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Bought a AA 18" fluted barrel, got the upper together and the first round was a little hard to chamber. I didn't think much of it and rechambered it and it fired fine. Ran a box of sst's and Amax's out of it and everything seemed to be fine, I have also ran another 100 rounds of wolf steel case. Yesterday I was at the range and first round didn't chamber again only this time I could get extractor to grab the round and it was stuck. Got home and used a cleaning rod to unstick it. Wasn't stuck bad at all.
Tried the trick of seating the round with my finger and see if it falls out on its own. Wolf falls out under gravity but the hornady rounds will not come out even with a hard slam on the butt of the gun. Doesn't take much to get them to drop free with the cleaning rod but I noticed a ring around the top of the bullet Like the chamber was scratching the bullet. I assume this is a short chamber which really sucks since I will more than likely have to pull the barrel and ship it back to AA. Then put it back together when it comes back(after who knows how long) I have read a lot about short chambers lately, maybe the Grendel 2 chamber is the way to go.
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what bolt do you have? .136 is the AA bolt face depth needed. Think the other face depth is .125 and would cause the short chamber issue...
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I just bought a 16" AA fluted and it also appears to be a short chamber. I had some similar difficulties extracting the first few unfired rounds which I had hand loaded to COAL of 2.260". I read some posts on the measurement techniques and using rasp65's slotted case technique I came up with these COALs in the picture when I just touch the lands. I am planning to just experiment with jump distances to find what's best. Am I missing something?
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Once again, check your bolt face depth and report back....
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Oh man I surely hope AA didn't receive a run of short chambers as my 16" is due in shortly.
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explorecaves Wrote:Once again, check your bolt face depth and report back....
Bolt is PF. But it sticks when pushing the round in with your finger. Wolf ammo works fine it falls out of the chamber under Gravity. Hornady SST and Amax both stick
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I just got my AA 18" and bolt this week, so I just ran out to the man cave and measured it at 2.29" with the gauge... Dropped in some Wolf, which fell out by gravity, dropped 2 hand loads at 2.26" and 2.27", both stuck with no gravity drop, but ejected fine... Hopefully I can shoot it this week and have some results to share...
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pajasonc Wrote:Bought a AA 18" fluted barrel, got the upper together and the first round was a little hard to chamber. I didn't think much of it and rechambered it and it fired fine. Ran a box of sst's and Amax's out of it and everything seemed to be fine, I have also ran another 100 rounds of wolf steel case. Yesterday I was at the range and first round didn't chamber again only this time I could get extractor to grab the round and it was stuck. Got home and used a cleaning rod to unstick it. Wasn't stuck bad at all.
Tried the trick of seating the round with my finger and see if it falls out on its own. Wolf falls out under gravity but the hornady rounds will not come out even with a hard slam on the butt of the gun. Doesn't take much to get them to drop free with the cleaning rod but I noticed a ring around the top of the bullet Like the chamber was scratching the bullet. I assume this is a short chamber which really sucks since I will more than likely have to pull the barrel and ship it back to AA. Then put it back together when it comes back(after who knows how long) I have read a lot about short chambers lately, maybe the Grendel 2 chamber is the way to go.
My 16" lite is doing the same thing and I have measured everything and confirmed my chamber is short. The "ring" around the bullet is most likely the marks from the rifling because your bullet is touching the lands. I used my hornady measuring tool to confirm ELDs are touching the land at 2.245 in my barrel. Mine also chambers and shoots the shorter bullets like the 110 wolfs and the 90 TNTs better seemingly because those rounds arent pressed up against the lands like the my boxed ELD AMMO is. I have decided to just keep it like this and just load all of my hand loads shorter to see if I can come up with a decent load.
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1911man Wrote:My 16" lite is doing the same thing and I have measured everything and confirmed my chamber is short. The "ring" around the bullet is most likely the marks from the rifling because your bullet is touching the lands. I used my hornady measuring tool to confirm ELDs are touching the land at 2.245 in my barrel. Mine also chambers and shoots the shorter bullets like the 110 wolfs and the 90 TNTs better seemingly because those rounds arent pressed up against the lands like the my boxed ELD AMMO is. I have decided to just keep it like this and just load all of my hand loads shorter to see if I can come up with a decent load.
Will it "wear in" it seemed to shoot fine as I fired around 40 of the Amax before I noticed the issue.
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I had this same issue with an Alexander Arms barrel several years ago. I had it re-chambered by my smith.
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Call AA with details. They've always been very responsive to issues like this.
If it's true that we are here to help others, then what exactly are the others here for?
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pajasonc Wrote:Will it "wear in" it seemed to shoot fine as I fired around 40 of the Amax before I noticed the issue.
If it worked fine, I wouldn't worry about it. If you want you can probably seat the bullet a bit deeper and see if that stops it from sticking.
Not that uncommon for a chamber to have problems with bullets that are longer or have a more unconventional ogive.
If you want, seat the bullet a bit deeper and see how it works then. Or pull a bullet and drop the brass in and see if the brass extracts without any effort. If so, the brass is fine but the bullet is seated out too far.
LR55
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Would seem that is an issue for the op who is using recommended factory loads, not passing the smell test especially for a non-reloader.
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04-12-2017, 04:43 PM
(This post was last modified: 04-12-2017, 04:47 PM by ricsmall.)
The reamer used could have been a minimum spec reamer or regular spec that has been resharpened/reground and getting close to min spec. I've had two barrels from one barrel maker in this same condition (this maker told me they use a min spec reamer)that I touched up with my Manson reamer and they now drop free and have a little more free bore. One gained accuracy and the other hasn't been shot since. The headspace doesn't change unless you get too agressive.
ETA: the first Grendel barrel I had was a bartlein from Templar consulting which has crazy free bore, but shot almost every load to same point of impact with same zero. Also shot some very good groups with that pipe.
Richard
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I think you need to talk to AA about it.
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with all the discussion and demands that only SAAMI Grendel Chambered barrels etc one would think if Hornady is producing factory ammo and subscribes to SAAMI standard it is patently clear this particular barrel does not meet SAAMI specs and needs to be fixed by AA and not have the owner produce shorter OAL rounds to fire from the rifle. Maybe LBC 264 is not all that bad of an idea as factory ammo will shoot from barrels so chambered.
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diddlyv Wrote:with all the discussion and demands that only SAAMI Grendel Chambered barrels etc one would think if Hornady is producing factory ammo and subscribes to SAAMI standard it is patently clear this particular barrel does not meet SAAMI specs and needs to be fixed by AA and not have the owner produce shorter OAL rounds to fire from the rifle. Maybe LBC 264 is not all that bad of an idea as factory ammo will shoot from barrels so chambered. You can have the exact same problem with any chamber if the reamer is worn or the chambers were cut short.
I've seen it more often in .223 Wylde and .308 chambers, blowing primers left and right, failure to extract, small base sizer die, etc.
All my SAAMI Grendel barrels are cut correctly. Nothing wrong with the chamber design.
Matter of fact, I can load past mag length with a lot of target bullets without getting the projectiles stuck.
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diddlyv Wrote:with all the discussion and demands that only SAAMI Grendel Chambered barrels etc one would think if Hornady is producing factory ammo and subscribes to SAAMI standard it is patently clear this particular barrel does not meet SAAMI specs and needs to be fixed by AA and not have the owner produce shorter OAL rounds to fire from the rifle. Maybe LBC 264 is not all that bad of an idea as factory ammo will shoot from barrels so chambered.
DD:
I agree totally. Any SAAMI Spec barrel should take any factory load. Providing the factory makes their ammo to minimum specs in order to compensate for minimal spec chambers. My bet is that his chamber is within SAAMI specs. May be minimal but still within standards.
We have had our fill of guys whose .264 LBC barrels had something wrong with them to include short throats.
Sure, let him go back to AA with the problem. He will send it to them, they will take the same ammo and fire it without a problem, then send it back to him saying nothing was wrong. And in this case, I would have to agree although I think they ought to run a finishing reamer into the chamber for a few turns.
LR55
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Diddlyv paints with an awfully big brush.
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04-13-2017, 01:48 AM
(This post was last modified: 04-13-2017, 02:25 AM by sneaky one.)
I agree with LR 1955, easy fix is needed. It's probably been AA's issue all along, for last 9 years. Hire a better gunsmith for the Final product - to be shipped.
Pro grade . ALL WILL MEET SAMMIE SPECS, no more excuses..... From AA-- A few more turns are all that's needed.
The Faxon Tubes have a small -margin built in. We so bad+ good. We're nationwide,,,,, ZZ Top-,, read back if lost., or ??? Chambers have to be zenn like , for proper performances.
No more Grendel Sammie short chambers gents. Request a new reamer for your BBL. It's your cash...
Have a new pic with reamer sent to you, next to your bbl., smart fones dudes. Tags and all documentations.
Ask for the -non - short throat reaming of the chamber. Longer is best. Sammie----
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