bolt face sheared off around ejector hole causing passageway for hot gases and fragments to enter magazine well area and blow out stock and triggerguard floorplate. Receiver held and bolt frozen in place. Bolt has been removed and shows fracturing of both locking lugs as well as longitudinal fracture back from ejector hole. Extractor has backed out. Last round/fractured brass still stuck in chamber.
Post 151
Original loads were:

1) Primer seating depth was checked by visual and finger feel.
2) The original powder was old - still in metal can and starting to show brown dust (on retrospect).
3) Pulled bullets were GI AP.




HXP at Perry . . .

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=115939

Quote:
HXP 77 was the culprit. I won't shoot that stuff. A whole bunch of heavy bolt handle lifts in the 03 matches when it was issued at Perry. I have fired a lot of HXP 70, 72 & 73 with no issues at all, 03's and M1's.

Tombguard, What Ceresco is implying is that while HXP 77 ammo exhibited frequent and sometimes severe issues (excessive bolt lift force, dismounted op rods, duds, hangfires, etc.) there is the concern that other lots will have the same issues but with perhaps lesser frequency. If a manufacturing process doesn't have robust QC practices, more issues are lurking out there like snakes in the grass. I am not saying that you should avoid HXP ammo - I'm just saying that one should be aware that systemically the issues might extend beyond HXP 77 ammo

In the 2007 Perry matches it was '88 dated ammo that gave a lot of 03A3 fits on opening. I keep the saved round I had in rapids beside the silver medal I earned with 29 rounds. Believe me when I tell you it was locking those bolts up TIGHT. (As in roll out of position and beat them open.)

Stiff Bolt Handle on SC 03a3
http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread....pressure+greek
Quote:
Took my SC 03a3 to the range a week ago, shooting fairly good groups at 100yds (~2MOA) with unsorted HXP. Had a problem though - occasionally the bolt handle would be VERY difficult to lift open. Never had that before with new production ammo, other sessions with HXP, and never had a problem when dry-firing (snap caps, etc). Didn't break anything evident, and everything APPEARS to function correctly. The brass all looks like I expect (There is some minor pitting in the chamber which shows on the brass, but does not effect extraction), it just felt like I needed a hammer or a crow bar to lift the bolt handle sometimes (but not always). Any ideas as to what is going wrong

Typical HXP problem. It will often be hard to chamber some rounds as well. I had 3 saved rounds in 2006 at the Western Games 1903 match when round 7 could not be extracted from the chamber and no one had a BFH handy. A wooden mallet later helped extract the round. That was in a pristine M1903 Remington with a perfect chamber. All other ammo I feed it functions perfectly. I have a 1903A3 that also has issues with HXP. About 10-20% of some lots are very long in the shoulder. I have a couple rounds that won't chamber in a 1903 at all. It almost looks like I put a No-Go gage in the chamber.

If it is only when you shoot HXP new ammo that is your problem and your answer. It's a problem that has existed with a great many bolt guns since the very first day that CMP began selling HXP ammo and has been much discussed in this forum and others for several years (and see, even today). It was a common complaint among shooters for years at the regional CMP Games and the Nationals when CMP was issuing HXP as the required ammo to use. As I stated before, in 2006, if you walked the line in every relay of the 1903 match you would see shooters having to slap bolts closed and struggle to get bolts open. Many saved rounds in rapid fire were the result and the reason for the many complaints for several years.

I doubt there is a single thing wrong with your rifle or anyone's rifle that is experiencing this problem with HXP in bolt guns. If other ammo feeds and extracts without problems you have the answer already. The long and short of it .....no pun intended....is the ammo, not the rifle. HXP brass is some of the greatest re-loadable brass out there but, it often sucks the first time around through a bolt gun. Nature of the beast.

Chilean 75 kaboom on IMBEL

http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showt...hreadid=142685

Quote:
Jeter's right,.....-CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED--CENSORED-ty brass. '75 Chilean is notorious for blowing up rifles. This one was freshly built, in spec and headspaced(fortunately not mine). It took approximately 60 rounds to find the 'bad' one. Shooter was relatively unharmed; just a few nicks and cuts. Probably has a world class flinch now. Barrel and bolt looked OK, carrier was not recovered(as in 'no one could find it'). I would not want to be in the way of a carrier that was departing the area at such a speed as to become lost.

*Note* Do not fire Chilean '75.

I wasn't present at the festivities, so I don't have pics of the barrel, etc. I was told by my gunsmith that the barrel was used in the rebuild on another new receiver, as was the bolt, so those parts were undamaged. The extractor was gone of course.

The Chilean '75 has brittle brass that tends to let go, dumping full pressure into the action. I've seen several FALs, HK91's and MG42's destroyed by this ammunition. The picture below(bad as it is)is of a different case,......not the case that destroyed the Imbel pictured above. It did destroy an FAL and I was present at this event. Pretty much the same but without the destruction of the receiver ring; receiver was bulged open at the magwell and the magazine bulged and blown out. Bolt and carrier remained in the rifle, but the topcover was blown off along with the extractor. Again, barrel



Bad Bad 7.62x25 Ammo
http://www.ramanon.com/forum/showthr...d-7-62x25-Ammo

Quote:
You have probably read my recent thread on a CZ-52 and FTF problems. I expected it was the pistol that had the problem. A few days ago I took it to the range again with the same can of mil-surp ammo after polishing suspect surfaces in the pistol as the possible cause of its problem.

Right away I had the same FTF problem. The slide would not quite close all the way on a round. I had to nudge the slide fully into battery all too often.

So I began to think of other possible causes of the FTF and examined the ammo I was firing. I might have the answer. The surplus 7.62x25 ammo had cracks in the brass of unfired ammo! Often right where a dimple was is in the case that held the bullet head into the case. Sometimes sizeable cracks between the dimples.

Take a look at these unfired cartridges and the cracks. This defective ammo could explain my feeding problem
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